“PROFIT IS OXYGEN”: CASH VS. VISION IN SUSTAINABLE ORGANIZATIONS
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Cash or Vision? Cash AND Vision?
I am sitting in my boss’ living room, at a total loss. I’ve just finished graduate school and I am completely certain that the degree I invested in will lead me to a career I can’t commit to. “What next?” I keep asking myself, “If I take the corporate job, am I selling out?”
Finally, my boss looks at me (likely exhausted by my incessant, round-and-round repetitive deliberation) and says, “Look, sometimes you work for cash and sometimes you work for vision. The most important thing is to know which you’re doing when, and that you can always do the other when the time is right.”
I have started to believe that she might have been wrong. It might be possible to work for both – cash AND vision – simultaneously.
PO2
“Profit is oxygen,” the COO/CFO of a 7 million dollar professional services firm says to me.
“Huh?” I say to him, ever eloquently in return.
Borrowing a metaphor from Bright Horizons Family Solutions where he used to work, he continues:
We walk around the world all day, every day, breathing. We breathe oxygen, but we never think about it, unless we’re having trouble getting enough. The same should be true for profit in an organization. Fulfilling our values and completing our mission will generate more of it (exercising in a way), but sitting around just trying to breathe doesn’t get us very far in life.
Companies need to work/plan/ strategize for purpose–Where is the organization going and what is it trying to accomplish? How it will make a difference for its customers, in the market, in the world?
You see, profit ONLY enables the organization to progress. It is not the organization’s entire reason for being. Or at least it shouldn’t be if the goal is a sustainable, growing business.
PRESENT to Purpose: Profit as Oxygen (PO2) as a Strategic Planning Framework
A PO2 organization in strategic planning mode starts by asking itself questions about what it really wants to be and why it exists, not questions about time, people and money. Tactically, a PO2org runs an inclusive planning process. Via a series of cross functional focus groups the organization becomes “Present” to (centered by and aware of) its vision. A shared platform of understanding (who are we as a company, what do we stand for, and how do we deliver that?) motivates and inspires action (which at the end of the day is the purpose of a strategic plan).
REACHING OUT: A PO2 Process for Tactical and Deliberate Communication
The mistake GM execs made was that they had their own elevators. They had no way to learn about what was happening in the organization and no method to share what they were thinking about as current or future challenges, tradeoffs and priorities. This ultimate separation led to a disenfranchised leadership team, unhappy employees and a sinking organization with NO profit. Constant, consistent, iterative, two-way communication (the ability to connect) – more than any leader would care to undertake on a regular basis or maybe even think necessary – is required and is the basis of a healthy (read: effective) organization. Messaging is like teaching a new skill to someone: repetition is the name of the game. And not rote repetition, but rather engaging dialogue, back and forth sharing, questioning and reflection drives strategy from conception through to execution and results.
EXPRESSION: Congruency Makes for Happy and Engaged Employees
As the data on workforce performance tells us, more productive employees are often so because they experience congruence between messages shared and actions taken in the organization. PO2 companies understand this and thus align their behaviors behind their beliefs. If we say we’re working for something other than JUST profit, i.e. also for purpose, we then can’t focus all of our attention on the bottom line. We have to focus on the bottom line AND what makes our company go – not just the oxygen, but the lungs that move the oxygen through. Not just the results, but the vision, values, behaviors, that deliver them.
SELF-KNOWING: A PO2Org Stands Behind Its Purpose AND Knows to Complete the Circle
Here’s where a PO2 strategy goes awry: If you don’t talk about money at all and ONLY talk about purpose you create a long term going-out-of-business strategy. The goal is “yes and” sequencing. Traditional planning processes start with dollars. A PO2 process starts with values and beliefs. It starts with the respiratory system and builds it strong. The oxygen is assumed. We still need to measure it and be sure there’s enough. It just isn’t the ONLY thing that is monitored or the most important thing. Assume profit in, don’t engineer it as your sole goal and free up your strategic mind to plan for how your organizations will have market-changing, consumer-impacting, buyer-inspiring, difference-making outcomes.
Tags: Gabriella Salvatore,leadership viewpoints,sustainable organizations,values-based leadership
