It's time to rethink 'corporate purpose'

"The hype train on corporate purpose keeps steaming down the tracks. I have written about it before and tried to be positive. But I feel the need to be more constructively critical. If everyone has been convinced that they need to have a corporate purpose, let's at least have it be a useful one. I try to contribute to that goal in this Playing to Win/Practitioner Insights (PTW/PI) piece. And as always, you can find all the previous PTW/PI here."

"It reminds me of the logical problem in my least favorite business book ever- Execution, which argues that execution is more important than strategy and then proceeds to include strategy as a subcomponent of its definition of execution. In this (il-)logical construction, if there is anything useful at all about execution outside of strategy, it will be more important than strategy by tautology."

"In similar fashion, if you think corporate purpose-which is clearly one of your strategic choices-matters more than strategy, you have no idea what strategy is. The general view being put forward in the purpose arena is that having a societally lofty corporate purpose is the most important thing a company can do-and largely guarantees success or at least is strongly correlated with success. I don't buy it. I don't see it as a helpful view."

Corporate purpose has become a pervasive management trend, with many books and outlets promoting societally lofty purposes as central to success. Elevating purpose above strategy is logically flawed because purpose is itself a strategic choice and cannot replace strategy. Some arguments conflate related concepts, creating tautologies that overstate the unique value of purpose. The belief that a lofty corporate purpose largely guarantees or strongly correlates with success is questionable. More constructive approaches emphasize integrating purpose with strategy and execution so that purpose informs choices without becoming a substitute for coherent strategic thinking. Integration, not elevation, should guide purpose adoption.

Read at Fast Company