Purpose

What is the purpose, or reason for being in business, as seen from the customers’ perspective? What fundamental customer problem(s) do you solve or need do you fulfill? It’s the “why” of your business. What your company really does, what do you believe in?

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Let’s Get Clear about Purpose. Why does your company exist?

 

Why does your company exist? (from your customer’s perspective)

We are seeing a lot of attention being paid in recent years to this idea of knowing your “Why” or Purpose of your business, for good reason.

Discovering the answer to this question can have a profound effect on the success of your business. It provides context for so many other strategic decisions as grow your business, a foundation piece for your business plan.

On the surface, “why” seems like a simple question, yet many business leaders struggle to find a strong, compelling, and succinct answer to this question.

The key to getting to a clear Purpose statement is to focus on your customer’s perspective.

Start with this question:

What fundamental value or benefit do our customers receive from us?

Brainstorm a list of answers with your team. Mix and combine ideas until you have a good starting point. Review and tweak over time

Here’s an illustration. Imagine you are the owner of a company that sells lighthouses. What might be the Purpose of your business?

Something like: Our company purpose is to protect the lives and property of our customers at sea.

With this purpose in mind, the company has the foundation to build out and improve it’s products and services over time. Eg. Life boats, life jackets. GPS systems, charts, etc all flow from this strong purpose statement.

Pontish Yeramyan, CEO of Gap International, wrote in a recent article about being purposeful:

“The 21st Century Organization can also differentiate itself by operating within a bigger context than a vision or mission, something more expansive. It’s not enough anymore to simply have a clear direction – people must be able to throw their entire selves into the game to be successful, with full engagement of heart and mind.

We have found that when leaders leverage Purpose, it creates a competitive advantage that’s difficult or even impossible to replicate. Purpose creates the ability for people to care about something much bigger than their personal concerns and fully apply their talent to meaningful endeavours.

 If you think about it, Being Purposeful creates the platform for organization success, because it taps into a reservoir of potential energy latent within the organization. When peoples’ orientation to their job transforms from performing work to that of making a difference, they become exponentially more effective at coming together to produce extraordinary results.

 It becomes possible to consistently produce results beyond what is predictable in the normal flow of business. Powerful strategies can be created and re-created when purpose is present. Purpose gives people a far more expansive space to create and grow, where creative, purpose-based thinking replaces crisis-based, firefighting thinking.

 An organization of people who have connected themselves to something bigger can thrive rather than simply survive –they can move fast together and nimbly adjust strategies and tactics to succeed.”

 When your business plan starts with “Why” the other pieces will follow more easily”

For more tips on planning please visit plangenie.com

Clarity Creates Confidence

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Start with the foundation

The Foundation

We all know that building any structure starts with a solid foundation. The same is true of your business plan. The foundation for your business plan is your BUSINESS PLAN SUMMARY.

Your plan summary contains five important pieces of information. The rest of your plan extends from this foundation and is easier to assemble when you have this document clearly written.

The five pieces of your summary are:

  • Your Unique Business Proposition – what makes your company special, unique and different?
  • The Purpose of your business – Why does your company exist, as seen from the customer’s perspective? At a fundamental level, what value or benefit does your company create for your customers?
  • Your Destination – Your longer term goals, your picture of success 3 years from now.
  • Your One Year Goals – Desired outcomes in the next 12 months?
  • Your Strategy – In broad terms, how you will achieve these results?

Let’s look at the first two points on this list.

Unique business proposition: In a couple of sentences, describe what makes your business unique, special and different. This can usually be found in:

What you do.

How you do it.

Where you do it.

Who you are.

When you write this information down and begin discussing it with your leadership team, it will lead to crystallizing these ideas. (Tip: Always good to check with your customers for their perspective on this).

Becoming clearer about what makes your business unique will guide the future direction of your business and provide a reference for key strategic decisions as you grow into the future

 

 

 

Your Purpose:

Why does your company exist, as seen from the customer’s perspective?

Every business has a purpose. What is yours?

If your business is building lighthouses, what might your Purpose be?

Something like: “we protect our customers from foundering on hidden perils at sea”

 

 

 

 

Pontish Yeramyan, CEO of Gap International, wrote about being purposeful:

“The 21st Century Organization can also differentiate itself by operating within a bigger context than a vision or mission, something more expansive. It’s not enough anymore to simply have a clear direction – people must be able to throw their entire selves into the game to be successful, with full engagement of heart and mind. We have found that when leaders leverage Purpose, it creates a competitive advantage that’s difficult or even impossible to replicate. Purpose creates the ability for people to care about something much bigger than their personal concerns and fully apply their talent to meaningful endeavours.

 If you think about it, Being Purposeful creates the platform for organization success, because it taps into a reservoir of potential energy latent within the organization. When peoples’ orientation to their job transforms from performing work to that of making a difference, they become exponentially more effective at coming together to produce extraordinary results. It becomes possible to consistently produce results beyond what is predictable in the normal flow of business. Powerful strategies can be created and re-created when purpose is present.

Purpose gives people a far more expansive space to create and grow, where creative, purpose-based thinking replaces crisis-based, fire fighting thinking. An organization of people who have connected themselves to something bigger can thrive rather than simply survive –they can move fast together and nimbly adjust strategies and tactics to succeed.”

Once you have draft versions of your Unique Business Proposition and Purpose statement, it’s time to do some goal setting. Move on to sections 3,4,5 of your plan summary.

Here’s the good news, unlike a physical foundation, you can come back and revise these sections of your plan if you aren’t completely satisfied with your initial efforts.

 

 

 

 

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Step 1: Drafting the Business Plan Summary

This is a short, succinct, 1-2 page outline, that contains a clear description of the following:

  • Unique Business Proposition

This is the who, what, where and how of your business that makes you special and unique.

  • Purpose for being in this business, as seen from the customer’s perspective.

This is the “WHY” of your business. What fundamental need are you filling for your customer?

(Note: This is a critical piece of your plan and may take awhile for you to make it clear.)

  • Long and short term goals, and
  • Strategies necessary to execute in order to reach your goals.
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Planning Navigation

A word about how this workbook application is designed:

  • Each section of the Workbook contains a series of questions with space for your answers. As you complete each section you simply save your work, and you can print or save it as a PDF at the end.
  • You can return and change the content at any time by clicking on any section of the progress menu on the right. Each time you update the content, Plan Genie marks your plan with the date updated.
  • Each Step can be completed independently of the others. Depending on the size and complexity of your business, you may choose to do some of the workbook sections off line and add them to your business plan at the end.
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5 pieces of useful information contained in your business plan summary

Your Business Plan Summary is the foundation document for building a
working business plan. This is a relatively easy document to prepare
and to modify over time. The Plan Summary allows you to effectively communicate the direction you foresee for the company and also explain the core elements that
help drive your success.

There are five essential pieces in your plan summary:

1) Your Unique Business Proposition – what makes your company
unique and different
2) The Purpose of your business, as seen from the customer’s
perspective?
3) Your Destination – Your longer term goals, your picture of success
3 years from now.
4) Your One Year Goals – Desired outcomes in the next 12 months?
5) Your Strategy – In broad terms, how you will achieve these
results?

You should be able to outline this information in a couple of pages.
Once a draft document is created you are ready to begin collaborating
with your team to refine your thinking and enlist their engagement
Each of these sections is described in more detail in the drop down
menu under this tab.

A completed version of this document can be shared with your
employees, your business partners, your bank or any other party who
has an interest your success.

The act of writing a business plan is a powerful catalyst to self discovery and clarity.

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