The employment market is currently undergoing one of its most profound transformations. In the past, work was the answer to a quest for comfort and happiness as workers were seeking primarily a salary and a career path. Today, work is motivated increasingly more by a quest for meaning. A new generation of workers is looking for jobs that best align to their personal values and evoke a sense of belonging to a movement.
Pepsi’s innovative CEO Indira Nooyi recently confided to Fast Company magazine that her company’s mission was “Performance with purpose”. When she was further questioned about this mission, many assumed that this was her way to add an element of social responsibility to the company. The CEO countered that it wasn’t “to examine the way Pepsi spends money, but rather to examine how Pepsi makes its money”.
In other words, it wasn’t a question of granting more or less money to a particular philanthropic cause, but rather to fundamentally produce a healthier beverage in a more environmentally friendly package. The CEO believes that over the long-term, this strategy will be successful for its investors, its customers and its employees alike. More specifically, she believes that her employees will be more motivated to work for a company that puts its values at the heart of its products and its operations.
She is not alone. Thousands of companies, both small and large, are turning more and more to strategies anchored in the values and beliefs of the entrepreneurs in charge.
A search for something greater
In recent years, the C2 MTL conference helped us discover several business minds who espouse values-based entrepreneurship above all, like Blake Mycoskie from Toms Shoes, John Mackey from Whole Foods, Mohammed Yunnus from Grameen Bank, and Canadian Zita Cobb from Fogo Island Inn. Quebec is also not devoid of entrepreneurs with strong values. I often cite, as examples, Christine Renaud from E-180, Fabrice Vil from Pour 3 Points, and Cai Rintoul from Provender.
All of these entrepreneurs have one thing in common — the search for something greater than oneself. Performance is great, but what lies beyond? They all share an optimistic, idealistic vision of the future while remaining practical; measuring their progress in terms of its impact on society. They are all also true ambassadors for their causes. Their corporate missions are often strongly aligned with their life missions.
Usually, an entrepreneur’s life somewhat forces this choice. The entrepreneurial journey isn’t always easy or lucrative, especially in the beginning, and is often strewn with pitfalls. You must really believe in your project to be successful! An American risk capital investor recently stated that when it came time to consider a new investment portfolio, his main question for the entrepreneur was: “Why are you willing to devote 5 or 10 years of your life to this project?” Often, to succeed, you have to be ready to spend many years, and to believe in your project to such an extent that you’re not able to imagine the company without it. To have this conviction, generally the project in question needs to be a reflection of your personal values.
Putting it in practice
So how do you practice values-based entrepreneurship?
- Unearth your purpose: The first step of the journey is to define as clearly as possible your purpose. For an individual, you need to ask yourself what are your core values. For an organization, a company or an initiative, ask yourself why it exists. If it is a start-up project, why should it exist? How will it benefit society?
- Communicate and mobilize: Next, you must genuinely communicate this purpose to the members of the organization. Typically, this is the role of the entrepreneur or leader. The goal is to inspire and to create a kind of adherence to the movement and its underlying values, rather than simply convincing.
- Create the right environment: Finally, you need to create an environment favourable to achieving the daily mission. For a company, everything should be tied to the organization’s core purpose, including the product, human resources, and financing.
The effort is always worth it. Values-based entrepreneurship is also a business strategy that can generate a huge competitive advantage. Among these benefits are:
- Product differentiation: A product that is the reflection of values has a tendency to stand out and to be perceived very differently in the market, which is increasingly more important with the mountain of choices available today. Toms shoes has practically created a new category of footwear in the eyes of consumers. In the same vein, Montreal-based TSHU, which produces locally made tissues and that plants a tree for every tissue sold, sits naturally apart from similar products in the market.
- Motivate and retain employees: With a highly mobile workforce, employees can move from one job to another more quickly than ever. Identifying with a company’s values to a high degree will increase their commitment and their loyalty.
- Financial performance: When companies genuinely care about creating a product aligned with its customers’ and employees’ values, the financial returns often follow. For example, the Whole Foods organic grocery store chain is one of the most profitable and most appreciated by its employees in the US. This is also reflected in increased investor loyalty.
Operating with a sense of values and social responsibility is a good practice that many companies have adopted for many years now. Putting its values into the heart of its products and operations is a new management trend that will change a good many things in the years to come.
Earlier this month, the Je Vois MTL event invited all Montrealers to take on projects that would mesh with a personal cause or value. This is a great start. The more that our initiatives reflect our values, the better our society will stick together.
Eventually, with enough entrepreneurs who conduct business following their values, we will reduce the gap between the ideal society we would all like to bequeath to the next generation and the one in which we currently live.
[Note: This article was originally published in Les Affaires.]
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