You, the Warrior

You go to war to conquer and win.  Results drive you and your firm.

In today's complicated and competitive business world, you live or die by your P/L, market share, ratings, revenue, number of clicks or however success is measured in your line of work.  This is your score card.You may be a business manager or sales person.  You probably work for a truly heroic-type business where expansion and segment domination are the goal. 


In my days as an executive recruiter, I came across many magicians, sovereigns and lovers who were extremely frustrated with how much their companies were driven by results in the form of profits.  Here the war mood prevailed and heads rolled when business goals were not met.

Whether you like it or not, heroic companies along with their staff of warriors, play a key role across industries.  Even the most creative, exclusive and altruistic firms would not be able to thrive and function without a few warriors in their ranks.  I remember my shock when I meet a "sales woman" working for Save The Children. Well, on second thought, how can we save children without a warrior raising funds for them?

You, the Hopeless Lover

Don't get me wrong.  Company employees in this category are not necessarily tree huggers or Mother Teresas.  They,  in some direct or less direct ways, serve the common good.  A company like Pfizer, for example, strives "to improve health and well-being at every stage of life."  What more altruistic purpose than this?

You, the lover, seek fulfillment by helping others by  serving, curing, helping, entertaining them or simply making their lives easier somehow.  Whoever came up with the concept of delivery pizza sought, not only to make a profit by making food for someone, but went the extra mile (literally) by saving you the trip to the restaurant.  A pizza may not save your life in the same way a vaccine does, but the concept of service prevails here as well.

DHL delivers you the world.  Suzlon powers a greener tomorrow.  Burt's Bees "makes people's lives better every day, naturally."  This kind of love for humanity certainly fires you up.

You, Your Majesty

So, you're royalty? 

As an executive recruiter, I have encountered lots of professionals who acted and spoke of their employers as the one and only company capable of (fill in the blank), a league of their own, as unique or the last in a line of (fill in the blank). Their companies have actually done a great job at instilling a sense of royalty or sovereignty in them because of their high quality products or services. 

Maybe you don't aspire to be queen or king, but do focus on excellence and quality work to seek following and loyalty. That makes you a sovereign. You are attracted by companies or employers that seek to be number 1 in their areas, not by results alone, but, by the uniqueness of their product or service offering,  You and these companies also seek to set the standard, be the authority, the Oscars to Hollywood, the Pulitzer to journalists sort of speak.

I remember meeting someone working, not for a company, but THE company that manufactures the balls used by the Major League Baseball teams (MLB). To him, a die-hard baseball fan, his company is royalty (despite being such small  niche).  I agree that, within that category, the company rules.

You, the Magician

 As discussed in my previous entries, most companies fulfill a main purpose, be it innovation or discovery (magicians), excellence (sovereigns), altruism (lovers) or results (warriors).  Obviously, most companies focus on one or two of these traits, but may also have some orientation or specific activity or involvement in the others.

So, say you think you are a magician, turned on by innovation, discovery and freedom to create.  You may be working for a freedom champion or in a department in charge of product development, innovation or new service development. Even if you aren't in any of these roles, you may be the idea dynamo in your team, regardless of your position.

I personally feel that marketing, promotion and advertising agencies are probably the best example of magicians at work.  Here, executives and creatives are under great pressure to develop that new idea that well help their client achieve business purposes whatever they are.  I personally feel great respect for designers and creators who have the power to awe us with their work.  If you don't agree with me, check out a great example of creativity. I'm sure you've seen equally cool ads before.

 

Magicians, Sovereigns, Lovers and Warriors

In my opinion, purpose, more than faith, moves mountains. Nikos Mourkogiannis, a renown strategic consultant, states that every company has been created with a main purpose in mind and is populated by 4 types of people:  Magicians, Sovereigns, Lovers and Warriors.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin, founders of Google, the Magicians, set their eyes on an ever evolving free-access system that would put vast amounts of information on people's hands. Their emphasis has been on a free-spirit of innovation and discovery open to all.

Giorgio Armani, the Sovereign, is not out to save the world or clothe every man, woman and child on the planet for free, but a selected few who can afford his expensive creations. He strives for excellence, seeking to be admired, adored and followed.

