A. PURPOSE

Let’s start with purpose

Why do you exist? What is your identity? Why do you do what you do?

Defining your why is not easy. You need to capture the minds and hearts of people you can do business with and attract those who share the same beliefs. Most often when you define your why, it becomes easier to find your how and your what. This applies to individuals as well as businesses. Individuals will create their own purpose, but it is the role of an organisation to build the company’s purpose while helping individuals find their individual purpose. When those two connect you release energy, sparks of inspiration.

As a business you must try to find an authentic purpose that inspires people. This should help you find the reasons your company does what it does. If you see you can’t fulfil your purpose, you may need to start doing things differently or even transform your company (or yourself). It’s also possible you need to rethink your purpose or adjust it. But always make sure it is inspiring and meaningful to everyone on board.

Your purpose should describe your reason for being and the positive impact your organisation wants to have in the world and on society. It lies at the intersection of what you are passionate about, what the world needs and what you have to offer. If it is compelling enough, people feel they’re part of something that serves a bigger purpose. This is not about making money or pursuing profits, but about finding the driving force for achieving them.

We would like to point out the difference between “destination” and “direction of travel”. Stephen Quest, the Director-General of the Joint Research Centre of the European

Commission, whom we worked with for over two years told us the following: “One of the issues we faced with ‘selling’ the North Star to our scientists was that quite a few of them took it literally: ‘you are literally asking us to go to the North Star and I don’t want to, I like planet Earth…’. So, I found myself being very precise in saying we were (just) fixing a direction of travel for our journey, rather than a fixed destination (too rigid, in my view, anyway), and that the function of the North Star was to guide us towards that direction of travel.” This is coherent with the Hewlett-Packard quote above.