Find your business purpose

Anticipating a few days break, a number of business owners have asked me what they should be doing ”usefully” during their time-off. The obvious answer is “nothing at all” – really they should be putting their laptops away and learn to relax, however, this answer is seldom sufficient.
 
“Well, if you have to do something, why not consider what your business’ purpose is?  Why does it exist?”
 
The standard retort is “to make money, pay the bills….”, or something similar.  However, in my view, these are outputs of their purpose not the purpose itself and the better they are at defining it, the better they will perform in achieving their financial goals.
 
The underpinning rationale for defining the business purpose is compelling.  Without a defined purpose, every business risks drifting - being swept along in the flow.  Research by PWC, suggests that for millennials, one of their key considerations is their connectedness with the organisational purpose. Separately, team motivation is shown to be much stronger when there is a cause that unites.  Simon Sinek famously referenced the importance of “The Why” in how great leaders inspire action – have a look at his TED talk.

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