Purpose: The Starting Point of Great Companies

This book's singular message is this: to succeed and win, great companies need to have a purpose that has a moralistic bent to it that everyone can jump on board with and follow. This purpose will drive your strategy and values (which will come effortlessly after you figure out what your purpose is.)This is different from the over-done and often useless "mission" and also different from the a-moralistic "vision" which sets out a path for the future. Purpose by contrast, puts a stake in the ground about what your company believes in at its core. Purpose is a direction for the company but not necessarily a snapshot of its destination. It provides a clear path whereby you can check all activities against (is what I'm doing in line w/ the purpose?).Nikos argues that Purpose is not merely a motivational tool but an objective in itself that can be enduring. A company's purpose can change over time - perhaps with the change of leaders like Welch to Immelt (who went back to the "discovery" angle). Also leaders (like Steve Jobs) can take a purpose from company to company over his career.The book takes you through the journey of defining what is a purpose vs. a mission and a vision, and gives you examples you can sink your teeth into. He lays out four main types of purpose and examples of companies that are each:1) Discovery - rooted in intuition that life is a kind of adventure. Example: Apple and their goal to always come up with the new / most innovative products (esp. in comparison to Microsoft who clearly follows a different path).2) Excellence - implies standards and purports the belief that excellent performance in our role in life represents the supreme good. Example: Warren Buffet3) Altruism - a purpose built in serving its customers in a way that is beyond standard obligation. Example: Wal-Mart, Body Shop4) Heroism - demonstrates achievement (often with a charismatic and visionary leader) Example: Ford, MicrosoftThen he helps you determine your company's purpose by answering a few key questions and provides examples of great companies and the tie between purpose and morale. He covers how leadership and purpose are intertwined and gives a step-by-step approach for discovering, testing and communicating your purpose.While this book is in a way a pitch to hire his firm (subsidiary of Booz Allen), there are certainly some good nuggets of information and thought provoking ideas you can take away in any business environment. Recommended!

Mourkogiannis' book is a triumph. He does two very difficult things well in Purpose: The Starting Point of Great Companies. First, he offers that the proper navigational heading for all businesses is their purpose. Sans purpose there is confusion, hence inefficiency, and ultimately underperformance. This crucial point - the thesis of his entire work, and the book's substance - is supported philosophically (quite literally), as well as with ample numbers of business cases. Second, Mourkogiannis has done an expert job of translation. What I mean by that is he has taken an ephemeral concept - purpose - and provided easy to understand and use mental models that allow for the crucial and final factor for a business: implementation.I also want to mention that readers new to the "purpose" conversation should check out the copyright on this book. Mourkogiannis has been discussing this issue publicly and professionally since the mid-2000s. This makes "Purpose," at its core, a revolutionary work, and I believe the revolution is well underway. I highly recommend this book for any businessperson that feels a void in her/his own professional experience.

The author makes a solid case for the importance of purpose for the long term success of any enterprise. He presents many cases to prove his case. I am convinced. Unfortunately, some business leaders are not interested in the long term. Many business leaders are only focused on quarterly results and profits the current year. They may understand the importance of living a life with purpose and organizing a corporation around purpose but they are afraid what will happen to them if they devote their leadership to purpose. They beleive that the market will reject them and toss them out. These leaders believe they will be replaced by new leaders whose focus and purpose is to maximize immedidate profits and suck the guts out of the company. Corporate raiders are constantly seeking opportunities to take over a company to sell off its assets and drive the company into the ground. I hope that corporate leaders will read this book and heed the warnings of the author. Too many corporate leaders are not interested in developing Great Companies, instead they are merely interested in enriching themselves (and the stockholders. They are actually destroying the wealth of the corporations that they are hired to lead. They believe that is their Purpose.

Nikos Mourkogiannis nails it down with this book, PURPOSE. A very well written, informative and no non-sense work which will inspire every purpose-driven entrepreneur. I personally appreciated a lot the chapter "Purpose and Morale." This is so true that people will work harder and better in a purpose-driven environment. In my 20+ years of experience in training and coaching business owners from all over the world, I have observed and witnessed what a good, strong and ethical purpose can do to a business and its employees.I strongly recommend this book to every business starter as well as to every executive who works hard at raising his/her business competitiveness. It is a tough world out there and PURPOSE can help. In fact, if you duplicate Mr. Mourkogiannis' intentions and attempted message, you will definitely see a big change in your profitability.Patrick Valtin,President/CEO M2-TEC USA, Inc.Author of the book "No Fail Hiring."

Disappointing. Simplistic and uninspiring

Avoir un but dans sa vie, oui c'est essentiel et cela est aujourd'hui une réalité du quotidien pour nombre d'entre nous. C'est pourquoi je n'attribue que 3 étoiles à cet ouvrage. L'auteur expose très ses principes. À lire pour garder la motivation à 100% et s'inspirer de succès.

Great read