By Natasha Bye as part of the Growing Pains series
When many of us first started out, someone told us we needed a Mission, Vision, and Purpose statement. So, like good little business leaders, we locked ourselves in a room with the team, a whiteboard, and a thesaurus.
Hours later, we emerged triumphantly with something like:
“Our vision is to synergistically revolutionise holistic paradigms while empowering sustainable excellence in a dynamic ecosystem.”
Sounds impressive, right? Trouble is, nobody — not even the person who wrote it — has a clue what it actually means.
And after proudly laminating it, we stuck it on the wall, nodded at it occasionally, and then got on with the real work of growing the business.
Sound familiar?
Why We Get Purpose Wrong
The truth is, many of us treat purpose as a box to tick. Something fluffy. Some “wishy-washy marketing” that sounds good in a pitch deck but has about as much practical use as shoes for a snake.
But here’s the thing: when it’s done right, your purpose isn’t wallpaper. It’s a strategic tool. It should shape growth, drive decisions, and stop those painful boardroom debates where everyone’s pulling in different directions.
First, Let’s Clear Up the Confusion
We’ve all sat in those meetings where half the agenda is spent arguing about whether this line is the mission or the vision. So, let’s strip it back:
- Vision → The future you want to see. It’s what success looks like. If your team can’t picture it, it’s not a vision.
- Mission → What you actually do. Think Mission: Impossible: “Your mission, should you choose to accept it…” Practical, clear, focused on what you deliver.
- Purpose → Your why. And no, it’s not about deep existential soul-searching. It’s about why the world needs your business, and how that shapes the choices you make as you grow.
Why Purpose Matters
A clear purpose stops us from making daft decisions. It points us in the right direction when we’re faced with opportunities we didn’t predict. It tells us what work to say yes to – and just as importantly, what to say no to.
Without it, people will fill in the blanks themselves – and that’s when teams clash.
Example: say we’re a food company.
- Half of us think the purpose is improving health and wellbeing.
- The other half think it’s all about pleasure and indulgence.
Both fine ideas. But left unspoken, you’ll get chaos: one half pitching kale smoothies, the other pushing triple-chocolate fudge cake. That’s not strategy – that’s a bake-off.
Or take a company making socks.
- If your purpose is protecting feet, you might grow into protective footwear, foot creams, even orthopaedics.
- If your purpose is fashion and self-expression, today it’s socks, tomorrow t-shirts, then full-blown catwalk collections.
Same product today. Completely different future tomorrow.
The Point
Purpose isn’t a vanity exercise. It isn’t something you laminate and forget about. It’s a compass. A growth tool. A decision filter.
Get it right, and it shapes your innovation, your strategy, and your culture. Get it wrong (or let it gather dust), and you end up with a bunch of fancy words that nobody remembers – except maybe the placement student who typed it up.
So, what’s the purpose of a purpose? It’s not to sound impressive. It’s to help us grow – in the right direction.
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