Most organisations have a mission statement which reads something like ”To be the leading provider of innovative solutions (or product xyz) that create sustainable value for all our stakeholders.” It may sound impressive, but it could also belong to a bank, a software company, a hospital or a cement manufacturer!

It tells us almost nothing about why that particular organisation needs to exist.

The strongest businesses don’t ”sell what they make, they sell what they mean”. I read this in an article recently and it stayed with me because such organizations understand that their existence goes beyond making money. Profit is essential for survival, growth, and creating opportunities, but it is not enough.

Meaning should be different. For example, a healthcare business exists to provide accessible and anxiety-free healthcare, a textile manufacturer to build manufacturing capability and create skilled jobs, and a logistics business to facilitate commerce and connect producers to markets.

Purpose is not just an organisation’s mission statement. It is revealed by its choices. What it refuses to compromise on, what problems it solves repeatedly, and what it invests in despite the lack of immediate financial return.

A useful lens that I turn to when I look at businesses is what would customers, employees, and suppliers miss if the organisation disappeared tomorrow? If the answer is almost nothing then I am afraid I would challenge its ‘raison d’etre’.

But if I can answer that customers would miss the product or the service, employees would miss the culture and suppliers would miss a reliable partner then no matter how bad the condition of the business, I would try to see how it can recover.

The real challenge for leaders is not to find better words for mission statements to be displayed on websites. It is to build organisations where purpose is visible in their actions, choices, people, and values.

Those are the businesses that will still matter fifty years from now.