Week 21.30 Purpose Redux

In 2007, after reading Jim Citrin's excellent book, The Dynamic Path, I had the idea that if people could have a dynamic path (going from leadership to legacy), so could companies. Michael Porter had written his article, Strategy, and Society, the year before, so the idea was fresh and felt alive. After decades as a brand strategist, I crafted an approach to branding that I called Purpose Branding to Landor Associates and was fortunate enough to convince Allen Adamson to believe that we could develop a practice aligning business, brand, and social responsibility. For the next four years, as the global head of Purpose Strategy, I worked with companies worldwide to support the movement to more Purpose-led companies. During this time, I was fortunate to work with great leaders worldwide, in all sectors, as we found ways to infuse Purpose into the core of the world's greatest businesses. Ten years ago, I presented a paper at Cannes Lions to an overflow room, Dispatch From A New Business Horizon (you can download it here), a best practice study that showed how the best companies in the world had made purpose central to their strategy. Shortly thereafter, Jim Stengle, with research from my friends at Millward Brown published GROW and proclaimed, "Those who center their business on improving people’s lives have a growth rate triple that of competitors and outperform the market by a huge margin. They dominate their categories, create new categories and maximize profit in the long term." Ten years ago!

?I am pleased to report that the arc that bends towards Purpose seems to be getting stronger.

In his new book The Heart of Business, Hubert Joly, legendary CEO of Best Buy, makes the case from personal experience and success. Most companies, and most leaders, believe in the importance of purpose, and there is a broad-based realization that excessive focus on profits is wrong. The question is often, “So where do you start, and how do you sequence?” The logical part of our mind would have us start with purpose, then derive the strategy: anchor it in purpose, and transform the organization. How do you define that noble purpose? Hubert believes you find it at the intersection of four circles: what the world needs, what you are good at, how you believe you can make a positive difference in the world, and how you can make money. So the sequence of steps is not always going to be, “Start with purpose.” Many companies are focused on that, but it may not be the best point of attack. When you start working on defining purpose, the danger is to make it too abstract, too glossy. It needs to be grounded in true customer needs and true demonstrated abilities to achieve competitive advantage. Your dream, of course—and the ability to make money: something that’s very real, tangible, and tightly connected to the growth and profit engine of the company.

Ron Carucci adds his ideas about the importance of Purpose being more than simply a slogan and the value of integrity of the individuals and the business. The findings of his 15-year longitudinal study of more than 3,200 leaders on organizational honesty for his book,?To Be Honest: Lead with the Power of Truth, Justice, and Purpose,?also show that to earn and keep trust, leaders must accept that reliability and integrity are merely table stakes. They don’t, on their own, earn you a reputation of being trustworthy. They may get you labeled as dependable or easy to work with, but to be trusted consistently requires more. If you want to be certain that the people you lead see you as trustworthy, be who you say you are, treat others with dignity, balance transparency with discretion, and build bridges that unify. His research revealed that you’d be 16 times more likely to earn and keep the trust of others if you do. There is no currency in organizational life more valuable than trustworthiness. We can no longer presume we have it because we believe we haven’t done anything to breach it. In times of unprecedented uncertainty, it’s critical to earn and keep the trust of others every day. If you hope to enjoy a career of great influence and impact, start by cultivating a trustworthy reputation.

Lisa McLeod, the author of Selling with Noble Purpose, writes that one of the biggest mistakes organizations make when they begin a purpose movement is a failure to include the sales function. Many people think that a sales team’s primary motivation is making money and that doing good by the work falls a distant second. That couldn't be more wrong. Across hundreds of sales teams, her research reveals that salespeople who sell with noble purpose, who truly want to make a difference to their customers, outsell salespeople focused on targets and quotas. It’s tempting to think that your sales team’s role is to?share?your purpose with customers. It’s not. The role of your sales team is to?activate?purpose with customers. For example, if your purpose is to make the working world better (EY), your sales team is charged with figuring out what “better” looks like for each client. What’s possible for the client? How could they have had a better working world in ways they have never even dreamed about? And how can you, as the seller, help them get there? This shifts the sales approach from closing a deal to improving life for the customer, which is the essence of a Noble Purpose.?

