What is "Visionary Leadership"?

Although most winemakers would hope that their entries into the wine world would be more unique than the next, crafting excellence in a wine from "X-AVA", or like Carol Shelton Wines "Monga Zin" from Cucamonga CA, what sets apart visionaries is having a unique approach that produces much more than simply another 'great wine'.

The questions we ask ourselves are critical in 'self-evaluation' with a primary one being;

"What exactly are we doing as an organization to lead with a Vision?"

This is the question Wine Technology, Inc. Founder Kelly Graves posed to himself when he purchased the Vin Wizard technology and company.

"I wanted to create a layer of useful technology that could enhance existing technologies in winery automation by being able to go right over the top of other existing technologies & that a winery doesn't have to abandon a good tool for a 'better one. We needed a compatible solution to enhance a winery's existing processing technology with a bolt on turbo-charge kit."

Kelly's goal to 'turbo charge' winery systems:

1. Free up the winemaking team to become more intimate with their wines vs. being bogged down with administrative tasks; 
2. Provide fast ROI with scalable systems to reduce power, labor, and risk in the cellar (re: reduced labor in critical high risk cellar activities or winery stress periods such as 'crush'); 
3.  Allow the winemaking team to take that ROI residual and invest part of it on R&D with an objective of continuous innovation. 

One of the areas of commitment that Vin Wizard is focused on is to ensure that the winemaking team does not feel constrained in the creative process when decisions are being made from the "Top Down".

Everyone understands that the bottom line is simply the bottom line.

"Can we make wine as good or better for the same price or less as our COGS and our overheads continue to increase?"

It takes two to tango.  

Wineries that are "Top Down Driven" who thrive in a highly competitive market:

As managers and/or department heads (that's one person in many wineries), we all know that when we're overly creative or innovative, we can easily blow our budgets in both time and expense.

On the other hand, as winemakers and marketers, it is the creative and innovative part of our minds that drive us to 'special outcomes'.

To be "Top Down Driven" without losing creativity and spontaneity, two 'buy-ins' from the winemaking team & CFO (and they must occur for both to 'thrive harmoniously'). 

• CFO's must drive the accountability for costs while the winemaking team strives to create systems to empower them;
• The Winemaking team must always be accountable to quality objectives and not be overrun by unrealistic expectations of quality without a budget;

Visionary Leadership occurs when all company culture, purpose driven company objectives, & leading technologies merge into beautiful products at a great value.

Do Better. Vin Wizard