High-purpose, low-bureaucracy organizations
PurposeMaking purpose the boss
More and more organizations, across a range of industries, are “making purpose the boss” and relying more on the power of connection to a common cause than bureaucratic rules and policies to improve performance. We’ve listed a few below, and you can find out more about this growing movement at B Corp, an organization dedicated to certifying and supporting purpose-driven organizations.
Morningstar Farms is dedicated to “developing and implementing superior systems of organizing individuals’ talents and efforts to achieve demonstrably superior productivity and personal happiness.” Founded in 1970 as a tomato trucking company, the company gained prominence in a 2011 HBR article that focused on the exceptional productivity it was achieving in an environment without managers.
Zappos
Zappos was founded with a simple commitment to make it easier to find the right pair of shoes, fast. Since then, CEO Tony Hsieh and his team have helped to both revitalize the economy of downtown Las Vegas, where the company is now headquartered, and is working to revolutionize organizing by adopting holacracy organization-wide.
National Australia Bank
National Australia Bank launched its Fair Value Campaign on the conviction that they could make decisions that made sense competitively and commercially and were also simply the right thing to do. To do this they set about eliminating the fees and charges that customers complained most regularly about and have been able to drastically reduce customer complaints and steadily grow market share.
Method
Method was founded on the belief that products could clean like heck and smell like heaven—and that cleaning our homes with things that endangered our lives was a flawed solution. Co-founders and “proud brainparents,” Adam Lowry and Eric Ryan, have since used the company as a platform to revolutionize the consumer products industry from packaging innovations to inspired manufacturing.