The power of purpose

Much has been captured and codified over the years about the power of a strong sense of purpose for organizations and companies. It’s been debated and diagnosed that companies with a clear, poignant definition of their purpose — essentially, why they exist at a higher order — typically end up having stronger financial performance, more resonant cultures and reasons to join, and very motivated and precise commercial strategies. More often than not, their purpose acts as a beacon in which to refer back, redirect, and refocus plans for continually moving forward, particularly in challenging times.

Well, now is one of those times. People, organizations, companies, and entire systems are in an unprecedented swirl of uncertainty — not exactly sure what to say or do in this state of near societal paralysis. With the exception of the fearless healthcare workers, scientists searching for remedies, and civic and governmental responders in full action mode, nearly all other institutions are still searching for answers on how to move forward with clear conviction and impact. And many of us at a personal level are coming to question and realize the very basic necessities we need in our lives for survival, challenging many of the things we deemed so important to us. This brings into question the value and role of many of the brands and experiences we’ve come to take for granted, or blindly adopted. Are they completely necessary? What are these companies and brands doing to help this crisis? How are they behaving?

While it is enormously difficult for organizations to think about doing “societal work” when their businesses are likely under enormous pressure to just stay afloat, or keep people employed, this is the very time when actions connected to your purpose can ring true, long after this event has transpired.

Did we as an organization look to our reasons for being, and why we exist, to find meaning in our communications and actions? Did our purpose help us find a sense of truth and transparency to our authentic and genuine decision-making? If so, your organization may emerge different, and no doubt made countless difficult decisions along the way, but will have gained respect and appreciation for leadership, clarity and the long view of your role in the world.

Take for example, IBM’s purpose of “Making the World Work Better,” a simple and directional phrase that some might suggest is even generic. But purpose statements are true to the core, provide clarity before cleverness, and help an organization reach deep into its institution, capabilities and character to take action — in good times and in bad. IBM can lean into their purpose as it guides everyday actions and the ongoing evolution of their business model and populace. But in IBM’s recent announcement that it would be a leading member of the COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium to use supercomputers to tackle the massive challenges of helping scientists crunch the data and sequence possible solutions to this virus, they took another step toward using this purpose as a driving force. IBM is not alone in this effort, in fact, it is aligned in the consortium with several companies considered direct competitors, along with many institutions and laboratories, to crack this code. This action would seem to be a tremendous demonstration of their purpose of helping the world work better.

There are an array of companies seeking ways to help the global charge against the challenge — Crocs donating its comfortable and easily washable shoes to exhausted and strained healthcare workers, or Dyson using its air-flow innovation to create a new, more efficient ventilator in just ten days. These are emerging examples of companies trying to use their core beliefs and capabilities to make a difference, no matter how big or small. And while your company may not make actual things, or have technologies to jump into this fray, the challenge remains the same. Why are we here and what can we do with what we’ve built? If you have a clear purpose, there is a bottomless well of ideas and concepts that could be generated to give your organization renewed meaning and action, nearly immediately. Delivering on these ideas in times like these will be rewarded in the long run.

The longer this extends, the more and more companies will seek to find ways to help — or may be forced by the Federal Government to convert capabilities to combat this crisis. The ones that have the ability to look at themselves in the mirror, and can lean on their clear sense of purpose to help on a proactive basis, will emerge stronger than before. This will lead to positive credit, even if the commercial gains are nonexistent or nominal at best. On the contrary, the companies that did not have a true grasp of this critical prism in which to gauge all of their actions may feel even more lost during these times, and quite possibly, struggle to find their footing when we have moved beyond this urgent response. Others may have leapfrogged them.

When we’ve worked with companies to help sharpen or solidify their purpose, the most frequent question can often be “what do we do with that?” Leadership is often much more interested in the external manifestation of the purpose, typically characterized as the value proposition or commercial differentiators to go sell something. They often have difficulty seeing their purpose playing a meaningful and sustainable role in their long-term success. But in this very moment, when selling something feels inherently wrong or inappropriate, there may be no better time to prove the power of purpose.