The Insightful Leader
Sent to subscribers on October 16, 2024
What is your company’s purpose?
According to Anne Chow, the former CEO of AT&T Business, you’ll need to go beyond what your company does and zero in on why it does it when defining your company’s purpose. You’ll also want to understand how your company’s way of doing things makes it unique and better than its competitors. This week: more on how to develop a compelling purpose statement.
Plus, what makes it so hard for us to find “the one?”
What if we didn’t exist?
Companies able to articulate a strong sense of purpose are at an advantage, according to Chow, a senior fellow and adjunct professor of executive education. But what if your organization doesn’t try to cure cancer or fight climate change? What if your company, you know, makes chairs, or cuts hair, or builds websites?
“No matter the size of your team or the work you’re doing, you’re on a mission to reach a destination, realize your vision, and achieve your desired outcomes. If you’re still struggling to express what you do differently, ask yourself, What if we didn’t exist? Who would care? And why?” writes Chow in her best-selling book, Lead Bigger.
For anyone struggling to craft the perfect purpose statement, or just interested in a few unexpected success stories (a trucking company with a “beating heart”!), you can read an excerpt from Lead Bigger in Kellogg Insight.
Finding “the one”
Finding the right match for you—whether it’s a romantic partner, a job, or an educational program—is no easy task. And at least part of the difficulty comes from not always having the information we need. For instance, when applying to a school or job, you might benefit from knowing how you stack up against other applicants, while these other parties would benefit from understanding your interest in them, as well as the kind of offers you’re likely to get from their competitors.
In other words, finding the best match is often contingent on information other parties choose to withhold. New research by Kellogg’s Benjamin Friedrich, an associate professor of strategy, and his colleagues turns to data from Danish medical-school applicants to illuminate the importance of this hidden information. The researchers find that greater transparency has the potential to improve the matching process for everyone … even if this transparency can be difficult to implement in practice.
You can read more about this research in Kellogg Insight.
“Where are today’s Bell Labs? One must wonder what other company would give 30 engineers leave of absence for a year to pursue this kind of activity.”
— Julio Ottino, in a letter to Financial Times, on a historical collaboration between artists and scientists that ultimately resulted in many innovative firsts.
Jessica Love, editor in chief
Kellogg Insight