Storyforge: Alignment Through Purpose
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Storyforge aims to help organizations achieve their goals by discovering and articulating a clear purpose that aligns all aspects of the business, thereby enhancing employee engagement and customer loyalty. The document discusses how successful brands leverage their purpose to create meaningful connections with stakeholders, ultimately driving growth while decreasing operational risks. It highlights various case studies of brands like Southwest Airlines and Dove that transformed their trajectories by aligning their business strategies with a meaningful purpose.
Storyforge: Alignment Through Purpose
- 2. 2 CONTENTS Founder/Principal Bios 3 Today’s Reality 4 The Solution 5 Unlocking Growth 7 Decreasing Risk 10 How Purpose is Found 15 The Benefits of Purpose 18 ABOUT STORYFORGE Over the last 20+ years, our founders have worked with and for Fortune-100 companies, non-profit organizations and startups. Storyforge clients range from pre-revenue businesses to multi-billion dollar international companies … the one thing they have in common is a desire to reach their goals while improving the lives of their co-workers, customers and communities. Storyforge exists to help organizations achieve their goals by discovering and articulating clarity of purpose and aligning all aspects of the business with it.
- 3. 3 Co-founder + Principal Haley is a brand and communications consultant with 20+ years experience working with for-profit companies, non- profit organizations and startups to elevate storytelling and build differentiated brand positions. Prior to founding Storyforge, Haley spent 16 years with L Brands (NYSE: LB), most recently as Vice President of Internal Communications directly supporting the company’s founder and chairman in strategic, leadership and internal communications, designing and implementing messages, communication strategies and engagement campaigns to reach 100,000 global employees. As head of the internal communications function for the enterprise, she was additionally responsible for all change communications including mergers, acquisitions, reorganizations and reductions in force. In her life before retail, she worked in the non-profit sector, supporting a DC-based liberal arts accreditation agency, producing special events and directing and stage managing theater in NYC. Co-founder + Principal Barry specializes in business building, brand strategy and marketing. Since 2003, he has launched three (and sold two) strategic consulting businesses and worked with more than 500 businesses from pre-revenue startups to publicly traded companies to help drive margin and identify differentiated brand positions. A qualified hotel manager in Ireland, Barry spent five years as part of the management teams of luxury hotels and cruise lines, circling the globe twice. He established Ireland’s first food and beverage control consultancy, and launched Barkeeper, an award-winning online subscription service for bar owners to manage more efficient and profitable businesses, expanding to the UK and the US, and adding a digital marketing agency in 2010. In 2012, Barry’s businesses were acquired by Buzztime, Inc. (NYSE: NTN) who hired Barry as Chief Marketing Officer to lead brand strategy, market development and help determine the strategic direction of the company in line with growth potential and market opportunity. HALEY BOEHNING BARRY CHANDLER LEADERSHIP
- 4. 4 There is a fundamental disconnect between the way we build and operate our businesses and what our customers, employees and stakeholders truly care about. As a result, most businesses spend money on advertising and marketing that doesn’t resonate and messages and initiatives that will never connect with customers and employees. Customers and employees have more choice than ever before and are very clear about what is important to them. 91% of consumers would switch brands to a different brand if it aligned more with their values, assuming price and quality were the same 54% of consumers today don’t trust large companies Consumers choose the brands that engage them on their passions and interests 42% more often than they do those that simply urge them to buy the product being advertised 63% of employees worldwide are not engaged. 24% are actively disengaged or CAVE dwellers (Categorically Against Virtually Everything) 81% of employees consider a company’s purpose and community involvement when choosing where to work TODAY’S REALITYA Disconnect
- 5. 5 THE SOLUTION Brands struggling with employee engagement, customer acquisition or same-store sales growth often treat these symptoms on their own, not realizing that they are often symptomatic of an organizational lack of alignment ... between leadership and employees, company and customers, shareholders and stakeholders. The world’s most successful brands have overcome this disconnect, generating higher profits, ensuring longevity and fostering demand and loyalty at the same time. They recognize the interdependencies of their organization, internally and externally. Rather than focusing solely on isolated challenges, high-performing brands recognize that the path to profit and engagement is built on alignment. Alignment emerges from clarity of purpose.
- 6. 6 Purpose is the authentic soul of an organization: its why. It is what informs what we do and how we do it. It helps us make decisions about where to go and what to invest in, and creates the alignment necessary for organizations to go from being good companies to great brands. When a brand’s purpose is aligned with the purpose of its stakeholders, it becomes the preferred choice even when not the cheapest or most convenient option. These brands appeal to their customers deepest needs and are rewarded accordingly. When a brand aligns itself with a purpose bigger than its products and services, these rewards can have a greater impact. The world’s most successful brands have realized that their financial success and longevity lies not in simply chasing earnings from quarter to quarter, but in aligning their pursuits and values with the “why” of their customers. THE SOLUTION
- 7. 7 HOW DOES PURPOSE UNLOCK GROWTH? Global brands like Southwest Airlines, Dove, Apple, Zappos and Chipotle have recognized that they are, and need to be, more than a technical or functional set of features to their customers and employees. Those that do are seeing the benefits...