Blake Mycoskie, the founder of TOMS shoes (www.toms.com), is the ultimate Lover who set out to give one pair of shoes to a shoeless child in the developing world for every pair sold at his store.  The One-for-One movement he leads is fueled by the purpose of altruism and desire to help others and improve their lives. 


Bill Gates is a Warrior who did not start Microsoft to develop software used by a handful of people; instead, he envisioned putting it in every PC on the face of the earth, earning him monopoly lawsuits in Europe. Results drive at its best.

Are you a magician, a lover, a sovereign or a warrior and, most importantly, is your personal purpose in line with that of your employer?

The Purpose of a Business

All companies and organizations, for or non-profit, public or private, are created for a purpose; be it to improve people's lives, fulfill a need, dominate a segment, improve on existing products, help humanity, etc.

In the case of businesses, their founders, owners or leaders develop products or services with a business purpose in mind, an ultimate goal and reason for being usually found in their mission statement.  Business strategies are ideally anchored on this ultimate purpose. Employees alike join these companies, attracted to the company's business purposes in addition to their personal and professional goals.

Unless you live under a rock, you must have heard about Toyota's problems and Mr. Toyoda admitting that the company, the epitome of efficiency,  had focused too much on expansion and ended up losing its direction. Howard Schultz, the founder of Starbucks, similarly stated that the coffee chain had grown too big and, therefore, also deviated from its original mission.  It may sound like an excuse, but, there is certainly a lot of truth in their statements. No company can succeed if their strategy is not guided by their main business purpose.

Nikos Mourkogiannis, an strategic consultant to the likes of Johnson & Johnson, Alcatel and Braun and an authority on strategic leadership, speaks of 4 types of business purposes that drive most companies.

Discovery:  Here companies focus on idea creation, innovation, discovery, newness and setting new directions e.g. IBM, Apple, Google.

Excellence:  These are enterprise that strive for excellence and uniqueness, seeking to be at the top and obtain adoration and following e.g. The Economist, BMW.

Altruism:  Here the emphasis is on service, altruism, improving quality of  life and relationships e.g. Pfizer, The Body Shop, Federal Express.

Results:  Here companies fight to be heroes, obtain results, and totally dominate their segment e.g. Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, Ford.


Think for a minute:  Who do you work for and what purpose drives your organization?
Another key question here:  Are YOUR personal values in line with those of your organization?

Motivation 3.0

I sometimes forget that the subject of this blog is career crisis and may occasionally drift a bit.  In my last 2 posts,  I touched on how the Costa Rican economy is becoming much more competitive and the issue of employee motivation and retention.  One of the underlying threads here is the importance of what companies do to motivate staff, increase employee satisfaction and, as a result, boost productivity and business results.


Your questioning and doubting your place in your current company may be rooted in you being the object of the wrong kind of motivation.  In light of the recent economy downturn and changes the world is going through, Daniel Pink describes a new theory of motivation 3.0 taking root among renown multinationals.  It  includes 3 key ingredients:  Autonomy, mastery and purpose.

Autonomy:   Employees should be encouraged and challenged to work flexibly, engage in individual projects of their liking and contribute beyond their call of duty or what is written in their job description.  This may imply changes in work schedules, sitting arrangements and involvement in task forces or committees all with the purposes of stimulating participation.


Mastery:  Companies that correctly spot, nurture and nourish their staff strengths motivate them to create bigger and better things.  The phrase "train like crazy" is thrown around very often with training programs, rarely hitting the spot and delivered in a cookie cutter, one size fits all manner.  What best motivator than a company caring about the employees' personal and professional growth?

Purpose:  The company does not exist in a vacuum.  Churning out widgets or generating gross profits alone may not be motivating or purposeful enough in today's work environment.  The community now has plenty of choices and communication weapons to favor companies that serve a higher and common  purpose, be it improving and saving lives, helping the environment or any good cause you can think of.

Never before had companies and their staff been under such pressure and faced with such opportunity to consider the importance of the human capital in business.