Deep Purpose: The Heart and Soul of High-Performance Companies Paperback – 10 February 2022

Deep Purpose is the perfect book for business leaders, entrepreneurs, heads of organisations. Existence and sustainability of business today goes beyond just the bottomline, it is becoming increasingly clear that the various stakeholders that contribute to the success of an organisation are looking for more than just the profit number. The great resignation is already proving that employees need more than the remuneration, they need to belong, they need to feel a sense of purpose in their lives beyond working for the money. Customers too, are looking not just for products that meet a single need but also do not damage the environment etc etc... Deep Purpose drives at these issues and pushes leaders to ask difficult questions and make the leap. A great read... highly recommended

A must read book

I've read the book cover to cover, and I would recommend it highly, not just to business leaders but to anyone working anywhere. You should read it as a boss, and as an engaged employee as well.What sets this book apart from other books on the subject is that the author recounts from his own personal experiences, and is honest to admit that he was once a sceptic.The book both inspires with anecdotes, and educates doubling up as a handbook. Ranjay Gulati gives evidence in place of hyperbole and that appeals to the rational mind. When he he's not throwing out delightful facts, he's telling us a story and a beautiful one at that.

In recent times, the very concepts of capitalism that operate on the principles of Adam Smith’s ‘invisible hand’ and Milton Friedman’s narrow focus on the profit imperative, have exacted a heavy toll on planet and people. A fractured and polarized society and a heavily bruised environment need immediate solutions. Today, for most corporations, the primary focus is on maximizing shareholder wealth. CSR is at best a side show. ESG Goals are cosmetic in nature. Doing Well is good enough. This book is a strategic road map for a new world: Doing Well AND Doing Good.This book focuses on the SOUL of organizations – a perceptible and energising soul called ‘Deep Purpose’. It is defined as an ongoing process to which leaders must commit with all of their heart and soul: an operating system for the entire organization as well as a strategic compass for decision-making, ‘an existential statement that expresses the firm’s very reason for being.’Sadly, in many companies, high sounding vision, mission and value statements are at best ‘purpose-on-periphery’ or ‘convenient purpose’ to ‘pursue egregiously selfish goals or even criminal activity’ says the author and illustrates this with good examples. These companies operate from a flawed mindset that perceives ‘doing good is at the expense of doing well’.This book clearly demonstrates that Deep Purpose galvanizes organizations and generates outsized performance. In these organizations, employees are fully engaged and committed, and unleash creativity and passion. (The book ‘Identity Economics’ by George Akerlof is a must read to understand the difference between an employee who is an ‘outsider with an economic contract’ vs an employee who becomes an ‘insider with an emotional contract’.)Hence, Deep Purpose acts at 4 levels: 1. A North Star to Guide Your Growth. 2. Helps create a tightly bound ecosystem by enhancing relationships based on Trust and comity. 3. A stronger reputation and brand value with customers and 4. Attracts and retains talent and inspires all employees.Facebook is an example of ‘convenient purpose’ while the lesser known Bühler group of Switzerland is a great example of Deep Purpose. Bühler firmly believes in and practices ‘Innovations for a better world’. Although salary levels at the company are only about average for the industry, its employee turnover is only 6 percent and ranks highly in the ‘Best Places to Work’. It is the world’s most respected company that manufactures machinery for the food industry, committed to saving energy and minimizing the ecological footprint in the entire value chain. It is now a global platform or a ‘Davos’ for the entire industry in achieving these goals.There is an interesting chapter that starts with the mythological bird Sankofa in Ghanian folklore. While its body is flying forward, its head looks in the reverse, that symbolises how past wisdom can help us address future obstacles. It is a combination of nostalgic and postalgic views which is Sathya Nadella’s “Quest to rediscover Microsoft’s soul and imagine a better future for everyone.’ He seeks to balance the progressive mindset with veneration of Microsoft’s rich heritage and thereby “to honor our past while we charter our future’.PepsiCo’s ‘Performance with Purpose’ under Indira Nooyi’s stellar leadership is yet another great example of Deep Purpose in action. Under the strategy, PepsiCo would remake its operating model to pursue both a commercial and social logic at once with four parts: Financial sustainability, environmental sustainability, human sustainability (human health and nutrition) and talent sustainability. During Nooyi’s tenure, PepsiCo’s healthier food portfolio as a percentage of company’s revenue rose from 38 to 50 percent (2006 to 2017) and its Lay’s potato chips had 25 percent less salt than they did a decade ago. Simultaneously, the company saw an 80 percent increase in sales and shareholder return that outperformed that of the S&P 500.At the end of every chapter the book provides a brief executive summary titled ‘Lessons for Leadership’.This book is definitive classic in management literature of this century and shall be the guide to all CEOs to create a better world for our next generations.“The future depends on what you do today.” Mahatma Gandhi.