- 8. 8 Southwest Airlines has been profitable for 44 of the last 45 years. No one can argue that they behave differently from their competitors. Think of the bold colors of their aircraft, the casual uniforms of their staff, the large heart on the underbelly of their planes, their exceptional customer service or the fact that they are now the only airline in the U.S. that does not charge for checked luggage. Sound like an airline? Nope. Southwest is not in the airline business, they are in the business of connecting people to what’s important in their lives. They just happen to do it through friendly, reliable, low-cost air travel. It’s this purpose that inspires their staff to go the extra mile. It’s this purpose that helped them decide not to charge for checked luggage and it’s this purpose that has made them the most loved, most flown and most profitable airline in the world. A poster recently seen hanging on the jetway wall leading to a Southwest aircraft showed a picture of the heart on the underbelly of a plane accompanied by a simple line: “Without the heart, it’s just a machine.” Try competing with that! HOW DOES PURPOSE UNLOCK GROWTH?
- 9. 9 A Unilever brand struggling for relevancy and results in the late 1990’s with $200 million in annual revenue rose to become a $4 billion brand today. How it did this had nothing to do with soap. In 2004 Dove undertook a study to explore empirically what beauty meant to women and why. They hoped the study would determine if it was possible to talk and think about female beauty in ways that were more authentic, satisfying and empowering. What they found was alarming: only 2% of women surveyed saw themselves as beautiful. Building on the insights gained from their study, Dove itself began to change. It began to see its purpose not as the product it sells, but as something bigger, and greater. Dove saw its purpose as changing the status quo and offering in its place a broader, healthier, more democratic view of beauty. It was this shift that replaced direct marketing efforts with educational initiatives, self- esteem workshops and online resources available to woman worldwide to allow them feel better about who they authentically are. In 2010 when Dove revisited their study, the findings showed that 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful. Can this 100% increase be credited to Dove? Perhaps not entirely, but their efforts have clearly made a difference ... both in advancing their purpose and improving their bottom line. HOW DOES PURPOSE UNLOCK GROWTH?
- 11. 11 HOW DOES PURPOSE DECREASE RISK? While many will be familiar with the chain’s eponymous burrito, few are aware that Chipotle was not founded to sell Tex-Mex, but to change the way people think about fast food. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in New York, Steve Ells felt he could apply what he had learned as a chef to elevate the traditional fast food experience. A focus on fresh ingredients created an awareness of the different forms of exploitation inherent in the traditional fast food business. Chipotle’s Food with Integrity movement has driven every decision made at the company since adopting it as their mission more than 10 years ago. At the time, Chipotle challenged a number of ad agencies to make Food with Integrity a meaningful sales proposition. When none of them could, Ells fired them all and took marketing in-house. Chipotle has famously removed menu items from restaurants when sustainable ingredients were not available rather than substituting unsustainable products to make a sale. Chipotle recognized that its purpose and its people are its critical business advantage. In 2005, the company underwent a transformation that would make its culture as distinct as its food. As more than 1,000 stores opened across the US, the company focused on creating a system where promoting managers from within would create a virtuous cycle of better, more motivated employees. That year, about 20% of the company’s managers were promoted from within. It is this culture that supported the company through the recent e-coli outbreaks and, together with its singular purpose, has allowed the company to remain a leader in their category.
- 12. 12 HOW DOES PURPOSE DECREASE RISK? What started as a small ice cream stand in Columbus, Ohio in 1996 had grown by 2015 to more than 20 locations around the U.S. and a presence in 1000s of grocery store freezers around the country. Then disaster hit. In April 2015, Jeni’s initiated a voluntary recall of all of its product and shuttered every store due to one pint of ice cream testing positive for listeria. For any other family run business, this may have meant the end of the line ... but Jeni’s is not just any other family business. From the day Jeni Britton Bauer founded the company, her purpose and the purpose of the company has been clear: to make the world’s best ice cream while making the world a better place for their people: vendors, partners, employees, customers and communities. For years, Jeni and her team had invested in their people and so when Jeni needed help, everyone rallied. Customers wrote love notes to Jeni and her staff and pinned them to the doors and windows of the closed scoop shops, and one customer started a Facebook page urging customers to commit to buying a pint of ice cream when they re-opened. More than 4000 people did. Staff members who couldn’t work during the recall were offered jobs with partnering dairies and suppliers. Jeni communicated progress regularly and personally via email and their website and when it came time to re-open, crowds lined up to welcome her back. By being true to her purpose and ensuring that despite the associated cost and lost revenue, employees, customers and communities were taken care of, the company rebounded stronger than ever, going so far as to attract a large equity partner 6 months later keen to help scale the business nationwide. Purpose reduced the risk and created an even stronger platform for growth.
