Why you should never lose sight of your business purpose

I’d like to take a note from Simon Sinek. The mission of this author and “eternal optimist” is to help people wake up every day inspired to go to work and come back home every night fulfilled by their work. In Start With Why, he sets out how people won’t truly buy into a product, service, idea or movement until they understand the why behind it.

This underscores the importance of building a “business with purpose”. Purpose attracts new customers and lets you delight and inspire current ones. The best and brightest talent are often purpose-driven. So when the values of top talents are in sync with your company’s, it’s a win-win. Purpose also keeps teams motivated and engaged. People collaborate better with one another when getting behind a meaningful, shared purpose. What’s more, purpose sparks creativity and innovation.

So being purpose-driven isn’t just good for customer loyalty, recruiting, collaboration, morale, innovation, and disruption - it’s good for the bottom line and for making a positive impact on the world!

The Unmet Global Need for Eye Care

Our purpose at VisionHub is to break down barriers to the optical market to bring vision and comfort to everyone. One third of people globally live with uncorrected poor vision and its consequences. Having impaired vision makes people twice as likely to fall while walking, for example. They are 3 times more likely to be unemployed, to suffer from anxiety and depression, or to be involved in a motor vehicle accident. Most people affected are 50 years and older, but children suffer, too. When they can’t see the chalkboard, they struggle to learn.

Public awareness around the importance of eye care is lacking in many parts of the world. But for those who know their eyes need attention, gaining access to eye care solutions is a whole other challenge. Distance and lack of transportation are important barriers that prevent people, especially in rural areas, from seeking eye care.

How Kenya is embarking on a ‘Vision Journey’

Kenya, for example, has only one optometrist for every 135,000 people. According to the World Health Organization, up to 13,000 Kenyans lose their lives in road traffic crashes every year, and 8 million people in Kenya suffer from uncorrected poor vision—a major threat to road safety.

That’s why we are thrilled to be involved in an exciting new program that is helping address the large unmet need for corrected vision in Kenya. Essilor and Total have recently teamed up to make the roads safer there by installing eye care kiosks at truck stops and gas stations. This innovative initiative is making vision care more accessible to road users in major cities, with the potential to go nationwide. VisionHub is proud to be providing the kiosks for this program.

Putting your business purpose in plain view

Whether your sector is brick and mortar retail, facilities management, hospitality, or any other business with a physical location at its core, providing your customers with a service as essential as eyecare is a way to underline your true purpose: how, above and beyond the daily interactions, you are improving the lives of your customers by creating a touch point for people to come together and access the goods and services they need.

(Above: Our Business Developer Francisco Briegas with Purity Wawira from Total Kenya Martin Mugiira from Essilor, at the new VisionHub kiosk in Nairobi.)

VisionHub can help you support this purpose and truly make a difference.

If you’d like to learn more about our turnkey solution, and how we can help you achieve your objectives, feel free to contact me directly.

We’re passionate about making eyecare more accessible, and would love to hear about your challenges!

I’ll finish with some food for thought, again from Sinek: “It doesn’t matter when we start. It doesn’t matter where we start. All that matters is we start.”