When Profits Fuel Purpose Magic Happens
If I’m having fun and making money, why should I care about the real purpose of my company?
I ask all my new hires “you’re super smart, you work harder than I do — there must be so many opportunities for you out there — why did you join us?”. The equally interesting part of the answer is typically why people considered leaving their previous job. These are three actual, recent quotes from my team members:
- “Our CEO [of a prominent unicorn tech company] stood in front of everyone and said ‘our purpose is growth at any cost’. I just couldn’t see being part of that anymore.”
- “I was sick to my stomach going from one meeting to another trying to figure out how to sell more opioids to people who didn’t even need them.” (used to work for a top pharma co)
- “Our purpose was making rich people even richer. It wasn’t very inspiring.” (used to work for a top investment bank)
Unsurprisingly, most people care about the “why”, the real purpose behind a company they work for. It’s obvious that if an organization’s purpose borderlines criminal, it’s unlikely that the most talented and thoughtful people will dedicate their careers to its cause.
But most companies are somewhere in between: some try to engineer more meaning and purpose by setting aside some percentage of profits to be given to charities. In other words, “let’s make money, so we can give some of it away for truly meaningful causes”. And others wonder whether a generation of talent is actually wasting their time optimizing ad click-through rates for living rather than doing something more impactful.
“Why?” and “What’s the purpose?” that resonates on a personal level matters to me, and I believe to most of us. I’ve asked this question myself many times. Not being able to answer the question well, was a key reason I decided to move on from the company I co-founded more than a decade ago and very much enjoyed building.
NYTimes columnist David Brooks recently argued that decision-making in life is not a calculated and rational chess game: “…but when it comes to the really major things we mostly follow our noses. What seems interesting, beautiful, curious and addicting?”
I agree. And “Our purpose is growth at any cost”, is likely not “interesting, beautiful, curious and addicting” to most people, or at least to the person, who wanted to leave the unicorn company she was working for.
My career advise to self (and to founders contemplating starting a company) is to always ask two questions:
- Do I understand the true purpose of the company I’m starting / joining?
- Does that purpose resonate at some deeper level than just making a buck or only provide momentary excitement?
If the answer is an obvious Yes, magic can happen. I call this alignment Profits Fuel Purpose and I believe it’s a perfect foundation for a long-term success as a for-profit company .
That’s how we set up our purpose and business model at Virta Health from day one.
