“Purpose, Meaning, and Values” – Review

Purpose, visions, and values ​​are often talked about when companies want to position themselves as “modern.” Indeed, mission statements can show why a company does what it does and thus make an impact. Purpose, Sense, and Values ​​by Karlheinz Elner is here to help with your Why. review.

I’ve always found the question about the purpose of a company impressive. Especially in the “Modular and Sustainable Management” course that I’m running.

Because at the Academy of Fashion and Design in Berlin, I pursued this question with my students. In doing so, we focused on the issue of benefits Vision and mission concentrated.

Purpose, Meaning, and Values: What is the company’s goal?

Karlheinz Illner goes into his own book tracking. It begins with the first crucial question: What is a company?

Because this question is being asked not only by more and more founders, but also by established Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

They realize that there is more to a company than plans and numbers, even if it is still dominant in many companies.

Develop purpose as a goal

The goal of the book is to develop a “goal”. The focus is on the purpose of family businesses because, according to the author, they have some strong advantages over corporations, such as focus, long-term thinking with forward orientation, originality, and independence.

These benefits also help find purpose, because they are not based on short-term trends and fashions, but on the foundation of the company, which gets stronger the more focused and long-term the company is thinking.

And so that there is no misunderstanding, the author clearly defines the meanings of the terms “meaning,” “vision,” and “purpose.”

This distinction shows that companies need to focus on purpose. The manner in which the distinction is made is logical and enables the terms to be clearly defined and thus distinguished from one another.

In five steps to entrepreneurial purpose

Then it comes to finding the corporate goal. The author explains in 5 steps how to define this purpose. Opinion moves from business realities to the question of the company’s prestige and the position it takes, to the correspondence of the personal position to the entrepreneurial position.

In the end, the reader is able to formulate the company’s purpose. A word of warning is in order here: getting here requires a healthy dose of self-reflection and self-criticism. It’s easy to read into the book, but it’s not the case if you’re serious about going for it.

See Purpose, Meaning, and Values: What do you do with a purpose?

But once you get down to crafting, the book is endless, which I think is a lot of fun. Because books that deal with a company’s “why” or “what” often end when it’s actually most interesting – namely with the question of what you can do for it.

Karlheinz Illner does not. In the last three chapters of the book, he explains how changes can be initiated and perfected for a purpose, how leadership and company culture can be changed, and how purpose can be communicated to the outside world as the core of the brand.

I think these chapters are very powerful because they show that purpose is much more than a nice marketing phrase. When used properly, purpose can transform and empower an entire company. This, in turn, is exactly what many business owners are looking for when economic developments are uncertain, as they are currently.

Of course, we should mention at this point that purpose is not a panacea. It can’t erase a poor product line or bad business decisions. But a purpose can describe who you are and act as a solid star—for the owner, but also for employees and other stakeholders.

A work book, not an afternoon read

It should also be noted that the book has a certain scientific depth. Anyone expecting a light afternoon read will likely be disappointed. The author bases his representations on different approaches such as those of Prof. Claire Graves and Robert Hartmann and uses methods such as the Stacey Matrix or the Graves Value System in the context of interpretation. They are always succinctly explained and the applications explained, but the reader has to deal with them.

Conclusion: Purpose, Meaning, and Values ​​Review:

However, if you do and the academic language doesn’t lag you somewhat behind in some places, this book will provide you with a great tool to develop your company further.

And when I say book, it’s really not enough, because the book’s content is complemented by a variety of digital content, whether it’s interviews with entrepreneurs explaining their purpose, additions by experts such as Prof. Carsten Kilian from the FHWS in Würzburg and Tilmann Peschke from Nuremberg as well as checklists and overviews and models.

I could write so much more, but it’s already clear: I can recommend this book with a clear conscience. It enriches the discussion about the purpose of the company and makes the ventilation concept of the goal concrete and workable.

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