Purpose

0:03 Welcome to business purpose and clarity with petri I'm your host we talk about startup life insights practical tips mistakes failures and everything between why we exist why the organization what are the advantages if you really know what you're doing I was asked this question last week and it made me think about it again it's one of the most difficult things in any organization any company at any stage ask from your people check it out ask them why we exist ask from your customers as from your suppliers ask from everyone what do they say to you do you get the same answers from congrats if that's the case you have done your job very well usually that's not the case it doesn't.

1:06 Mean that you failed it just means that this stuff is hard well what are the advantages of really knowing why we exist what we do I can easily think plenty usually people like to join companies and work when they know why they're doing it it's just the human we want to be part of something bigger we want to belong to something and if your mission the reason why you exist is something which is considered important something which is valuable benefits to society is even bigger than your company then you may find out that it's rather easy to recruit new people to get them excited and this is also the thing when things are not going so well and you may question that why I'm here.

2:08 Why I'm at this hour doing these things or is what's the purpose of all these and if your mission the purpose why you exist why we do all these things is very clear it gives you energy it empowers you it it makes you go through the hard stuff but it's not just that it's also a guideline it helps you in your everyday decision-making in all the levels of the organization if you have done your job really well and it should be also practical practical in a sense that it will tell no matter in which level of the organization you are is this something I should do is this something which fulfills our mission does this belong to us is this a decision is this the direction is this an action brings us closer to the.

3:12 Our organization's purpose well this may actually sound really let me explain a bit better there's this usual notion that you can either be a missionary or mercenary founder if you're a missionary you you tend to maybe you have stumbled upon a problem something which bothered you so much that you decided to do something about it and since nobody else was doing anything it was your dust to do that because it irritates you or you just felt that that's your purpose in life at least for the time being want to solve something they they see something which is broken or something could be done better and they want to fix it if it's something which is bigger than the company something which may be common for a lot.

4:15 Of people then it's easy to to get people excited it doesn't just feel like that you're filling your pockets but there's there's something more beyond the company what are we trying to do here the other option is mercenary founder who sees opportunities and then figures out that I could probably make money with this thing so let's figure out something people are willing to buy and make a company out of it there's no good or bad ways to build your company but in the latter case in the mercenary case it might be a bit more difficult to find meaningful purpose for your company there's no naturally inclined and you may have to be more inventive because you just cannot say that I needed a bit more money that's not a usually a good purpose.

5:19 Financial gains do nothing to be lasting motivators for the other thing which might come if you going the mercenary way or you trying to top down figure out what we need to do what is the product what is our target market it may be harder to find the product market fit as well because it was not like a natural thing if you started with the mission because you were doing something and you realize that hey this is not working there must be a lot of people who have the same problem let's fix it this is more natural way of discovering and doing things so we're going quite deep here and so let's copy back organizations and the purpose if you will.

6:22 And um the conclusion I was give I I gave was that I don't believe that if your company doesn't have a good purpose from the beginning if you're talking about growth company that might be quite evident and obvious and and this may sound like a bit silly because if it's so clear and you have a passionate founder who is doing things and everybody knows what they're doing why they're doing there's not that much to talk about about the purpose but if the company is a bit older the original founder has left people have changed and things have evolved to some direction and it's not so obvious and clear anymore why are we doing this or which direction we go or the original purpose and mission has been a bit weak after the founder left is the company still able to pull it off is it easy to motivate people can you do it with the leadership I think.

7:27 Maybe you need to change the people I let's not go to that direction at this this podcast episode I just want to go back to the purpose the why question I think the most important thing is that if you do your job as a leader of the company as the founder as the ceo really it's good to always think about the why it's good to always remind people why we exist why we do this what is it what we do what is the context because actually it makes your life as the more easier you don't need to do those needed 3d details anymore make the decisions for the other employees actually you should make yourself more or less redundant in a way that those who are doing the things in the field.

8:32 Should be the the ones who have most of the knowledge anyway what should be done and if you guide them with the right type of purpose and with the right type of tools they can do the decisions themselves coming back to the meaningfulness if you really feel like that you're doing something which is amazing to do the work when it's not that easy when it's hard maybe it's dark maybe it's raining outside maybe you're tired but the job itself is gratifying because you feel like belonging where you are and what you do and why you do with whom you do it what do you think a good starting point for the purpose what did I miss let's continue the discussion this was.

9:34 Just the opening episode so plenty of more to come you can also check my website and ask me questions which is for new episodes and obviously comment as well.