It was a cool fall day in 1998. I was walking with a friend in the East Village of New York City. She was telling me how she had just encouraged her grandmother to buy a bunch of AOL stock. “AOL is doing amazing, and I don’t think they’re going anywhere soon,” she said. Five years later, Time Warner would write off almost $99 billion associated with their merger with AOL.
There are lots of opinions about how this giant fell so quickly, but in my view, it was an issue of mission trumping purpose. Even in 2007, AOL’s mission, “To bring America Online”, was proudly displayed over the doors of all their buildings. The problem was, by 2007, America was already online, and AOL had outlived its mission. That mission, not grounded in a strong purpose, or why, became feckless and no one noticed that it wasn’t relevant. The desires of AOL’s customers to explore the internet outside the safe boundaries AOL had created was its downfall. I think there is no better example of how Mission without purpose can lead to disaster.
In this new age where people are focused on bringing meaning to their lives and integrating work with their outside commitments, companies need to understand that mission isn’t the same as purpose. A mission statement is about where you’re going and how you plan to get there, but purpose is why you’re on the journey in the first place. Like AOL’s case illustrates, deciding on a mission without clarity on purpose can lead to disaster.
Kodak is another famous example of mission dominating purpose. Kodak had a mission of democratizing photography, but they defined photography as film. So when they invented the digital camera in 1975, they couldn’t see its value due to their focus on the film-based mission that had brought them success. Would a strong purpose informing that mission have changed anything? I don’t know, but purpose tends to provide perspective and allow for questioning actions in a way that mission doesn’t.
In 2018, I was the CEO of a boutique staffing firm catering to management consultancies. We offered highly skilled consultants and subject matter experts to augment their teams. The work was not easy; we were significantly under-resourced, managing an overwhelming workload with limited means. Before long, burnout became a regular fixture of our daily lives. But it wasn’t just the work’s intensity that wore on us. We began to notice a troubling trend in the staffing industry — people were being commoditized, treated as interchangeable parts rather than valued as individuals with unique skills and talents. This went against the core of what we believed our company stood for, and it made our work feel not only laborious but also ethically unsettling. However, our company’s purpose, “because business needs heroes,” inspired us to create a platform for independent consultants to take on and manage large projects. Though we never fulfilled that goal, the same purpose led me to the creation of True Bearing, focusing on the intersection of purpose and storytelling in recruiting. The takeaway is that by focusing on purpose, we can transcend mission, especially when that mission is no longer relevant or effective.
Companies need to use purpose as an anchor for their mission and use it as a lens to understand and see possibilities that might go beyond that mission. Crafting a purpose statement is hard; it requires deep introspection. But when you uncover your purpose and make it the center of what you do, your mission becomes truly inspiring and transformational.
Crafting a purpose statement, a good first step, is not enough by itself. The real power of purpose and values doesn’t come from the written statements themselves, but from their application in every facet of the organization’s operations. Purpose and values need to be alive throughout the organization and recognized by all. Purpose and values need to be part of every meeting, hiring, and evaluation process. Tools that allow employees to make decisions consistent with management’s wishes using values as a guide can be created. Leaders can describe and disseminate strategy better when they are anchored in stories of purpose and values. When purpose, and the values needed to achieve that purpose, are explicit and alive within the organization, they take a life of their own and highlight unseen opportunities to advance that purpose.
In our fast-moving world with transformational technologies regularly disrupting our understanding of what’s possible, leaders need to broaden the scope of who sees opportunities and who can take action on them. Purpose over mission allows employees to truly understand why we are on the journey we’re on and to see opportunities. If leadership is committed to that purpose, they can recognize those opportunities. Purpose also offers a powerful hedge against short-sighted or unethical decisions.
Without a clear understanding of why we’re on our journey, our mission can become hollow and irrelevant. On the other hand, purpose brings new opportunities into focus, adds meaning to our journey, and keeps the excitement alive. Purpose should always be the compass guiding us forward, especially when the mission becomes less relevant or effective. It’s the heart of an organization, pumping life into every decision, every action, every step we take. When we allow purpose to illuminate our path, our missions become more than just goals – they become stepping stones towards fulfilling a larger vision. And in the end, isn’t that what we’re all striving for? Fulfillment, meaning, and making a genuine difference in the world. That’s the power of purpose over mission.
About the author – Peter Laughter – I walked away from a 25 year entrepreneurial career in the recruiting and staffing industry because recruiting is screwed. I founded True Bearing to reinventing recruiting using purpose, values, and storytelling as the currency companies can use to supercharge referrals and cultivate pipelines of rockstar talent.
