Purpose of Business

"Because if you don't design your business model right, you are going to hurt people. Some people say it's about getting the right people on the bus. I don't agree with that. I believe it's about building a safe bus, which is your business model. And then you need drivers who are your leaders who know how to drive it and know where they're going. And then anybody you invite on the bus is going to be fine. But our primary responsibility as leaders is to design a safe business model. It gives our people a chance to raise kids, buy a home, live life in some sense of safety and comfort." Bob Chapman

When I first started out in business, I got to learn from Peter Drucker that the purpose of a business is to create a customer or market. Of course, after you have created the market, you will need to serve the market and satisfy it. This definition of the purpose of business was based on the times he lived. It doesn't apply today. It was more or less in an era when business owner view employees to be necessary evil and treat them as slaves.

But all that is changing. Bob Chapman's Truly Human Leadership, and John Mackay and Raj Sisodia's Conscious Capitalism is changing the narrative. The purpose of a business is no longer to create or serve a market. It is now to serve the employee. In the new model of business, the employee is now a partner and a key stakeholder in building a business and need to be treated right.

Purpose of a business impacts the lives of the employee and creates meaning for everyone. The primary purpose of every business leader should be to design a business that serves its people and bring out the best in people. It should enable people go home each day happy. If they don't find meaning in their work, they won't go home happy.

Will there be a need for unions if a business will treat its employees as family and partners? I am not sure. The purpose of a Truly Human Company is to offer its team members a bigger and better future and then create the means to take them to that future. They exist to help their people fulfill their purposes and not use them to achieve somebody's purpose. The purpose of a business is to care for its people.

That doesn't make a business a charitable organization. Caring for your people simply means you don't hurt them. Most businesses owners succeed while hurting their people. They push their people to produce and perform rather than inspire them to perform. This results in stress. Stress has been discovered to be the leading cause of heart attacks.

Management doesn't tap into the full potential of a human. It just gets the hands and not the heart and mind. However, when leaders begin to create business purposes that are inspiring and personally challenging to their people and align with the people's purpose, their people will unleash their potential. Human ingenuity is unleashed when inspired by a higher purpose. Truly Human Companies have people-centric purpose at the core of their operation.

Your people-centric purpose will inspire and challenge your people to unleash their full potential and ingenuity. That results in a great performance. As you can see the goal isn't to create economic value, but first human value. When you take care of your people, then they will take care of your performance. They are stakeholders and will give it all it takes to make it work.

Truly Human Company's purpose is to build their people first. They transform everyone who joins them into a Truly Human Leader. They understand that when you build people, they people will build the business and that when when you treat your people right by honoring their dignity and respecting and caring for them, they will treat everyone around them right. That way you deliver happiness. They make every decision with their purpose as guide.

Conversely, you can hurt the people you exist to care for if you lack a diverse business model. Take Nigeria as a business. The present government is hurting its people because its business model is broken. And this all starts with the purpose. If you get the purpose wrong, you will get the business model wrong. That is because the business purpose drives the business model and powers the culture. Having a Truly Human Business Model makes you a human development organization as well as a value-creating organization. You create both human and economic value in tandem.

Bob Chapman made the right illustration when he likened the business model to a bus, driven by great leaders and powered by the culture, taking people to a bigger and better future. Your business model and culture will offer your people a bigger and better future. It makes them feel safe in the bus because they have drivers who care for them. Your business model should constantly deliver hope to people and your culture keeps them happy on their way to that future. Certainly, they remain inspired to perform at their peak by your purpose.

If you don't get the purpose for being in business right, you are going to have a skewed business model and culture that continually hurt people. You are going to destroy their health and their family. You will certain harm the community where they leave. They will leave your company each day sad and unhappy. Hurting people hurt others. Sad people make others sad.

Truly Human Companies exist to give their people meaningful and fulfilling lives. Fulfillment comes when a company allows its people to live their purpose at work. When their purpose aligns with the purpose of the business, they get fulfilled with each day's work and then go home happy to their family. When they are happy, they treat their families right. To achieve this, you need to develop the Truly Human Business Model for your company.

The business model and culture of the organization are to help the company achieve its purpose. As such, Truly Human Companies measure success not by performance, business model or culture but by the progress they make towards achieving their purpose.

Will you be interested to learn how to put the Truly Human Business Model to work in your company? Kindly comment and indicate your interest.

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Oladimeji Olutimehin is the co-founder of Value Giver Coach and CEO of Megagrowth Solutions Ltd, a Truly Human Company design Consultancy. They help organizations make the transition to be Truly Humans.