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Novartis Oncology: We improve and extend the lives of people living with cancer.
DynCorp International: We serve today for a safe tomorrow.
REI: We inspire, educate and outfit for a lifetime of outdoor adventure and stewardship.

“All four of my grandparents were diagnosed with cancer, and it’s not unusual to find employees here whose relatives or friends have the disease,” says David Epstein, who was CEO of Novartis Oncology before being promoted to Head of Novartis Pharmaceuticals. “Then we come to a company like Novartis and we discover and develop a drug like GLEEVEC^®, which turns chronic myeloid leukemia from being a virtual death sentence into a condition where patients are likely to live 20-plus years. Over a million patients are on our cancer therapies. Many of them would not be alive today if it wasn’t for what we do. That really keeps our people going in a positive way.”

The most potent forms of higher purpose are intrinsic.
People inherently care about what the company does.

You don’t dream up your higher purpose. It is already there, waiting be uncovered beneath all the words, goals, strategies and activity of everyday business. “We serve today for a safe tomorrow is in our DNA,” says Bill Ballhaus, Vice Chairman of DynCorp International. “Many of our employees are ex-military. Our people care about our country. They stand shoulder to shoulder with the war fighter in Iraq and Afghanistan, and help fight the war on drugs in South America. Many DI employees endure austere living conditions and work long days in hostile environments. They accept the risks and hardships because they are motivated to make a difference in the world.”

“Our company’s founders, Lloyd and Mary Anderson, were mountaineers who needed access to high-quality climbing gear,” notes Sally Jewell, CEO of REI. “In 1938, Lloyd and Mary got a group of 23 buddies together and formed a buying cooperative. That’s how REI got started. We take our relationship to the planet very seriously, and we encourage our people to volunteer. We clean up beaches and rivers, build trails, and remove invasive species from parks.”

The Nature of Higher Purpose

Your company’s higher purpose goes beyond “delighting the customer” and is fundamentally distinct from typical company mission or values statements, which tend to talk about the business itself, its people, and its products. Nor can higher purpose be equated with “Corporate Responsibility.” CRO Magazine—a publication for Corporate Responsibility Officers—annually presents a list of “The 100 Best Corporate Citizens.” Recent honorees include 3M, General Mills, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Merck. An impressive lot. Further, the review CRO conducted to identify these exemplary corporate citizens spans practices across an array of thoughtfully weighted categories: Environment, Climate Change, Human Rights, Employee Relations, Philanthropy, Financial, and Governance.¹ Yet even this sweeping view of Corporate Responsibility cannot be equated with higher purpose. Rather, CR is (or likely should be) a critical means to fulfilling your higher purpose which, stated simply, is the difference your company makes in the world. Protecting the environment, valuing diversity, and operating ethically may all be part of how you make a difference, but they are not the difference itself.

Higher purpose is the difference
your company makes in the world.

The most powerful forms of higher purpose address an element of the human condition with which everyone can identify. “Cancer is one of the most feared words in the English language,” says Epstein of Novartis. “There are over 200 cancers, and for many, the treatment options are still quite poor. We’re all about changing that.”

Effective statements of higher purpose typically begin with the word “We” and are inclusive not just of all your employees, but also of your customers and of the larger communities to which your company belongs. “Our competition is television, video games, and overscheduled people,” says Jewell. “We don’t want our stores competing with the outdoor store down the street. We want our stores collaborating with them to get people volunteering in the woods and to engage children in outdoor recreation. So when the outdoor store down the street wins, REI wins, and most importantly, the community wins.”

The Power of Higher Purpose

Your higher purpose does not conflict with the success of your business. In fact, higher purpose is a powerful engine of profitable growth, and thus is a business imperative every bit as much as it is a moral imperative. “In our business we must link science and commercialization. We live in both worlds,” says Epstein. “We need capital to make the investments we want… to fund research, do acquisitions and frankly, to keep our jobs. The people who supply that capital have an expectation that we are going to at least meet, if not beat, the implied rates of sales and profit growth that are built into the share price. We fully accept and embrace that expectation.” Novartis Oncology sustained double digit growth through the economic downturn, providing the lion’s share of net operating income for the Swiss-based pharmaceutical giant, while leaping ahead of competitors like Bayer and Pfizer with its development of cancer-fighting drugs.

Epstein credits higher purpose for honing Novartis Oncology’s competitive edge. “Not long ago, a competitor was coming out with a new product, and they were basically suggesting that doctors switch a large percentage of patients from one of our drugs to their new drug,” Epstein recalls. “We had some questions about whether they were doing the right thing, because their data at that point in time wasn’t very well established and it was unclear just what would happen to these patients if they were switched. We firmly believed we had a better answer. So to counter that competitive challenge, we brought it all back to doing what is right for the patients. We could honestly say to our people: ‘You have earned this spot with the physicians and with patients, through all of the good you have delivered in the past. Don’t give up even one inch of what is rightfully yours.’ That is how Novartis Oncology will always respond when we sense that someone could be working against our higher purpose.”

