8.1 Expressing organisational purpose Flashcards
How does the purpose of John Lewis differ from that of Unilever?
John Lewis has a partner-centric focus, where the happiness of all its employees is the main driver, while Unilever has a long-term sustainably profit purpose for the benefit of its stakeholders.
As a company secretary and governance professional, it is fundamental to understand the rationale for why an organisation exists - this is its o___________ p_________.
Organisational purpose
The starting point is to consider not w___ we are doing within the organisation, but w__ we are doing it and then align this understanding with h__ we do it.
what
why
how
“Every organisation needs a purpose - that is why an organisation is formed in the first place
and why it continues to exist… Purpose is formed by people, driven by people and delivered
by people, and successful fulfilment of purpose is celebrated by people…. The purpose of any
organisation needs to be understood at the outset of the strategic thinking and development
process… The purpose must be the fundamental reason why the organisation exists.
The question to be asked is not “what do you do’ but……………………………”. Complete
the sentence.
why do you do it
use the invested funds of shareholders and other creditors to generate profits on those
investments. It is very money-centric and all other aims, objectives and goals will be
similarly money-centric. The problem with such a static perspective is that it fails to
consider either people or time”
“People will always skew and personalise the ___________”.
“A purpose for next week or next month will need to always have a number of “____” or
presumptions surrounding it”.
focus
“ifs”
Organisational purpose has to be segregated and viewed from three different time
dimensions.
What are they?
Past
Present
Future
The tactical plan consists of three core functions and we do all three without evening thinking about it.:
1) We implement tasks to achieve the required operational results.
2) We monitor the results
3) We a_____
adjust
Who said: “Vision is a challenging and imaginative picture of the future role and objectives of
the organisation, significantly going beyond its current environment and competitive position”?
Lynch (2015)
Mission takes the organisational purpose from the brain to the h_____.
heart
Vision and mission could be described as being “cerebral”… The next step is the identification
of the strategic objectives that will hold our strategic plan together. The strategic objectives will
take the vision and mission and turn them into a “series of ______________ statements and
outcomes.”
organisational
