A conversation with Zingerman’s Ari Weinzweig | SmartBlog on Leadership

A conversation with Zingerman’s Ari Weinzweig SmartBlog on Leadership

By Mary Ellen Slayter on October 17, 2011 Comments (2)

Excerpts:

- Describe your leadership philosophy.

- When you’re looking to hire, how do you decide if someone is right for your team?

- What is the biggest challenge your business is facing this year?

- Describe your approach to innovation.

- Outside of your own industry, whose work do you admire most?

- If a recent college grad came to you and said he wanted to start his own business, what advice would you give him?

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If a recent college grad came to you and said he wanted to start his own business, what advice would you give him?

Without question I’d tell him—or her—to start by writing a vision of greatness. Visioning is a huge piece of what we do here at Zingerman’s. The vision is a picture of what success will look when you get to where you’re going at a particular point in the future. It’s got a good bit of detail—it’s a rich picture of what that future looks like, with plenty of detail about:
-  how big your business is,
- what you’re known for,
- what the people who work in it think about their jobs,
- how the community views you.

It’s hugely helpful to do a personal piece as well—getting clear about:
-  how you feel about your work,
- what sort of work you do,
- how much money you make,
- how much you work, etc. is really valuable to know before you start.


There are no “right” or “wrong” visions—but if you’re not clear on where you’re going it’s pretty unlikely that you’re going to get to where you want be. A vision is not the same as a strategic plan. We do those too. But the vision is where you’re going; the strategic plan is how you’re going to get there.


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