10 WAYS TO INCORPORATE PURPOSE INTO YOUR CORE BUSINESS STRATEGY
Successful companies always incorporate their purpose into the core strategy of their business and that is how businesses are redefined. An organization’s purpose not only serves various stakeholders including shareholders and owners but also serves employees, customers, the environment, and society in general. For driving high growth in companies, the four important strategies are: Purpose, Creating new markets, Serving broader stakeholder needs, and Changing the rules of the game. Companies have for some time been urged to incorporate reason into what they do. Generally, it’s discussed as an add-on approach to make shared worth, improve employee morale and commitment, give back to the community, and help the environment. Successful companies incorporate the purpose into the core of the strategy, not just the periphery.
Business pioneers and organizations that have viably characterized corporate purpose commonly have done as such with one of two methodologies: retrospective or prospective.
The retrospective approach expands on a company’s current organization’s aspirational, human-first reason for being. It necessitates that you think back, systematize organizational, social, and cultural DNA, and make sense of the company’s past. The focal point of the disclosure cycle is based on an inward approach. What was the point of origin? How did we get here? What makes us remarkable to all stakeholders? Where does our DNA open up future opportunities we trust in? These are the sorts of inquiries pioneers need to ask.
Conversely, the prospective approach reshapes your organization’s aspirational, human-first reason for being. It expects you to look forward, check out the more extensive ecosystem in which you need to work and evaluate your potential to influence it. The idea is to figure out the future and afterward gear your organization for it. The focal point of the disclosure cycle is based on an outward approach, and pioneers need to make these inquiries: Where can we go? Which patterns influence our business? What new necessities, openings, and difficulties lie ahead? Which role can we play that will open up future opportunities for ourselves that we have faith in?
Try asking this question to yourself “Is Purpose at the Core of Your Strategy?” and then answer the following queries:
- Does purpose contribute to increasing your company’s growth and profitability today?
- Does purpose significantly influence your strategic decisions and investment choices?
- Does purpose shape your core value proposition?
- Does purpose affect how you build and manage your organizational capabilities?
- Is purpose on the agenda of your leadership team every time you meet?
If all the answer to the above-mentioned queries is YES then it means you have successfully incorporated Purpose into the core strategy of your business. Following are some of the ways that can help you to incorporate your Purpose into your core business strategy.
1. Make leadership buy-in a starting point, not a finish line
At every level in an organizational structure, Purpose must be real and engaging in every aspect for each employee. Make sure that leadership buy-in is a prerequisite for the organization’s aspiration; Purpose. Therefore, if a company is to truly live its purpose, employees at every level have to live it themselves.
2. Use purpose as a filter while making a decision
While making decisions related to your business, though Purpose is rarely the only reason to say “yes” but it should also be a reason to say “no” to something if in case the business opportunity doesn’t align with your values, but don’t automatically say “yes” just because it matches those values. The opportunity still must make sense from a financial perspective as the financials are not an end goal, but they are a natural outcome.”
3. Drive purpose beyond culture and into strategy
An authentic and effectively compelling purpose sits at the heart of long-term business strategy and goes beyond culture. Purpose-driven companies not just endeavor to instill their purpose at the core of how they do business yet in addition chart out their long-term trajectory. A comprehensive, innovative, and engaging employee culture is basically a critical part of that cycle, yet it’s not adequate all alone. Leading firms believe purpose goes beyond culture to strategy.
4. Don’t over-measure the Purpose
Doing the right thing and making the best choice is the whole point. Though metrics and objectives are significant, the over-measuring of purpose is risky as it conceals the core goal. If you are serious about your business living its purpose then make sure it is tracked and reported transparently, alongside other KPIs. Over-measuring purposes simply risk creating a different set of perverse incentives, instead of better ones.
5. Don’t confuse purpose with CSR
The purpose is certifiably not a side effort or an add-on. Nowadays most successful purpose-driven firms understand that purpose is not siloed into a single department, group, or individual. The purpose is not a task that is based on philanthropy or corporate social responsibility (CSR). The purpose is a scalable, core part of the business, and it doesn’t need to vie for a restricted time and assets any longer — or any less — than the remainder of the business does. Effective CSR efforts complement the foundational purpose that sits at the heart of organizational strategy.
6. Position purpose as a North Star, not a to-do list
Shared purpose empowers employees to align themselves and their efforts and work into what the company does. While purpose-driven organizations ensure that each employee has a connecting interface of their work to the company’s purpose, they don’t demand that purpose be lived or experienced identically by every individual. An effective purpose is adequately explicit to be applicable to what an organization really does, but broad enough that it encompasses the diverse roles and responsibilities that exist within the firm. The purpose is a “North Star,” at the end of the day, reflecting the fact that while the “means” may develop, the “end” stays constant.
7. Bring purpose to life with stories
Purpose-driven firms discover direction and motivation in the human experience. People speak with one another via stories, not statistics, so stories give a significant method to organizations to check their advancement towards their purpose. In some cases, these stories capture a company’s historical narrative and establish a legacy. In other cases, stories feature individual victories and vivid testimonials of stakeholders whose lives have been improved by the organization’s purpose. More than any number, these stories assist firms with rejuvenating their purpose to life.
8. Lean on purpose during good times, too
The purpose isn’t only for times when “all else falls flat.” During times of growth and success, Purpose helps in keeping firms focused. It’s not difficult to turn to purpose when a firm is striving or in crisis, or essentially confronting a difficult climate due to digital disruption, a competitive marketplace, or an external acquisition. In these circumstances, purpose keeps firms anchored, secured, and on target. Leading organizations likewise utilize their purpose to remain on track during seasons of development and achievement.
9. Accept that purpose is not always a win-win
The purpose is not a business panacea as sometimes doing the right thing means sacrificing short-term financial gain. Doing the right thing can not always be good for the bottom line. Most authentically purpose-driven firms today have positioned themselves to thrive over the long term to do more good and less harm which sometimes involves sacrificing profit and growth, especially in the short term.
10. Celebrate your successes — and acknowledge your shortcomings
Firms that are serious about their progress along the purpose led venture to commend their progress and recognize their deficiencies by being open and straightforward about your advancement towards your purpose will impart legitimacy and fabricate trust. Business pioneers may fear being candid about their mistakes, but transparency not only doesn’t harm a company rather it really assembles an invaluable repository of public trust.
On a concluding note, The above-mentioned approaches to incorporate the purpose into the core business strategy can’t be a one-off effort. Business pioneers need to constantly evaluate how purpose can complement strategy, and they should be flexible enough to be adjusted or reclassify this relationship as conditions change. That demands another sort of sustained focus, yet the benefits it can grant are legion. The real challenge for business organizations today isn’t why purpose matters but how it is being implemented at the core of business strategies and decision-making. Leading firms rejuvenate their purpose with stories. They perceive that purpose, which is a core of the business model, is distinct from CSR. They acknowledge that purpose isn’t a business panacea, therefore, some short-term sacrifices and compromises have to be made in order to make the best choice. In any case, in particular, purpose-driven businesses comprehend that they’re on an excursion as there is no single road to purpose.
