Good business is simply about people. Really. Part 1

In the mad rush for really big data—the more of it, the better—we may risk losing sight of the most valuable part of business--people. I love data as much as the next person, and use it whenever I can. But a set of data points does not a real person make. I don’t love the idea of being visualized as a set of data points on someone’s dashboard. It’s a safe bet that you don’t, either.  

Business doesn’t get any more fundamental than good relationships between real people. Business owner to employee. Employee to customer. Business owner to partner or vendor. Employee to community. When a company prioritizes having positive impact on people, either directly or indirectly by creating impact on communities, the economy or the planet, good things happen. 

In 2015, for example, Virgin CEO Richard Branson launched The B Team, an independent initiative to focus “… on how we can help people reach their highest potential and purpose – which will naturally have a positive impact on the bottom line.” This is not a fringe project-- member companies include Global 500 companies such as Tata Group, Unilever, DOW Chemical and more.

Read The B Team's First Progress Report

There is in, fact, a great deal of data to support the idea that the Golden Rule—that fundamental rule of playground politics that dictates treating others as you would have them treat you—makes even more sense in business. Ernst & Young cites these examples:

• Purpose-led companies outperformed the S&P 500 by 10 times between 1996 and 2014 (Raj Sisodia, Firms of Endearment and Havas, Meaningful Brands Index, 2013)
• 75% of companies with a clear sense of purpose are the new leaders in customer retention, with 75% retention rate (Edelman, The good purpose study, 2013)
• Purpose-led companies have employee engagement levels that are 1.4 times higher, and those employees are three times more likely to stay than employees whose companies are not purpose-driven (The Energy Project, What Is Your Quality of Life at Work, 2013)

Despite these compelling numbers, I am frequently met with a kind of amused skepticism when I talk about them. Purpose, I am told, is the concern of non-profits.  Perhaps, some concede, a few very large companies have embraced corporate social responsibility, because they have the resources to do so. Beyond that, however, there is the reality of real business.

But caring about people, communities and the planet isn’t just limited to companies that proudly wave the purpose flag.  Does purpose in fact have a purpose in business? Yes, in fact, it does. As I  share in Part 2 of this blog, some of the stalwarts of business, including Jack Welch,  have come to believe it does.