5 Things You Need to Create a Purpose-Driven Strategy

So, you’ve clarified your company purpose. Now what?

Being a purposeful company should not simply be a box-ticking exercise, nor should it culminate in a poster on a wall or a PowerPoint presentation.

When done effectively, it builds motivation and meaning for your customers and employees, it develops alignment and focuses at the exec. level, and it is ultimately key to making your company the one that people want to buy from and work for.

In this article, you’ll discover five important factors that I think will help you successfully navigate the transition from having a purpose to being purpose-driven.

1/ Embed Your Purpose in Strategy, Brand and Culture

It might sound obvious, but you need to embed your purpose across your company; in every layer of strategic decision making, and in the way you build your brand and culture.

Purpose has become a crucial reason consumers and employees choose one company over another - it's perhaps no surprise, then, that DDI World found that purpose-driven companies outperform their competitors by 42% financially.

But this behaviour is driven by beliefs based on the decisions a company makes and how it acts, not on what they say their purpose is.

Harley-Davidson Motor Company 's page has explored how its purpose is integrated at every level, internally and externally, focusing on the themes of courage, innovation, leadership, and “the timeless pursuit of adventure.”

lululemon , meanwhile, explores how their shared belief to “elevate the world by realizing the full potential within every one of us” integrates into their strategies and decision-making process.?

You could look at these and more examples of successful companies who have earned our love and loyalty and see how they have clearly articulated what they aspire to be or do.

They have determined how they are going to get there and how they are going to behave along the way.

They engage their people, integrate purpose into their decisions, and move forward to become the?kind of company the right type of employee or customer is inspired to be a part of.?

Which brings us nicely to the second point...

2/ Know Your People?

Businesses in today’s market of near-unlimited choice need to know who they are for and who they are not for, whether that be employees, customers, or even shareholders and other key stakeholders.

This goes deeper than simple demographics.

It’s a holistic understanding of the beliefs, behaviours, and attitudes of individuals at every level of your business.

The beliefs, needs and behaviours of people change rapidly, so to create a purpose-driven strategy, you need to consistently stay on top of who your ideal customers, employees, (and possibly shareholders) are, and what they value most now.

Steve Jobs understood the importance of getting almost uncomfortably close to your people.

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“Get closer than ever to your customers. So close that you tell them what they need well before they realize it themselves.”

This sentiment could just as easily be applied to employees.

So, how do we achieve this effectively?

3/ Keep Lines of Communication Open?

To continually understand what matters to your people you need a way to facilitate communication.

Your business requires input to succeed, and people are looking for a meaningful way to contribute.

Some companies choose to focus on surveys and third-party research, but there are many tools to maintain a regular rhythm of communication.?

For example, PlayStation realised its employee intranet could help create a unified workplace culture, but it hadn’t been updated in years, and employees weren't using it. Important communications were getting lost, so Playstation re-designed and launched The Hub. This new-and-improved intranet made it easy and fun to share personal updates but also to give real-time feedback and receive company communications. As a result, every measurement metric in their Employee Opinion Survey at least doubled after its launch.?

There is no one answer, the key is to meet people where they are. But providing the most appropriate channel is only part of the battle, people also need to feel that it is a safe space to contribute safely. This psychological safety is particularly critical in gaining input from employees, where it is important that people are willing to share their ideas and contributions without fear of retribution or worrying about it not being 'right'.

Part of building this environment is to do with how you use the insights.

4/ Use Insight To Focus

Once you have input from people, the potential trap is to have so much data that you're stifled into inaction. It needs to be turned into insight that can inform decision making and enable focus. People-focused businesses are masters of synthesising data to tell them what matters most to the people that matter most to them.?

This isn’t an exercise in self-aggrandisement.

For example, 微软 found that organisations that leverage their customer behaviour to generate insights outperform their competition by 85% in sales growth.?

But it’s not just about customer optimisation - focused insights are also crucial to employee engagement.

For example, 谷歌 analysed employee surveys and performance reviews to establish patterns of keywords and phrases and looked for ways to “build a better boss.” They used the data to discern the characteristics of effective managers and devised a list of 8 qualities like “Be a good coach” and “Don’t be a sissy - be productive and result-oriented.”

Now, Google uses this list as a directive for managers, thereby turning the data into something with an impact on the business itself.?

5/ Close Feedback Loops Effectively

Once you’ve incorporated insights into your purpose-driven strategy, you need a way to get that information back to the source: your people.?

Purpose-driven companies will regularly summarise what they heard from their audience to their audience.

It usually sounds something like, “We heard what you said. Here is how we implemented your feedback and the impact it had on our business/workplace/your experience.” Importantly, everyone should be thanked for their contribution and have their input connected to its impact on success - all ideas, whether right or wrong, implemented or not, are critical.

Whatever the channel (e.g., employee intranet, company website, newsletters, social media), the communication needs to be continuous.?

The result of a feedback loop like this is creating a culture where people are more willing to share because they feel heard.

When people continue to share feedback, you have more insights to incorporate into your purpose-driven strategy, which you then report back. Now you have a self-sustaining loop that can increase satisfaction, engagement, and commercial success.?

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How do you feel about creating a purpose-driven strategy for your organisation? Is it something on your to-do list? Tell me below.

About the Author:

I’m Ross Hastings MD of Ne-Lo, a specialist Management Consultancy that brings the voice of your customer and employee into the boardroom to develop focused company purpose and strategy. Through our ideas, models and services, our goal is to support companies to be more aligned, informed, and focused on what matters so they can become the place people love to buy from and work for.

Download the latest version of our free?Purpose Framework eBook.