Profits Only? Business Purpose-for-others (telos) and need for a third indicator of Success.

Many companies today focus on profits as if that is the key indicator of the corporation's success. Profits are important--it shows that the company is a viable company, the leadership is competent, the business is stable and sustainable, and so forth. This is necessary to attract capital to gain more investors and for further and future growth of the company. But profits alone do not demonstrate the complete picture when we're talking about the "health" of the company today and for the future.  

A secondary indicator these days is around social impact and environmental responsibility of the business. Investors want to know, for example, the footprint and impact of the company on the environment and society as a whole.  Chris Houston in his Ebook "For Goodness' Sake: Business for telos" discusses the importance of the purpose of the business.   Houston clarifies that "society is not asking for the business case for purpose.  What society is in fact demanding to see is the purpose case for business." (39)  Houston argues that "we need businesses that relentlessly deliver on a telos to serve others." (43) Telos being: 

A Greek word meaning "intended end." Applied by Aristotle to humans, telos implies a life of virtue, lived for the good of others. Telos has an inherent benevolence and a predisposition towards the common good. It is most precisely defined as a purpose-for-others. Every telos is a purpose, but only the rare purpose is a telos. (44)

For the business to formulate and live out its telos "involves the reformulation or clarification of the very identity of the organization and its primary reason to exist." (45) Customers want to know that you care about society and them as a customer. Yes, positive social impact is indeed important and serving others (its purpose-for-others) is of utmost importance.  It's important that everyone in the company understands and owns the purpose (telos) of the business and brand.  

I want to propose a third indicator of importance that can better the long-term success of a company that demonstrates the true "health" of the business and it relates to its people.  Houston does touch on it, but I want to call it out more explicitly.

Over the past years, employee engagement sits around 30% engaged, with the remaining 70% disengaged or actively sabotaging the company (20%?). That's 3 out of 10 employees that are actually engaged in their work.  (Cf. Gallup)

A company can be making money and even have a compelling purpose; however, if a company's employees are not engaged in their work--is it truly a viable company?  My challenge to today's business leaders is to publicly publish your quarterly/annual earnings with your employee engagement survey results. Yes, show your profits and let the world see how engaged your employees are.  I have a feeling that doing so probably scares leadership more than how much money they not making.  I believe transparency and openness will build greater trust with your employees, customers, as well as investors--real investors.   It demonstrates publicly what you value as a leader, how you are making a difference in the lives of the people that work in your company, how you are investing and caring for your employees, and what you're doing to make your company the best place to work. More, it shows that you can be trusted, you are accountable as a leader inside and outside the company, you are willing to listen, and you're not afraid to admit failure. Measuring and disclosing the company's employee engagement helps leaders understand whether employees are in fact aligned and living out the business purpose-telos, be transparent with the challenges, and work towards creating a plan for how to resolve those challenges.  Furthermore, doing so will demonstrate character, vulnerability and humility--again, trust and whether you can be trusted as a brand and business will be a key competitive differentiator in today and future markets.  

When businesses focus solely on profits (and sadly, many companies still do), a company will unfortunately rot from the inside.  A company that focuses solely on profits will become irrelevant and also loose the customer's interest. To regain momentum towards a more healthy business will be a insurmountable task at that point.  I hope leaders have the courage to be different-different where both profits, purpose and people are top priorities and focus.   Essentially, investors and customers want to know about your product as well as its profits, its telos, and the people behind the brand.  When you focus on these three factors, profits will come and continue come--I believe it. More importantly, employees will be more engaged (and with more joy) and passionate with what they do because you genuinely care about them as persons--they will champion the company and work to delight customers. Moreover, when profits, purpose and people are valued and aligned, people in and outside the company will want to invest in your company. 


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But Isn't Having Ambition wrong?

Being Christian for the longest time meant being nice, submissive, passive, non-confrontational, and generally about being a good person; well, yes and no.  The church has a lot to say about piety and spending time praying, reading scripture, and doing work in the church (meaning the four walls of the building)--these are good practices; that said, what does God have to say about the day to day work that we spend years doing in the workplace? I assure you, there is a lot that God has to say and is really the purpose of this blog.  When it comes to ambition, it's often given a negative connotation as if desiring success is un-Christian, and unholy.  If success becomes an end itself, surely that needs correction; however, if we are the sons and daughters of God, ambassadors of the Kingdom, priesthood of believers, made in God's image, our identity in Christ must give us the confidence to do well, to work hard, and to even to do well financially; these things need not be something we need to be afraid of or shy of.  Again, I need to re-emphasize that i'm advocating for some sort of prosperity gospel.   Neither am I advocating that the doing of works saves us in the end. 

Ken Costa in his book God at Work: Live Each Day with Purpose  has this amazing quote on ambition and I commend to you.

"If our ambition is aligned with what God has called us to do, then we are right to ask for his blessing on it so that we can make a difference in the world and bring him glory." (38)

It is also worth checking out the God at work website https://www.godatwork.org.uk/ for more articles and inspiring videos.

Don't be afraid to ask God what our hearts are telling us. Be specific even with our prayers. Write it down in your journal and pray about it daily. God can say No--But what if God says YES and decides to bless you so that we thrive in that work. How different would our lives be?

Each day we should work with the confidence that God is with us, in us and works through us. We cannot work without Him--we participate with Him, and we work together as the Body of Christ. Each day we should also seek God's heart in all matters, and do our best to bring glory to Him in the work that we do. It is important to understand our passions and our motivations and seek counsel from others if necessary to make sure it is aligned with God's heart. Have faith to do it and living out our calling. And we empowered by the Holy spirit to do so--prompting us, guiding us, leading us, encouraging us. It is not enough to simply know this, but deeply and believe that you can achieve much greater things than Jesus himself. Jesus did say it himself:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will [he/she] do, because I am going to the Father." John 14: 12.