If money does not hit your top line, it never has a chance to hit your bottom line; therefore, if you want to thriving bottom line you better have a thriving top line. Customers are the key to revenue. If you are behaving as if making a profit is the sole purpose of your business, your customers and employees will catch on and they will not be impressed.
Purpose, why we do the things we do, is a top line issue because your customers need to understand cleary why your products and services provide necessary meaning in their lives and why they should get those products and services from you and not your competitors. The purpose of your business also needs to be clear to every single one of your employees in order to drive their daily behavior toward impressing your customers.
Neither your customers nor your employees give a hoot about your mission or vision. They care about your purpose because it is manifest in the things you pay the most attention to on a daily basis.
Tomorrow I will discuss how purpose is a bottom line issue, so stay tuned!
Related Posts:
The Service-Profit Chain: There is Something Right With This Picture
Leadership: The Value of Shared Purpose
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You underline so well that true purpose goes beyond monetary purpose. Every employee — or self-employed entrepreneur — wants to know that their work has meaning. Organizations can forget that essential message, but great organizations thrive by living by it.
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Bret L. Simmons Reply:
November 17th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Susan, I concur. I think the more you focus on profit the less likely you might be to make it. But the more you focus on purpose the more profitable your business will be. Thanks! Bret
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Bret,
I can not agree more with your point of making it clear to employees and customers what a company’s purpose is. In another life I had the opportunity to help lead a company to the best times it ever had the pleasure to know. The owner forced me to change from being a look at the overall picture type of leader to a “line item viewer” and our business went south quickly. He sold it and now it has folded into a memory.
Keep up the good work.
Gary
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Bret L. Simmons Reply:
November 17th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Welcome, Gary, and thanks so much for sharing your thoughts! The example you share is all too common. In these tough times, it is more critical than ever to keep your eye on the top line, which means to keep your finger on the pulse of your customers. I hope we see you again around here – thanks! Bret
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Hi Brett, maybe it’s just me, but if a mission statement (business or cultural)has any value whatsoever and is not just a bunch of crap and hot air it states your purpose.
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Bret L. Simmons Reply:
November 17th, 2009 at 7:16 pm
Welcome back, Miki! If you understand what I mean by purpose, I think MOST mission statements are void of purpose. And everyone of them that is void of purpose is as you say, a bunch of crap. Thanks!! Bret
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Thanks, Bret, Not really disagreeing, but the mission statements of my current and past clients include purpose.
I tell people that a mission statement should give guidance to a worker struggling to make the correct decision when there is no one around to ask.
And it should never be longer than one page with minimum one inch margins and 12 point font!
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Bret L. Simmons Reply:
November 17th, 2009 at 8:08 pm
I’m sure your mission statements are marvelous, Miki, but even a page is too long. You should be able to express purpose in one sentence. If an employee can’t remember it it will not resonate with them, and if it does not resonate it will not drive their daily behavior. I’m sure your mission statements are different, but in my years of organizatinal life I’ve never seen one that is not ho hum. Ask the employees…. Thanks! Bret
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