This post will show you how to find your business purpose. You will learn the importance of writing your business purpose down (and why it matters). Finding the WHY of your company can inspire you to great achievements.
Please answer this question:
“What is the main reason for having your business?” If you haven’t started yet “why do you want your chosen business?”
Be really honest with yourself when you are answering this because it is very important.
The Power of Purpose in Business
What do you think of when you hear about the power of purpose in business? For me, it is all about why the business exists and it goes far beyond what it sells and the profits that it makes.
When your business has a purpose, it will inspire you and all of the people that are involved in it.
Having a business purpose will help you to think strategically about where you want your business to be.
It will help you to make those important decisions for the future and should lead to an increase in overall performance and productivity.
BCG conducted a survey of 50 companies that were in these 3 sectors:
- Media
- Technology
- Telecommunications
They discovered that organizations in these sectors that had identified their business purpose and were living by it are much more likely (more than twice) to produce shareholder returns that are above average.
If your business does not have a purpose right now, creating one for it is likely to transform it. When you create your purpose, you need to ensure that it is articulate and then activate it so that it becomes embedded in what you do.
5 Crucial Steps to Finding your Company’s True Purpose
It takes more than writing a mission statement for your business to uncover its true purpose. You need to examine your business goals to identify the emotions and passion behind them.
In addition to this, you need to identify the emotions and passions of those that work for your company. At the end of the day, all of this needs to resonate properly.
Here are the 5 crucial steps to finding your company’s true purpose:
1. Create a List of Questions for your Employees
By asking the right questions you can establish what your employees think is really important about working for your company. Here are some example questions that should provide you with good insight:
- What is the reason that we are in business?
- What is the reason for our existence?
- How did we get to where we are today?
- How did we become so good at what we do?
- What is the perception of us in the market?
- What are we really good at?
I am sure that you get the idea here. All of these questions will make your employees think about what they are doing and why they are doing it.
Record all of the answers that you receive from your employees to the questions that you go with.
2. Ask the same Questions of your Executives
Get your senior executives together and put the same questions that you asked your employees to them. You need to maintain control of a meeting like this because it can quickly go off the rails if you don’t.
Everyone will have their opinion, so you need to be disciplined here so that you capture all of the responses to make the right progress to discovering your business purpose.
3. Create a Purpose Message and Check that it Resonates
From the responses you garner from your employees and your executive team you can create your first business purpose message. It is essential that you test this message with people that you trust that are not part of your executive team.
Your message must resonate well with them.
4. Refine your Business Purpose Message
The best business purpose messages are simple and short. More important than anything is that your business purpose message is genuine.
Remember that this message will be the guide for your business going forward so it needs to be the best it can be.
5. Roll Out your Business Purpose Message
When your business purpose message is finally ready, you need to roll it out to everyone that works at your company. You want your business purpose to inspire everyone, so roll this out in a way that everyone will feel part of it.
How to Develop your Company’s Purpose
A great place to start when developing your company’s purpose is to look at the business purpose statements of others. Do this for inspiration only.
After that you can follow these 5 steps to develop the purpose of your business:
- Define how your business solves problems for your target audience
- Create a list of what makes you passionate about what you do
- Consider the rational and emotional elements of what you do and combine them
- Create your business purpose in plain language
- Ensure that your business purpose makes sense to all employees
It is crucial that everyone in your company can relate to the business purpose statement of your company. Whether they are part of the sales team, operations or the finance department it needs to resonate with everyone.
My Final Thoughts On How Do You Find Your Business Purpose
You now know how to find your business purpose. It is time for you to put what you have learned into action.
Use the 5 crucial steps to finding your company’s true purpose and then develop a purpose statement that everyone in your business can sign up to.
Having a purpose for your business will help you to move in the right direction and will galvanize your company into a formidable force.
It really is worth the time and effort involved. Make a commitment today to discover the purpose of your business and share this with your people. You will never regret doing this.
I would love to hear your thoughts or experiences now. Please add them to the comments section below.
Thank you very much and have a great day.
