Insights on Strategy

Business Makeovers

A Monthly Newsletter published by Strategy Development Group, Inc.                            June, 2005

Bringing Passion Back into Your Business Life

Are you still passionate about your work? Are others in your company passionate about their work? Consider what your business life would be like if every one in your Company could experience the excitement and enthusiasm that comes from loving what they do.

One way of bringing that excitement and enthusiasm to the workplace is to have your work and the work of your company make a difference in the communities in which it operates and have that difference be important and meaningful on a personal level. We call this “purposeful action”. Every thing we do makes a difference; but we are passionate about those actions that are important to us. We see this in our charity work. What “lights us up” is not the tasks we take on (some of which we would never do in our business life) but the shared experiences of making a meaningful difference for others.

We can bring this same passion and enthusiasm to the workplace. You might ask: “Isn’t that the job for non-profits?” It’s the job for every organization that wants to harness the power of an impassioned workforce. Consider for a moment that for-profit enterprises are the perfect vehicles for taking on purposeful actions because they already have a purpose and are in action. That purpose may not be apparent to everyone and if it were, it may not be inspiring to all, but it can be.

Purposeful activity does not have to be achieved at the expense of profitability. In fact, all else being equal, companies driven by purposeful activity can be extremely profitable. When applied as a win/win solution, companies can gain high productivity levels from their workforce, benefit from grateful communities (through, tax breaks, rule variances, etc), and experience competitive advantages in their markets.

If you would like your organization to be more purposeful, follow these four steps:

·        Identify purposeful areas that are important and meaningful to you and to your work force. You can do this informally or use facilitators in a more structured setting.

·        Gain agreement and commitment among your workers and other key stakeholders.

·        Take actions that are consistent with the purposes you are committed to.

·        Communicate your success in achieving that purpose with agreed upon metrics. You must experience making a difference to sustain your passion.

This article focuses on Step One. The other three steps will be addressed in subsequent articles. In discovering your purposeful activity, keep in mind these two rules.

·        The greater or higher the purposeful activity (the greater difference it makes) the greater likelihood your workers will find it important and meaningful in their lives and be passionate about it.

·        The more aligned your purposeful activity is with the Company’s Mission (the products/services you provide and the markets you serve) and core competencies or strengths, the more weight and credence your workers will give to the Company’s commitment in achieving it’s purposeful activity.

In other words, ask yourself how will I use my unique strengths, position in the market place and products and services to accomplish my purposeful activity? I call companies whose Mission and core competencies fully support the fulfillment of its purposeful activity “Purposeful Companies”. Employees of Purposeful Companies see their work as making a difference in areas of life that are important and meaningful to them and tend to be more passionate about and productive in their work.

To discover how your company can take on purposeful activities, start by getting in touch with the original purpose of your business. Very often you can discover this by continually asking yourself “Why ...(this purpose)...” four or five times until you uncover the hidden motivation for doing what you do. In most cases you will uncover a more fundamental or greater difference you wanted to make. Then ask yourself whether it is still meaningful and important to you today. Notice whether your current business is still aligned with that purpose. In many cases your original purpose continues to inspire you and all that is required is to realign your business strategy to that purpose.

Another approach is to look at the impact your business can have on the communities in which it operates? Begin by considering how your core competencies or strengths can enlarge that impact. Let me illustrate this approach with a fictitious apparel manufacturer, Freedom Sportswear. Freedom is exceptionally good at three things:

·        Low cost manufacturing in China (It has its own production team in China)

·        Retail store alliances (in-store shops in its specialty store accounts)

·        Brand marketing (via the Internet)

Here are possible areas where Freedom Sportswear can look:

·        The social impact it has in the communities in which it manufactures its products. How are the local communities where its factories are located benefiting from the production (education, health and well being, etc.)? Contributing to those communities in a way that improves productivity would be a win/win situation. Along the same lines, how could developing worker skills have a greater impact in the community and in factory productivity?

·        The impact the brand message has on the consumer. How can Freedom incorporate its beliefs or values into the brand message that will impact the lives of its customers? How can the brand stand for something that its workers and customers can be passionate about?

·        The impact it can have on its retail partners. How can Freedom build its partner relationships so they can create new opportunities to make a difference in their local communities?

From this analysis Freedom was able to determine that its purpose was “to promote healthy living around the world”. It could support this purpose through its products, brand message, channel partners and suppliers.

Opportunities for pursuing purposeful activity are endless and the greater the difference, the more passionate you will be………so aim high!

If you have questions on bringing passion back into your business life, call Paul Ratoff at (714) 572-3131 or email paul@strategydevelopmentgroup.com.