In 2019, the Business Roundtable, a gathering of CEOs of most major U.S. corporations, made a grand proclamation about committing to creating value not just for shareholders but for all stakeholders, including customers and society at large. Yet, when COVID started spreading in 2020, companies that signed the Business Roundtable statement fired their employees 20 percent more than those that did not sign the statement. They were also less likely to donate to relief efforts, offer discounts to customers, or shift production to pandemic-related goods. With such hypocrisy still rampant, we need every reminder that pursuing social and environmental goals alongside financial ones is no longer optional. It is essential to our collective future. Ranjay Gulati offers his reminder from the rare vantage point of a highly accomplished management scholar who truly understand the logic of business (as opposed to being removed from it in the ivory tower), and can therefore articulate the logic of "deep purpose" in ways that stand the chance to resonate with business leaders. May they read this book and heed its call!

Ótima qualidade do produto e prazo

Ranjay Gulati's book "Deep Purpose" is a tour de force that illustrates why and how truly successful businesses are moral enterprises, resulting from productivity, integrity and a sense of purpose. The book is a must read for current and aspiring leaders who are committed to "making the world a better place, by doing something important to themselves." While the first part of this purpose statement is now a cliche given its overuse and superficial grandiosity, Deep Purpose reminds us it need not be so if you connect this aspiration to your own values.The "why" of deep purpose begins with identifying the values--the soul--embodied in an organization's purpose. With purpose in the driver's seat, one can then reject its false dichotomy with profit. Gulati masterfully blends years of thought leadership in academia with rich field work to illuminate how leaders can and have leveraged businesses to solve thorny problems and scale these solutions for lasting impact. Deep Purpose illustrates how purpose with profit can integrate "commercial logic" with "social logic." Using the principles of Deep Purpose, leaders of "profit first" can move their organizations from doing well to also doing good. Equally important, leaders of "Good Samaritans" can unleash their good by harnessing profit and market principles.Inspiring us with the "why," Deep purpose also delivers on the "how." It abandons the "nirvana fallacy" of idealists and injects healthy realism of how to make difficult decisions when commercial and social logics seemingly conflict with each other. The art of the tradeoff provides useful lessons on how leaders prioritize and achieve the long-term achievement of purpose in crafting their strategy. Gulati showcases how deep purpose provides four levers for profitability: it creates a north star, helps create and sustain long term relationships, develops an authentic reputation, and motivates employees and trade partners to expend effort towards achieving high performance. And in so doing, it aligns all stakeholders towards win-win outcomes rather than adopting an "us" vs. "them" mindset.If you are interested in why and how you can be a force of good in the world, Deep Purpose is a must-read for you.

"Deep purpose" is a moving and exceptionally insightful report on a topic that is often difficult to grasp: Corporate Purpose. It is currently marketed as a new way of thinking about company management and is increasingly used in practice and academia. It is promising multiple economic advantages, but its implementation remains challenging for management: The concept is still misunderstood and not easily integrated into the corporate processes. And here Ranjay Gulati shares emotional and personal, but impactful stories of leaders, teams and organizations that reinvented themselves by implementing purpose. Furthermore, Gulati shows a broader and authentic understanding of purpose, thus overcoming the limiting proposition that purpose can be only or predominantly social. He sets purpose in connection to competitive advantage and deep transformation, pathing the way to a new understanding in strategic and change management. (Albena Björck, Senior Lecturer and Researcher, ZHAW School of Management and Law and Track Chair Purpose-Driven Strategies at the European Academy of Management)

Una tesi molto semplice: solo gli imprenditori animati da una mission si trasformano in veri leader e le loro aziende in icone.Le ragioni, spesso intuitive, sono molteplici e ben spiegate nel libro, anche grazie al ricorso ad alcuni casi pratici, sempre troppo pochi rispetto alle aspettative del lettore.Alcuni concetti vengono ripetuti troppe volte, e il riassunto alla fine di ogni capitolo deve essere molto più sintetico, altrimenti scatta la noia.Ottimo libro, ottimo tema, alla lunga un pò trito.