My Purpose and Values
Many entrepreneurs look for external support to help them gain measurable commercial improvements in their business, for example to scale up, increase profitability, maximise shareholder value and so on.
Others are struggling with balancing their life well, or are feeling stressed out from running their business.
I’ve found over the years that whatever their requirements, prospective clients want to know where I’m coming from and what I believe in before sharing sensitive information. Fair enough.
I think the best way to do this is to explain my Purpose and Core Values.
Purpose
My definition of 'Purpose' in a business context is why does a business exist, other to make money.
There is ample evidence to show that Purpose-led businesses consistently outperform 'command and control' style businesses. Raj Sisodia and his co-authors demonstrate in their book 'Firms of Endearment' that Purpose-led, Values-driven companies outperform their counterparts in shareholder value by a factor of 15.
They found that without a Purpose, management has a harder time rallying employees to increase productivity, and customers have a harder time connecting with the company. Their over a decade-long research shows that Purpose creates positive outcomes far greater than the sum of its parts.
Virgin founder Richard Branson summed up Purpose beautifully: "Success in business is no longer just about making money or moving up the corporate ladder. More and more, one of the biggest indicators of success is purpose."
My own Purpose is 'to inspire entrepreneurs who love what they do'. Not only to achieve their goals, but also to do so in a sustainable way (their business and themselves). I do this by combining rigorous coaching methodologies with decades of real world business experience. Two well-known business leaders, Eric Schmidt, ex CEO of Google, and Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, promote to the value of business coaching. My coaching style is to empathise with my clients while challenging them directly, an approach beautifully articulated in Kim Scott's book 'Radical Candor'.
Core Values
My definition of Core Values in a business context is 'a roadmap for behaviour'. In other words how do you want to behave in your business to maximise your chances of success, and how do you want your managers and staff to behave when they're out of your sight?
Again, there’s ample evidence to show that businesses that invest time in articulating the behaviours they want to see in their people outperform those that don’t. Many entrepreneurs understand this as a concept, but sometimes what businesses do is create a list of words that look good — nothing more than a tick box exercise. An extreme example is Enron, whose Core Values were Respect, Integrity, Communication and Excellence, but whose actual behaviour, set from the top, was to make as much money as possible without getting caught.
Undertaking Core Values work properly takes a serious investment of time and effort. Every entrepreneur understands 'Return on Investment'; I believe an investment in articulating and embedding a business’s Core Values can be measured by 'Return on Behaviour'.
My own Core Values are:
Excellence
Analytical, Challenging, Knowledgeable,
Perceptive, Rigorous.
Love
Caring, Empathic, Compassionate, Fun, Helpful.
Authenticity
Congruent, Considered, Honest ('Radical Candour'), Measured.
Take a look at the Case Studies page to see if I live up to these behaviours in reality.
Expressed as a formula, I believe that Purpose + Core Values = the 'DNA' (or 'Culture') of a business.
Of course it’s possible to make lots of money by ignoring this stuff. Good luck to you, but I doubt we’ll be able to work together successfully.
How can entrepreneurs balance people, planet, profit and purpose in UK businesses?
Alan Wick shows entrepreneurs how to balance people, planet, profit and purpose in UK businesses by demonstrating that they’re not competing priorities.
You don’t need to balance the four Ps, you need to integrate them. Your purpose should naturally encompass people and planet, and your profit should flow from living that purpose authentically.
Start with purpose and ask yourself why your business exists beyond obviously needing to make money. Once that’s clear, everything else falls into place.
Treat your people well and your happy, engaged team will outperform the stressed and target whipped alternative every time.
Don’t see the planet as a constraint, see it as a driver of innovation - sustainable practices can often reveal inefficiencies you didn’t know where there. They attract customers and future proof your business.
And the profit? It's the scorecard, not the game. It’s proof that your model is working and it funds your ability to scale your impact on your people and the planet.
Entrepreneurs who win over the long term weave the four Ps into a rope, where each strand makes the others stronger.