When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Purposeful
Author Jackie DrydenCategories Culture/Employee Engagement, Savage Thinking
It all started with a powerful idea – the notion that doing business purely based on time or price is not the best way to build brand loyalty. The team at Savage realized that when companies value themselves based solely on what they do – selling things or hours – they are leaving out the most powerful part of the equation: purpose.
The current preoccupation with trying to “just do more” causes problems with employee recruiting and retention, client acquisition and retention, trust and business differentiation - and Savage was no different. We realized something needed to change, and we became our own first guinea pigs for Savage Thinking®, our philosophy for building meaningful, lasting companies on purpose.
We began to tackle the enormous challenge of discovering, communicating and living our purpose.
Our discovery process yielded a bold purpose statement: We believe that by helping companies deliver on their purpose, we are revolutionizing Corporate America. And then we began reshaping our business to bring our purpose to life.
At first, there was some confusion and pushback. Naturally, after 40 years of business, we had many entrenched habits and legacy systems that challenged our newly articulated purpose statement. But we have persevered - just as we now encourage our Savage Thinking clients to do when the going gets tough.
Building internal awareness and aligning our culture around purpose is a long-term process with no definitive finish line. It takes time, patience and tenacity. But ultimately it’s worth it.
Don’t just take our word for it! Studies have shown that purpose explains up to 8% of the variation in financial performance of companies within the same industry, and that companies devoted to a larger purpose than just maximizing profits outperformed S&P 500 firms by a ration of 9:1.
Hear more of Savage’s purpose story in my next blog: How Purpose Changed Our Business for the Better.
With a passion for helping others discover “why” and “what for,” Jackie Dryden leads companies to uncover and align with their purpose. But don’t be fooled. Her purpose development strategy packs a punch and will shake the core of your foundation. Serving as the Chief Purpose Architect at Savage, Jackie thrives on creating design and communications strategy to support corporate purpose. She is co-author of "Get Your Head Out of Your Bottom Line and Build Your Brand on Purpose" available at https://savagethinking.com.
