Purpose Beyond Posters
There is so much noise around innovation, disruption, transformation. Innovate or die. Disrupt ourselves before someone else does. We hire chief innovation officers, the person responsible for doing that innovation stuff, then we clear out a meeting room as our innovation space, the place we do this innovation stuff. We have someone to fire when we are not innovative enough and we have a place to hold meetings with post-its but what really changes?
Mistake one is seeing innovation as a discrete thing. Something we do rather than a way we think. Something that is separate from everything else our business is, or could be. But in my experience the biggest mistake companies make in this space is focusing on innovation without a purpose or a healthy culture. Which is really like building a large glass building on the wellington waterfront without proper foundations and we should ask Stats NZ how that worked out. Crazy when you see the aftermath but happens in many organisations every day.
Over the last three years I have had the privilege of working with many NZ businesses, mainly exporters, now trying to redefine their business to meet an international market where getting on a plane and shaking hands is not a viable way to build scale in a covid crazy world. And here’s what I have learnt first hand. Having a purpose, believing in something, makes business easier.
This is not new of course – my idol Simon Sinek has been talking about this for years. (If you haven’t, you should read start with why or at the very least watch the 20 minute ted talk).
“People don’t buy what you do they buy why you do it. What you do serves as the proof of what you believe.” Simon Sinek
For many years I’ve used that quote. I had been to a Simon Sinek Live event in Auckland many years ago, read the books, listened to the podcast, I was the perfect groupie. I thought it was true but I had never truly experienced working in an organisation that had a commonly-held, meaningful purpose. I’d worked in many that had tried. Many that had a great strategy but not necessarily a purpose that went beyond something that sounded great on the website. These were still great businesses and this is not a criticism but really common in many businesses we’ve all worked in.
I recently watched a ted talk by Harnish Manwani global COO of Unilever. Unilever is one of the biggest companies in the world, home of hundreds of products all of you will have in your house. Harnish tells this story – on the first day at Unilever he was asked by his boss what was it that he here to do. He thought it was a weird question but he replied I am here to sell a lot of soap. His boss said wrong you are here to change people’s lives. He thought he was crazy – Unilever was a company that sold soap and soup – how are we meant to change peoples lives? Then he released it’s not about the soap, it’s both the outcome of the soap – hand sanitization programs saving more children in Indian than pharmaceutical companies selling drugs to fight preventable infectious disease. Or by teaching 60,000 women in India how to start their own small business focused on hygiene and nutrition, changing the nature of the social structure in villages across the country where men were traditionally the ones to go to work. It’s not about the soap, small actions make a big difference.
Today I wholeheartedly believe in the power of purpose. I’ve seen it. I’ve felt it and I believe businesses have to create purpose which builds in responsibility to the communities which sustain our operations. Businesses are vehicles with which we can do more than make money. If you google purpose-driven companies you’ll read a lot about the big international examples. But what about closer to home.
Last year I was lucky enough to help a company called Maxiloda, a company I expect many haven’t heard of, but I helped them to tell their story of a product that enables distribution companies to double stack a truck without expensive and risky equipment. They fundamentally believe we’ve done our planet a dis-service and the more we look at ways to do more with less, in this case, more goods moved with less trucks on the road, more products reaching their destination with less damaged goods ending up in landfill, the better off we will all be. And they do this and make money, some of which they channel back into environmental initiatives in the Latin American villages they do business in. Having a purpose makes business easier.
I’ve helped a mussel farm and processing facility in a small town on the east coast that I feel pretty bloody lucky to have called home for the first 12 years of my life, but also one of the most deprived parts of the country in terms of employment, income and crime rates. I’ve help them to better articulate to the world that when you partner with them, you are doing much more than buying mussels. In partnership with the government, their local iwi and the local community, this business believes by creating meaningful jobs for local people they will breath life back into a town in desperate need of change. When your driver is meaningful jobs for locals, decisions become easier, like looking for year round opportunities to ensure the factory can operate 12 months a year (far longer than the average mussel season) to ensure people have the stability to apply for a mortgage or not go back on the benefit in the off season. Or when you work to look at how you support females into the business by working shifts around school hours or when you partner with local education providers to train locals 2 years in advance of the factory opening so they will be ready. Having a purpose makes business easier.
I’ve helped a health and safety technology company tell their story to farmers, growers and forestry companies to keep them safe at work because they fundamentally believe that just because you choose to work on the land, doesn’t mean you should die on it. We have horrific rates of injury in these occupations in this country and when you driver is to deliver the data and the education to save life's, decisions become easy. Like when you get approached to be purchased by an organisation that’s excited about buying the data piece, but not about the saving lives bit. You say no. This isn’t aligned to who we are or why we do it. Purpose makes decisions easier.
Again you could be mistaken for thinking that only professional companies or companies of a certain size or maturity have the luxury of having a clear purpose and using this to make better business decisions. But it’s not just the big companies. The other day on Linkedin there was a post with a photo of a pie shop window. The doors were closed and there was a sign up that said Our baker is sick, we’re not sure when we will be back. We are really sorry. Nothing life-changing there. But the interesting thing about this sign was that people had written messages all over it wishing the baker a speedy recovery. Hundreds of messages. Again – this may not sound life-changing but when you think this through it is actually quite remarkable. Imagine it’s the middle of the day, you’re hungry, you leave your office to walk to your favourite pie shop. When you get there the doors are shut and your heart sinks knowing today’s not the day for that potato-top. Instead of stomping off down the road in search of something else to eat, you reach for a pen and wish the baker well. In what world does this happen. I was curious enough to find out more so I googled the pie shop name which took me to their Facebook page. And here I found their purpose. It said ‘we believe people with full tummies can change the world. We help to fill people’s tummies with the best pie you will find anywhere. Simple, outcome-driven, meaningful, beyond making money. Every business decision could be tested against that one statement. Will this thing, will this person, will this location help up fill people’s tummies with the best pie you’ll find anywhere or not. Not a poster for the wall, something that makes business easier. Figure out what you believe, and the decisions become easy.
But How?
I might have some of you across the line that purpose matters and this goes far beyond the poster for the wall but how do we do it. How do we figure out what we believe in beyond making money?
We tell stories. Data for the head, stories for the heart. I believe until people connect the heart, they cannot engage the head. Your purpose is generally in there buried in some of the stories of why you started the business in the first place, what gets you out of bed in the morning on the really tough days, what springs to mind in the highlight reel when you look back.
I feel so lucky that I get to do work so closely aligned to my why.... to help build purpose-led businesses that I would be proud for my kids to work at and to help build the human skills that will develop the great leaders that I’d love them to work for. I do this by helping take purpose-led kiwi companies to the world.
Do you have a purpose that you believe in, that drives decision making (not just looks nice on the poster), that goes beyond making money? Maybe it’s time. I’d be happy to help!