Few businesses understand the ‘why’
The simplest way of understanding ‘purpose’ in business is to think of it as the ultimate answer to the question, “Why”.
John Rosling, the CEO of Shirlaws Coaching in the UK describes this beautifully. “All businesses understand ‘how’ they do what they do (their manufacture, sales, delivery, service, admin, etc) and most but not all, truly understand ‘what’ they do (the fundamental intellectual property that sits at the heart of the business).
But very few businesses really understand the ‘why’. Which is a pity because the ‘why’ is where the power is. If you think about the most successful businesses, the ones people would most like to work for, they all have a strong and well understood ‘why’ in their business. It’s this ‘why’ that staff buy into figuratively – and customers buy into literally.”