People want to work within, buy from, invest with and see businesses that can be believed in. Such businesses have clarity of purpose and place their purpose above profit.
In picking up and reading this book you have already taken the first steps on a purposeful transition to power performance, both personally and within your business.
So what are businesses for? When this question was asked regularly in the first decade of this century, the answer invariably focused on their raison d’être being to return value to their shareholders. Yet, the crisis of 2008 showed the pursuit of shareholder value to have been an expensive mistake for many.
Multi-billion dollar mergers and acquisitions were carried out in its name but soon had to be unwound. Shareholder value was destroyed, not created. Subsequently, demand has grown for companies to demonstrate a reason for being that transcends markets and cycles.
A clearly defined purpose, along with a roadmap of how to fulfil it, is now being recognised by many across all sectors of business as a requisite for success.
Purpose in business is not a new fad. In nineteenth century UK, pioneers such as the Cadbury, Lever, Pilkington and other families developed their own benevolent capitalism approaches. In recent years, sustainability, employee engagement, corporate responsibility and philanthropy programmes have been added to the mix.
But how do businesses, from entrepreneurial start-ups to large global multinationals, not only define their purpose but ensure that it resonates in everything that they do?
You instinctively know the people and businesses that have “it”. In the individual, “it” might be described as a sense of greatness, charisma, force of nature or presence.
In business, “it” tends to be evoked by strong brand integrity and awareness, robust behaviours, public reputation, trust and confidence. Yet such descriptions fall short of expressing the general sense of value and character that surround such businesses. Maybe it is best expressed another way. The X factor upon which such businesses have built their strength and ongoing success, in absolute clarity and belief, is an overriding sense of purpose.
The purpose of a business has little to do with its size, sector, age or nature of ownership. It is a clear understanding of what it is for, which manifests itself in every facet of its leadership and operation.
Just think for a moment about those you most admire and your reasons for doing so. The answers are likely to add up to them being led by a clearly defined sense of purpose that resonates deeply, is proven to be consistent and gives them a strong reputation and position in today’s society.
It is purpose that empowers their people, their products and services and their ability to be competitive and capable of achieving their goals. It is what drives their innovations, makes them both iconic and newsworthy, trendsetters in corporate behaviour and aspirational models for new entrepreneurs.
Whether they seek it or not, they wield influence across entire sections of society, change behaviours and, as a consequence, the world. In the same way that purpose empowers them, it is also what you can identify and harness within yourself and your business, empowering your operations and people.
If there is one human, rather than technological advance that this century will be marked by, it will be the understanding of how a deeper appreciation of purpose can deliver profound personal, institutional and societal success.
We believe there are three reasons for this.
First, the millennial generation has come of age and their ambition is not generally fuelled by the mating call of the Porsche, excesses based on fat salaries or a need to conform to perceived societal roles or career norms to illustrate their success.
Their world is far less stable or constrained than that of their parents and they look at it completely differently. Empowered through technology, they are deeply attracted to being part of something bigger than themselves, with loyalty to causes and experiences beyond formal political or religious structures. They embrace principles of entrepreneurship in the widest context and are generally optimistic that they matter to the world and in turn want to do things that matter to them.
At the Forbes publishing empire, the company’s four strategic pillars of print, digital, brand and technology all live under the mission statement that commits the group to be the pre-eminent champion of entrepreneurs and free market capitalism.
Forbes’ chief executive Mike Perlis says:
“That purpose comes first. It’s a business purpose but it’s one that we’re very serious about and it makes a lot of sense for Forbes.”
One of Forbes’ major programmes is an annual list of the top business people under the age of 30 and Perlis sees clarity of purpose particularly resonating with this demographic.
“One of the dynamics we clearly see in the millennials who make up that population is that they want more than just financial reward from their work life. They want to be associated with purpose and impact. It seems that every new millennial business plan comes with real attention paid to purpose. Millennials really want to be associated with good work and giving back, and that is clearly reflected in all the business plans we see.”
Parents of millennials also have an awakened sense of responsibility and opportunity in the world. Theirs, remember, is the generation of Sir Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, Bono and Bob Geldof.
Why does this matter to your business? Because millennials are your employees and growth market and their parents are your investors, opinion formers and market influencers. To understand them is to understand the way purpose impacts on the people who are important to your business.
The second reason is that the financial crisis exposed the social, economic and financial fault lines in our society, exacerbating the tensions not only between different levels of wealth but also between contrasting motivations.
Many within the so-called middle and professional classes in the UK find themselves struggling to achieve the level of prosperity they witnessed as children. Their certainties of life were based on the model of university education leading to professional employment, property acquisition and a level of quality of life higher than the previous generation. Now, this is by no means guaranteed.
The resulting insecurity means that many people are rejecting traditional ways of working, living and planning their futures. Again empowered by technology, they are adopting new working and living practices with a different work–life balance agenda and giving increased importance to personal and family priorities, interests and hobbies. In many cases, turning the latter into a means of income.
