Paul Hawken in his book, Growing a Business, describes a concept that stimulated a lot of thought for me. He tells the story of a large oil company that undertook a study of companies that had endured for centuries, even though their main business had changed over those years. One of the conclusions they drew “was that these companies survived the upheavals of the marketplace and the world-at-large because they had ‘being’ goals instead of ‘doing’ goals. Their business was centered on a way of interacting with the work, not on providing one specific product or service.”
Hawken goes on to provide an example of a given company’s goals involving either “doing” – such as providing white diapers – or “being” – such as providing excellent assistance to mothers of newborns. The “being” goal is so much more open-ended and versatile; such a goal will enable a business to morph with the needs of mothers over time and to change as technology changes. It enables a business to last, because it can continue to find new means and mechanisms of meeting its primary goal.
I find this concept fascinating and challenging when I think about my own fledgling business. I’ve begun to rethink both my marketing copy, and my so-called “elevator speech.” What is the most open-ended, versatile business goal I can state? I want to be able to provide any type of assistance litigators need over time, even as the technology of meeting those needs is changing rapidly right now. I don’t want to think of my role too narrowly. These differences may be subtle, but I’m finding it helpful to refocus the way I think and speak about my business, from “doing” language about tasks I’m capable of performing to “being” language about excellence and competency and reliability.
Growing A Business, by Paul Hawken. New York: Simon & Schuster Inc., 1988.
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