ClearPurpose

From the back cover: “Business by the Book is a step-by-step presentation of how businesses should be run according to the Creator of all management rules: God.” 

This  is a classic book for Christians in business. It deals with many aspects of managing a business from a very practical and biblical perspective. Although some of the examples in the book (and there are plenty) are somewhat dated, the concepts and principles are timeless and precious.

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Chick-fil-A is an organization led by flawed humans in a fallen world, so we cannot expect it to operate in perfect alignment with Biblical principles, but it is helpful, at least to me, to have an example to study of a company that is at least trying.

Chick-fil-A’s purpose is: “To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us. To have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.”

According to the company’s website, “From the beginning, Truett based his business on Biblical principles that he believed were also good business principles, and since 1982, our Corporate Purpose has guided all that we do.”

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As a Christian in business, I look first to the Bible for the non-negotiable principles that should guide my business. At least a couple of times in the gospel narratives, Jesus identified a simple two-part framework for being obedient to God’s commands: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.

If you too are a Christian in business, I strongly encourage you to prayerfully consider how God’s revealed will should translate into non-negotiable principles for your business.

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The second of the six questions that I believe every business needs to answer is “What principles will the leaders never compromise?” Many businesses develop a list of Core Values to try to reflect what is important to them. Core Values can shape company culture and influence decision making at all levels of the organization. 

Rather than the generic term Core Values, I prefer the term Non-Negotiable Principles. What is needed is not a warm and fuzzy sense that the company has some desire to operate virtuously, but rather an unyielding commitment to principles that, when rightly understood, will help define what is unique about your business and will make many hard decisions easier.

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As COVID continues to impact how we live our lives and run our businesses, many businesses are in crisis mode. As I work with business leaders on the decisions that they face, sometimes the question comes up — given our urgent issues, does strategy even matter right now? In this episode of the ClearPurpose podcast we compare how two different companies, Sprint and T-Mobile, both in crisis in 2008, responded.

From 2006 to 2016, the wireless industry nearly doubled in size. One of those companies shrank by 30% and the other quadrupled its subscribers. What do you think made the difference?

Is your business in crisis mode? Are you saying “we don’t need a strategy — our strategy is survival?” Or are you discerning what your strategy is and using it to help make your hard decisions easier?

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The core message of Start With Why is incredibly powerful. Most organizations start with defining what business they are in. The best organizations start by defining why they are in business. The message makes for a great 20 minute TED talk.

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Yesterday, I introduced a framework of six questions that I believe every business needs to be able to coherently and consistently answer. “Why does this business exist” is the first on the list, and I believe the most important.

When you define your business by why you do what you do rather than by what you sell, everything else starts to fall into place. When team members understand the why, they naturally will make decisions aligned with the why, even in the face of significant ambiguity and uncertainty. When customers understand your why, those that select you will be loyal and will more highly value your products and services.

When you don’t understand your why, everything can quickly fall apart. Decisions become hard, take too long, and involve too many people. Customers are fickle, willing to switch for the smallest reason. Employees feel little attachment to their jobs.

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Whenever I sit down with a new or potential client for the first time, I typically start by asking them to “tell me about your business”. As they respond, I’ll often gently probe for more details. When I first started doing this, it was a somewhat intuitive process, but over the years I have formulated it down to six questions that I’m hoping to get answered:

1. Why does the business exist?
2. What principles will the leaders never compromise?
3. Whom do they serve?
4. Why do customers choose them?
5. How do they make money?
6. What do they need to do right now?

Today I want to briefly introduce these six questions and then, over the next week or so I want to dig more deeply into each of these areas.

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Introducing my latest eBook – VisuALS: A Startup Strategic Journey. 

My hope is that compiling the content together into one eBook will make it more useful as a resource to entrepreneurs beginning their startup journey. I also hope the book can be an encouragement to those in the ALS community to see how enterprising young people are compassionately embracing the needs of the ALS community.

I am donating all of my proceeds from sales of the book to the Carl Fund to help provide VisuALS systems to those needing help communicating with their loved ones.

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