Finally, trust in institutions has waned, with scandals affecting politicians, business, sport, the media and even some high-profile charities. The result is that those with a sense of personal integrity choose to express this in various ways, from engaging in causes, creating campaigns, investing time and money in micro-businesses and other value-driven organisations.
Major corporate brands, such as Virgin, Google and Amazon, that have also developed a strong public persona, have won high levels of public trust, even when they come under attack from the media or politicians. Their sense of purpose has given people something to trust and value.
This book is shaped by our experiences.
For me, John, the purpose of business, and how organisations exhibit it, has long fascinated me. I began my own purposeful journey in military training at Sandhurst and developed thoughts and methodologies further in the charitable and corporate responsibility sector. Now, I lead Destria Partners, a purpose consultancy I cofounded, helping businesses put into practice what I have learned.
For me, Andrew, I have also been delving into the motivations of business people for many years in my newspaper interviews with leading chief executives. My previous book The Secrets of CEOs was dedicated to uncovering how today’s business leaders actually lead. My next step is to look at why they lead, and how their individual beliefs dovetail with the actions they need to take to make their businesses successful and sustainable.
Our methodology has been two-fold. First, we undertook a survey of 100 leading organisations from around the world to discover their own definitions of purpose, values and vision.
We found that vision and purpose were strongly cited as drivers of decisions, staff and customer engagement, and that a balance is emerging between financial and social drivers of business.
One respondent stated that purpose-led businesses were those that are “driven by a deep understanding of the organisation’s mission, vision, and values and look beyond the need to generate profit”. Another defined a purpose-powered business as “authentic, with a lived experience felt by everyone”. A third stated that when an organisation is powered by purpose “what a business stands for becomes more important than what it sells”.
Respondents said that purpose-led businesses are characterised by long-term thinking, a sense of moral compass and honesty. Asked to identify the most important indicators of business success in today’s environment, 61% specified the social and environmental impact of business, ahead of profitability (56%) and an innovative and entrepreneurial nature (49%).
An overwhelming majority of participants agreed that clarity of purpose influences an organisation’s vision, strategic decision making and staff morale and performances. Two-thirds of respondents saw corporate boards as the most influential shapers of purpose within organisations.
Next, we sought to understand what some of the most purposeful and influential business leaders are doing that is different, powerful and sustaining. Through interviews with leading chief executives, as well as lesser-known but emerging individuals who have also found their purpose and accomplished extraordinary achievements, we looked for insights to allow others to find, refine and empower their purpose, inspire those around them and lead the organisations they care about.
What was the defining moment in their own lives that led these individuals to devote their leadership to inculcating a highly defined sense of purpose in their organisations?
We found that, for these highly driven individuals, purpose transcends pure financial gain, having a far-reaching societal impact. Yet the modern purpose-led leader is no woolly “do-gooder”. The business leaders who have contributed to this book are fierce believers in the necessity for revenues, profits, investment and growth. Without a healthy profit base, a purpose-led business cannot thrive.
What does purpose mean for you and your business? This book will introduce you to a simple route to purpose, which we apply successfully through Destria. We aim to demonstrate from a practical rather than theoretical basis the value in purpose. Such value can be measured, in material and monetary success, in social and environmental impact, in personal health and wellbeing.
It is nothing less than the single all-encompassing key to unlocking the potential in individuals and organisations in the twenty-first century.
It is also based on a key contention that, given the expectations of our next generations, financial crisis scandals, austerity, climate change and corruption scandals from sport to governments, what the world needs now, what companies and institutions should seek to develop and what we as individuals have as latent untapped potential, is a greater sense of purpose based on ethical values.
This book will allow you to consider how purpose can become your own powerful driver for change. We will explain why purpose matters to you, your business and your world.
Talking with Richard Branson, he is clear on how the purpose agenda has driven his business success.
“Long before the term purpose was used to describe the mission and values of a business, I was building purpose-driven companies. I started my first business, Student Magazine, to give young people a voice to speak out against the Vietnam War and on causes we believed in. The same spirit of striving to make a positive difference is in the DNA of every Virgin business.
But this isn’t just because building purposeful businesses is the right thing to do – it is also the smart thing to do. Purpose-driven businesses simply run better. They help make employees happier, more engaged, harder working and longer serving. They appeal to growing numbers of customers who care more and more about the purpose behind the brand they endorse, rather than just the product or service.
Purpose gives our businesses a competitive edge, a roadmap to guide us, and short and long-term vision. But more than that, it gives us the energy and motivation to continue pushing to make a positive difference to people’s lives. Purpose spurs passion, which fans the sparks that light the fires that fuel change. If you are building a business without purpose, not only are you missing the point, but you are most likely missing out on the journey, the excitement – and the profit – too.”
With our own purpose of helping others find their purpose within business, we hope to inspire you on this journey.
John O’Brien and Andrew Cave