What a Legacy in Business Means
Creating a legacy for your business instead of your personal legacy is slightly different. His personal legacy is the impact his actions will have after he’s gone. The legacy of your business is the impact it will have on your culture, community and clients after you have sold or transferred your business to another person. Mission statements are often based on the legacy an entrepreneur hopes to achieve with the business.
A business legacy is often associated with a family business. Many entrepreneurs start their business with the intention of passing it on to a family member, especially their children.
Although family businesses have low success rates in the second generation and even lower in the third generation, family businesses are still one of the great attractions of entrepreneurship in the first place. In these cases, a legacy can be to build something that can easily be a vehicle for the success and growth of loved ones.
Mars candy is an example of a business legacy rooted in family ties. Started by Frank Mars in 1911, it is still a private company with the Mars family that makes up the board of directors.
Building a Legacy for your Industry
Creating a business legacy for your industry can be a bit more complicated than a legacy of business in general. General business legacies refer to the impact on communities and culture, but a legacy of the industry refers to the people and organizations that are part of their specific business niche.
In many ways, a legacy of the industry is more difficult to build. This is because your industry is probably full of other companies that also do exactly what you do. The key here is to be exceptional in the ways your competitors and colleagues are not. In theory, this should already be on your to-do list because your unique sales proposal (USP) is based on your doing something others do not do. But in practice, the legacy of your industry must also affect the industry in a way that is bigger than your business.
An example of an industry legacy is the introduction of Apple on the iPhone in 2007. The smartphone was the first of its kind and introduced several new innovations. It took years for other telephone companies to introduce comparable innovations. At this point, no matter what happens in the future, the iPhone has consolidated Apple’s legacy in the mobile phone industry.
Legacy and Establishment of Objectives
Leaving a legacy means living a legacy. The day-to-day actions of you and your company will be the bricks upon which the legacy is built. Start with a long-term mentality. Define what matters and make sure you have long-term visions that match. That vision will become the guiding light of your business. All decisions, all product development, all marketing campaigns will be related to the vision, which is related to what matters most for the legacy of your business.
Setting goals is an important part of building a business legacy. When setting goals, you will define your route and you will also have a reference point to compare your progress. Here are some things you should keep in mind when setting these goals:
- Each objective must be linked to the vision of the legacy you wish to build.
- The goals must be descriptive, specific and measurable to be effective.
- Smaller, more defined objectives are better than large, expanding objectives because you are more likely to achieve them when they are realistic
Remember that the objectives are as valuable as achievable. If you purposely set goals that your business is unlikely to meet, you will simply set yourself up for failure. This can affect the morale of the company and future initiatives to build your business legacy.
Although the meaning of a legacy can vary depending on whether you are looking at yourself, your business or your industry, the goal is the same: to make an impact that stands the test of time.