DynCorp International has grown faster than any of its industry peers in recent years. Ballhaus says higher purpose has been a fundamental driver of growth and a key to sustaining cohesion as the company has added thousands of new employees. “We’ve worked hard to keep everyone focused on our higher purpose, our strategic direction, and on doing the right thing always, as defined by our core values,” he says.

If you didn’t have an idealistic bone in your body,
you would still want your company to live a higher purpose.

Higher purpose cultivates intrinsic trust and unshakable loyalty from customers dedicated to the same cause. Pursuing its higher purpose, REI has grown into America’s largest consumer cooperative, serving a community of more than 3.8 million members bound together by a love of the outdoors. Under Jewell’s watch, REI generated nearly $1.5 billion in sales in 2009.

Living Your Higher Purpose

Noted researcher and author Christine Arena contends that the litmus test for determining whether your higher purpose is authentic is that your company could neither function nor survive without it. “The concept of a higher purpose is so integral to the fabric of the organization,” Arena writes, “that if you removed that thread, the company would start to unravel.”² Right now, you might find it difficult to discern your company’s higher purpose. However, by taking these crucial steps with an open mind, you can lead your people in pursuit of a purpose that transcends business:

Open the topic. Invite the people of your company to share their perspectives on higher purpose. Start with the very basics… What do we contribute? Why are we here? Ask everyone to reflect on the deeper meaning of their own experiences and to stretch their thinking about the true meaning of their work. Model using the language of intent, vocation, and higher calling.

Continuously communicate your higher purpose. As your higher purpose emerges from the dialogue, be its most vocal champion. Never let your higher purpose become static or fade into the background. Keep it fresh, dynamic. Reference your higher purpose to guide and explain your key decisions and directives as your company pursues its goals and adapts to new challenges.

At REI, every executive meets regularly with employees in “Let’s Talk” sessions about what’s happening and where the company is going. This constant dialogue inside the company is reflected in how the company deals with customers and engages the community in sharing the outdoors.

During his tenure as CEO of DynCorp International, Ballhaus stayed connected with employees worldwide via a thoughtfully crafted electronic communication called Direct from Bill Ballhaus. “We’ve leveraged modern communications technology to speak directly to DI employees working across 30 countries,” Ballhaus says. Each Ballhaus communication was keyed to the DI Strategic Framework, which ties the company’s higher purpose to its overarching business objective, key strategies and core values. “My messages were unfiltered and personal,” Ballhaus notes. “I relayed my own experiences—things I saw and heard in my travels—to bring our higher purpose and the other elements of the DI Strategic Framework to life.” Direct from Bill Ballhaus also offered links to relevant, research-based leadership development and performance tools as well as a “Direct to Bill” communication link any employee could use to send Ballhaus questions, insights, and suggestions. “I paid close attention to the messages our people sent back to me, ” Ballhaus says, “and I often shared their thoughts in my subsequent communications.”

Tangibly demonstrate that your higher purpose is real. In 2009, REI donated $3.7 million to non-profit organizations that work to conserve outdoor spaces and increase opportunities to get outside, especially for young people. Novartis Oncology provides free therapies to thousands of patients in need. “About 20 percent of the patients with chronic myeloid leukemia that are alive today are because they are getting free medicine from Novartis,” notes Epstein. “That makes people really feel good about working here, and it fuels our desire to go above and beyond to develop the next therapy.”

Recognize and applaud employees who are emblematic of your higher purpose. Ballhaus provided a particularly poignant example when, in an issue of Direct from Bill Ballhaus, he wrote: “I recently had the privilege of awarding the DynCorp International corporate Medal of Valor to Jose Guillen. In September 2008, a Police Training Team convoy in Afghanistan was struck by an Improvised Explosive Device. The convoy then came under small arms fire. Jose used his own body to shield a wounded DI colleague. While Jose’s actions were extraordinary, they point to something that can be found in every person who works at DynCorp International—the best of ourselves.”

When you put your finger on the calling that brings out “the best of ourselves” in your company, you will have found your higher purpose.

Notes
¹ The CRO website, see www.thecro.com/100best09
² Arena, Christine. The High-Purpose Company: The Truly Responsible (and Highly Profitable) Firms That Are Changing Business Now. HarperCollins. 2007. p. 24

Bob Rosen, founder and CEO of Healthy Companies International, is a psychologist, author, researcher, and CEO adviser. His CEO research began with a grant from the MacArthur Foundation. Over the past two decades, Rosen has interviewed and/or advised more than 250 CEOs in 35 countries, including the top leaders at Motorola, Johnson & Johnson, Singapore Airlines, Toyota, PepsiCo, Ford, Heinz, Chevron and many others. He is the author of The Healthy Company (1991), Just Enough Anxiety (2008), and co-author of The Catalyst (2009).