Purpose: The Foundation of Strategic Alignment

For many years, I worked for one of the world's leading strategy consultancies. On any typical assignment, watching CEOs evaluating the pros and cons of our recommendations, I would always find myself wondering, 'What is really determining their decision?'

With the best chief executives, those at the helm of the most effective companies that we advised, I knew that there was something more driving their decisions than simply the need to make immediate profits. Some advice was deemed a natural fit; some, even though it would be difficult to execute, was taken on as part of a long-term strategy. And some 'slam-dunk' options were dismissed immediately, often with a comment like, 'This is not what we are trying to do here.' I came to recognize that the more consistent this type of reaction was, the more successful the leadership team, because its members knew where they were going. In other words, while strategic alignment and execution were always essential to success, the most successful leaders were those who knew which strategy to pursue.

All leaders, not just top CEOs, face difficult strategic decisions throughout their careers. The single factor that helps them make these decisions correctly is an understanding of what their organization is really trying to do: its Purpose. That's because the Purpose of the organization--the shared recognition of the reason why it exists--is the context that determines whether a decision is the right one to make at any particular time.

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