Summary
We are almost in the final quarter of 2024. In keeping with our strategic planning theme, today, I want to address company purpose. Don’t dismiss the word as too soft or reduce it to “mission” or “vision.”
Company purpose dictates its strategy and operations.
We are almost in the final quarter of 2024. In keeping with our strategic planning theme, today, I want to address company purpose. Don’t dismiss the word as too soft or reduce it to “mission” or “vision.”
I like to ask myself the tough questions I pose to others. Looking ahead to 2025, I asked myself the all-important question about purpose – “Why am I in business?”
I shared a LinkedIn post with some thoughts on why I do what I do. One part of that post summarizes lessons I’ve learned over the past twenty years and shapes the value I aim to create:
“Every company has incongruences between its purpose, strategy, and operations, which directly cause value creation and delivery challenges, capital inefficiency, and unsustainability. Methodically maximizing and maintaining alignment between purpose, strategy, and operations is the only path to optimizing value exchange between company stakeholders.”
One interesting comment I received came from the head of Strategy & Corporate Development at a public company:
“Can you explain how purpose would vary among companies? Given that Milton Friedman's approach [maximizing profits for shareholders] has stood the test of time for decades, shouldn’t the ultimate purpose be the same for most companies?”
I loved this question – It led to a deeper offline conversation.