- 14. 14 In the early 1930s, cars in Europe were still a luxury for the rich. But in 1933 Dr. Ferdinand Porsche launched the People’s Car — Volkswagen — with a singular purpose: to bring well-engineered vehicles to the masses. The story of the People’s Car resonated throughout the 20th century, and Volkswagen grew and prospered. But in 2007, something changed. Volkswagen leadership set a new overarching purpose for the company: to become the world’s largest automaker by 2018. The race to become the largest automaker required shortcuts and radically different approaches to business. 11 million cars were rigged to cheat emissions tests — 500,000 in the US alone. The value of VW cars in the U.S. plummeted, virtually overnight. Volkswagen has had to set aside $18 billion to address this self-created situation, causing the company to post an almost $5 billion loss in 2015. Though the company reached their new goal of becoming the world’s largest automaker three years early, no one can doubt now — in light of the emissions scandal — that by abandoning its greater purpose, Volkswagen ended up losing much more than its way. WHAT’S THE DANGER IN MISALIGNED PURPOSE?
- 15. 15 HOW PURPOSE IS FOUND Brand and culture are the outcome of who you are, what you stand for and how you operate. The technical, functional and emotional benefits of your brand and culture emanate from the answer to the most fundamental question: Why? Culture doesn’t come from HR and brand doesn’t come from marketing.
- 16. 16 HOW PURPOSE IS FOUND Purpose is found at the intersection of our beliefs, our expertise and the needs of our stakeholders … not just shareholders, but customers, employees, partners and communities. We must work to understand what each of our stakeholders want and need. We must come to know our strengths and be sure of what we do better then anyone else. Only then, with these insights and at the intersection of these three things, can we discover our singular purpose and align our business, culture and brand with it. To discover our purpose we must articulate what we stand for and what we believe. The greatest, most profitable organizations (and the happiest people) have identified a need in the world they are uniquely positioned to fill: why they exist. These companies and people are driven by purpose.
- 17. 17 When we have codified a clear and singular purpose it becomes our north star, and the filter for our thinking. HOW PURPOSE IS FOUND When we know what we stand for, we know what we stand against. We know what to pursue and what to say no to. We know where to focus and what to eliminate. Once purpose is discovered it informs every strategy, tactic and decision made in an organization and speeds decision-making. This is a purpose-aligned organization.
- 19. 19 ▶ Our connection with customers deepens ▶ Our relationship with employees strengthens ▶ We know who and how to recruit, saving money on poor hires ▶ We engage and retain top talent because we share values and purpose ▶ Our decision-making process simplifies and innovation accelerates ▶ We become employers of choice in this competitive labor market ▶ Marketing dollars go father through focus and target audiences ▶ We can easily eliminate unnecessary processes and activities ▶ Our stories resonate because they align with our stakeholders beliefs ▶ Our business can outlive products and services ▶ We build reputational capital to draw on when crisis hits ▶ We grow deliberately and sustainably, and maintain agility during downturns With a clear and singular purpose … PURPOSE PROVIDES: ▶ Meaning ▶ Clarity ▶ Unity ▶ Differentiation ▶ Focus PURPOSE ENABLES: ▶ Creativity ▶ Innovation ▶ Productivity/ Engagement ▶ Performance ▶ Speed THE BENEFITS
- 20. 20 ▶ Does your executive team offer differing opinions on company goals? ▶ Does your team struggle to articulate a vision beyond the numbers? ▶ Does your company suffer from absenteeism or high turnover? ▶ Are you challenged to recruit top talent? ▶ Do you suffer from low productivity and engagement? ▶ Do you struggle to promote better teamwork? ▶ Do employees understand their value and how they contribute? ▶ Does your company fear change or embrace it? ▶ Do you worry about the obsolescence of your products and services? ▶ Are “us vs. them” debates common inside your company? ▶ Is increased competition and market change leaving you behind? ▶ Do you wonder how competitors are able to innovate so quickly? ▶ Are you surprised that competitors grow at a faster rate than you? ▶ Do you describe your business in terms of the products and services you sell ... or the problems you solve for your customers? ▶ Do you feel your customers have trouble understanding the real value of what you offer? ▶ Does your team focus predominantly on price to differentiate your product? Would you benefit from alignment with a clear and singular purpose? THE BENEFITS
- 21. © Copyright 2016 Storyforge LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission prohibited. 21 629 North High Street Fourth Floor Columbus, Ohio 43215 (614) 859-6008 storyforge.co purpose@storyforge.co