Building an integrated business

In the pursuit of sustainable success, organisations need an integrated and interconnected approach that fosters value creation, innovation, and differentiation. These buzz words are always on the edge of everybody’s lips; but, how do we create these elements, especially differentiation, when our global marketplace, irrespective of industry are becoming increasingly narrower and ‘same samey’.

To truly thrive, businesses must go beyond functional silos and fragmented approaches. Instead, focusing on establishing solid foundations by harnessing the power of a clear sense of purpose that will serve as the bedrock for growth, innovation, and differentiation.

The Web of Success, is a powerful methodology that takes an in-depth look at business to help drive understanding on the many facets that create those solid foundations whilst also identifying how they are all interconnected, integrated and aligned. As part of this it emphasises the significance of purpose as the starting point for anything.

In this blog we highlight the two primary ways the Web of Success looks at purpose and how consciously thinking about how to utilise these elements can help you and your organisation harness the true potential of purpose for integrated decision making. These are ‘Organisational Purpose’ and ‘Purpose for all Occasions’.

Organisational Purpose:

“A definite major purpose is the starting point of all achievement.” Napoleon Hill

The Web of Success underscores the pivotal role of asking why, or identifying a definite major purpose in an organisation helping at the highest level to drive an organisations towards their objectives at every level.

Recommendation: To embed purpose successfully, leaders should continuously communicate and reinforce the organisation's purpose throughout all levels. Regularly revisiting the purpose in meetings, town halls, and training sessions. This is over and above the many ways the purpose can be embedded into many facets of your business. The communication ultimately ensures that employees stay actively connected to the purpose and understand how their roles contribute to upholding it.

Definiteness of purpose is the equivalent of asking “why does our organisation exist” and refers to having a clear, specific, and well-defined reason for being, based on a set of values or beliefs, therefore purpose goes beyond mere profit-making and provides a deeper meaning and direction to all associated with the organisation, giving all a solid anchor point of deeper value for all.

Patagonia serves as a powerful, real-life example of an organisation that successfully integrates purpose and solid foundations. Patagonia’s mission statement is to “build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.” Patagonia's purpose-driven focus on environmental sustainability aligns with their core values and resonates with both customers and employees. By building solid foundations through cross-functional collaboration and embracing innovation, Patagonia has achieved financial success while making a positive impact on the environment.

However, it is crucial to highlight that purpose-driven organisations do not necessarily need to be virtuous with their purpose but will almost always have a ‘reason for being’ and value something more than just profits. While some organisations like Patagonia may have a socially responsible or altruistic purpose, others may be focused on achieving a goal that is not inherently moral or ethical. For example, a company that is focused on developing new technology or improving efficiency can still be purpose-driven, even if its goal is not directly related to social or environmental issues.

Not only does a sense of purpose act as an impactful, positive driver for success, a lack of purpose can be equally as impactful, but in a negative way.

An organisation with a sense of purpose knows why it exists, and this purpose acts as a bastion of hope for all, both internal and external to use as a guiding light. It provides an opportunity to clearly define goals, gives people motivation and enables us to get through hard times more effectively.

An organisation without a definiteness of purpose will not have that same shining light for people to focus and use as inspiration, no anchor point to hold on to and inspire people at the best of times, and at the worst leave people feeling lost, hopeless and unable to clearly see a positive way forward.

Purpose for All Occasions:

Leveraging the power of Purpose is not only for your organisation as a whole, but we can also look to adopt a ‘why’ or purpose at team, departmental, or directorate level too (of course ensuring there is no misalignment with the organisations purpose).

Additional to this we can take this approach with every single aspect of doing something new – what better way to get started with anything than to have complete clarity over the purpose or why of what you’re thinking of. If you can’t establish a strong enough reason, should you be doing it at all?

Therefore, on an every-day basis people can embrace the concept of starting with why or identifying their purpose before they start anything new – resulting in the equivalent benefit to increase the probability of success. However, identifying and defining a purpose can present many challenges.

Having a strong understanding of what your definite major purpose is for anything, why it exists, and that is clear for all to see it will give employees a reason to get up and go the extra mile for you, it’s the difference between abject or average customer service and inspired customer service, they’re more likely to feel inspired to come to work as it too gives them a purpose, a reason to get up in the morning, more motivation, more positive culture which of course in itself has a myriad benefits.

Summary:

Solid foundations form the bedrock for sustainable growth and success. The Web of Success emphasises the importance of establishing strong foundations to support your business in many ways.

In this instance, purpose is the starting point of everything! Be that at a holistic level for the entire organisation or at ‘component’ level for things like embarking on a business transformation, can give you real, solid foundations for solid growth and sustainable success!

Building an integrated business starts with a position that unleashes the power of purpose, which then allows us to cross-reference and manifest this through many facets of our business.

The Web of Success is an in-depth toolkit that not only highlights the importance of purpose, but the concept of the “web” means we look at the integrating elements that can help support you further. From defining your purpose, through to the range of facets where it can manifest itself in order to deliver consistent and significant value that helps you navigate challenges and thrive in a rapidly changing business landscape.