There has been a lot of great thinking on the topic of purpose and leadership in the decade since I presented to the crowd in Cannes. I know there is still a long way to go, and while there are many examples of companies that value profits over purpose, more and more companies are finding that purpose yields profits, thanks to the work of Hubert, Lisa, Ron, and so many others. More importantly, there seems to be a general awareness by workers, customers, and communities, that businesses need to be part of making the world a better place. I remain optimistic that the society that values businesses that care about all shareholders will be one of shared success. Please feel free to share your stories of purpose in the comments.

Week 33 of 52 Weeks of Giving SUPPORT SURFSIDE

On June 24th, 2021, at approximately 1:30 in the morning, a twelve-story residential building with 136 units partially collapsed. The search for some residents continues. The Coral Gables Community Foundation, The Key Biscayne Community Foundation, and The Miami Foundation stand together to build a relief fund for those impacted. If you would like to contribute to the fund,?please click here.

The C-suite job of the future: Chief purpose officer (wisdom from Paul Argenti)

More and more firms are dedicating entire departments to tackle societal issues and even hiring a purpose-focused executive — chief purpose officer — to lead the efforts. In the past, firms generally just had to focus on their bottom lines. Now every political, social, and environmental challenge is becoming a corporate concern as well. "It’s employees who are really driving this," says Paul Argenti, a Tuck School of Business professor at Dartmouth College. Look for even more firms to create jobs — both executive and rank-and-file roles — around purpose as the pressure from inside and outside companies to do good keeps intensifying.

https://www.axios.com/chief-purpose-office-corporate-responsibility-4d506abc-8868-46be-be35-878b230f7d8b.html

Design the Life You Love Summer Lunch > Wednesday, July 28, 12 PM ET

Welcome to Ayse's new cycle of Deconstruction: Reconstruction, where we focus on Design the Work We Love, Post Covid. So many of us are asking ourselves - what really matters most to me? Especially in times of change and uncertainty, it is easy to feel unmoored and forget why you're doing what you do.?I find?that?it is in these moments that we need clarity the most.

This week we'll do an exercise to remind us what truly matters to us. It's called the Heroes Exercise, and it's one of my favorites. For many people, the Heroes Exercise has an unexpected reveal that provides a big "AHA!" about themselves. The exercise takes about 10 minutes. Its results may last a lifetime. So, let's think about?our post-cove work heroes together!

Design the Life You Love is inclusive to everyone, from 13 to 90+ years old, with no prior creative experience necessary. With that in mind, please feel free to forward this invitation to your friends, who are younger and older. According to our members, all you need to do is tell them it’s a cool group of people doing cool stuff together. CLICK HERE TO RSVP. You will not be sorry.

Biz4Kids: A Business Model Comic for Kids - a new book by the children of the world's #1 Innovation Expert, Alex Osterwalder, and Holger Nils Pohl

The Biz4Kids Comic Book tells a funny and exciting story that also conveys the fundamentals of business and entrepreneurship.

When 15-years-old London girl Anna travels to Australia on vacation, little does she know that her easy-going uncle jay is in trouble. A vicious duo of troublemakers led by a mysterious, sinister figure seems to threaten jay’s beloved surf shop. Will Anna be able to solve the shop’s problems and save jay’s business? Visiting different countries, Anna learns more about the world of businesses and may get a little bit closer to her dream of running an interesting and fun social media channel. But this is just where Anna and her friend’s adventures begin… If your kids are interested in business, this book breaks new ground. Get it here

?And, as always, thank you, Marshall, for making all of this possible.

?With love and gratitude

Scott