mistake would be to say, “Our company’s goal is to provide customers with a quality product, increase owners’ equity, and create a decent standard of living for our employees.” This is not a goal. It is merely an attempt to please everyone who has something to do with the company—employees, owners, and customers. And this attempt to please is the exact opposite of the manifestation of individuality. A problem with such goal formation is that people are not so naïve as to believe that this is really the group’s goal.
I am genuinely surprised by what results when some not very clever consultants’ brainstorm about the main goal and purpose of a company with its top management team. They come up with these monstrous ideas that do not inspire anyone—not managers, owners, or employees. Have some fun by reading the goals and mission statements of some of these various companies online.
Occasionally, I help owners to create mission statements for their companies. I first ask them questions that relate to the purpose of the company. I ask what the initial business idea was and whether it had any competitive advantage that distinguished the company from its competitors. I ask the owner to describe the company’s operations in a few words. When the purpose is clear, I help him or her state the main goal by asking questions about what would change in the company’s external environment if it successfully carried out its purpose. Why do I start with the purpose? I do this because the purpose is more concrete to people, as it will determine the company’s course of action. The main goal, however, is less apparent, though in essence it is predetermined by the purpose.
When you create the main goal of the group, don't think about whether employees will like it. The most important thing it should do is inspire. Look around at the leaders of some outstanding companies. As a rule, they dedicate their whole lives to doing their favorite job. They have enough courage to do what inspires them. And they create main goals that attract the right people to their companies and encourage them to stay.
Chapter 5. The Pursuit of Money
The business world is brainwashed by the idea that the goal of any business is to make money. Of course, the people who made this idea popular are not very smart; they do not understand anything about money at all. Money is just a medium of exchange. The amount of money a company makes depends on how useful its products or services are, and how widely available these products or services are. Behind every product, there is a particular person’s dream, as well as a goal that inspires an entire team to overcome any obstacles along the way to creating the product. Long before Mark Zuckerberg became a billionaire, he refused Microsoft’s generous offer to buy the program he’d developed. The reason was simple. When he came up with the idea of Facebook, he was thinking about creating a communication and social-networking platform for university students, not about columns of numbers on a financial statement.
Making lots of money is a great idea, but in reality, the meaning behind business is to create a lot of something that people will consider useful and want to obtain. The main goal of a company should be an exact wording of this aspiration, not the expression of a desire to receive as much money as possible.
“I want to work for a company that contributes to and is part of the community. I want something not just to invest in. I want something to believe in.”—Anita Roddick, The Body Shop
Of course, you do not get paid for your aspirations alone, and rarely do aspirations without tangible results receive support. However, to say that the main goal of a business is to make profits is the same as saying that the goal of a human is to breathe. Without being able to breathe, a person cannot survive for long, because breathing is essential for a person to move, think, and create. Every person has his or her own main goal. Some dream about teaching children, others dream of constructing beautiful buildings, and still others desire to raise talented and independent children. Without breathing for more than just a few minutes, a person would not be able to achieve any of these goals. This is comparable to the important role of money for a business or any other organization.
“Money is like gasoline during a road trip. You don’t want to run out of gas on your trip, but you’re not doing a tour of gas stations.”—Tim O’Reilly, O’Reilly Media founder and CEO
Any good idea can be brought to the point of absurdity. For example, since ancient times there have been practices in which followers try to improve themselves with sophisticated ways of breathing. Likewise, there are business practices that claim that proper money handling and money management are the keys to success. This is only partly true. It is really important to handle money wisely, but good money management alone does not lead to success. That is because money management is simply a tool for managing the exchange process of your product for money.
Increased profits and growth of gross income can be wonderful mid-level goals and important milestones in a company’s growth, but they are never main goals that can lead you to victory. Only a person who has completely lost his or her ideals sees personal needs as the only reason for owning a business and can accept making money as its main goal. Such an viewpoint is acceptable for an unskilled worker, but is not acceptable for someone who has started a company.
Chapter 6. Motivation
You have probably noticed that people have various levels of motivation with respect to their work. Some begin work with enthusiasm, but for others, it takes a great deal of effort to make them work, even under the constant supervision of a superior. Some are really interested in their jobs, yet others see their job simply as a harsh necessity. It is all about motivation. In modern society, motivation can mean a person’s desire to work, the actions a manager performs to achieve results, or even a company's wage system. In its simplest terms, the word motivation is defined as an impulse that propels a person toward some activity. Motivation comes from the word motive, which means “an incentive, purpose, or reason for some action.” Motive, in turn, comes from the Latin word movēre, which means “to move.” Thus motivation is something that makes people move in some area of activity.
While managing companies, I noticed that there are those who are dedicated to their jobs, and those who are free riders, who are willing to go along for the ride as long as someone else does the driving. It is pretty easy to deal with the first type of person. She is loyal to the company and produces, to the extent of her competency, good results. To put it simply, these are people you can rely on. When there is a need to solve urgent problems, you call upon these individuals to obtain the needed support. L. Ron Hubbard provided a good classification of different levels of motivation.4 He described four main levels of motivation, from highest to lowest:
Duty
Personal Conviction
Personal Gain
Money
Duty
The highest motivation level is duty. On this level, people consider a company they work for to be part of their lives. They are loyal to the company and its interests. They are reliable and give support to managers. There may be many people working for a company, but rarely are the majority those with a duty level of motivation.
Personal Conviction
People who are not company patriots but consider themselves professionals and try to do their jobs well according to their personal standards of professionalism are people on the personal conviction level of motivation. For example, this could be an accountant who does not care what the company does or how well it succeeds, but by virtue of personal conviction, thinks it is important to ensure that the accounting department is run properly.
Personal Gain
The next level of motivation is personal gain. People on this level do their jobs just to get some
L. Ron Hubbard “Promotion and Motivation”, in The Organization Executive Course: Public Division, vol. 6 (Los Angeles: Bridge Publications, 1991), 158.
