Value IS Your Purpose

Most organizations work diligently to find the right words and messaging for their vision, mission, and values. While the organization’s purpose often is part of the same exercise, it typically evolves into a misty statement that’s only vaguely connected to a fundamental value proposition. That’s a problem for the reputational brand.

The lofty ambitions of purpose statements tend to narrow into some version of making the world a better place. That’s not a crime, but it’s hard to differentiate one organization from the next when their “reason to exist” sounds like everybody else’s (purpose statements are the infinite fractal of organizational culture).

Certainly, given the opportunity, most of us would want to be part an organization that makes lives better or more meaningful because of our work. The question is whether the organization’s value proposition would tell that story better, more authentically and pragmatically, and with greater differentiation.

There’s also the problem when a clamorous internal cadre hijacks their organization’s purpose as a social commitment, rather than the outgrowth of successfully executing a business strategy with a value proposition that benefits its stakeholders. This is how many unwary brands find themselves in unproductive, reputation-harming ideological firefights.

So, while “purpose” may be great for the purposes of culture, it may not be helpful for brand. In fact, purpose competes with brand in the expression of implied value. Ideally, the value proposition (or brand position) succinctly expresses a worthy purpose that, while perhaps not celestial in its aspirations, most employees, customers and other stakeholders can easily process as unique, clarifying, and distinctive.

In aspiring to create greater brand equity it is not enough to have successfully established a unique selling proposition, carved a pre-eminent market niche, or developed an imitable brand position. Certainly, all this helps in differentiating and positioning a brand, that is until the organization’s people or operations, and the processes they rely on, fall short of delivering expected experiences.

Ultimately, purpose orients the organizational society to a shared pursuit of value consistent with values. In this way, purpose signals the intention of brand, which we can ascertain through a few basic questions. Why do we do what we do? What makes us unique and worthy of our stakeholders’ emotional or financial investment? If we didn’t do what we are here to do, how would lives, businesses, societies and economies be different? In other words, what value do we offer — financially, psychically, or operationally?

This exploration starts the journey toward a strong understanding of purpose, one that establishes organizational accountability and implies that fulfillment of the purpose will benefit the organization and its stakeholders. In other words, it leads to a realizable commitment, or brand promise, that’s often a better guide for organizational, team, and individual performance than the anodyne “words on the wall” of so many purpose statements

Simply, value is at the heart of any organizational arrangement; it’s the predicate reason for existence before any high-minded expressions of purpose or goodness (those often come later as part of the organizational catechism).

As saintly as one might be, the entrepreneur who goes into business for a noble cause, i.e., a “Purpose,” foremost needs to offer value of some kind to remain in business. Why not let the continuous pursuit of value be your organization’s purpose?