Why purpose makes a difference

(written by Lawrence Krubner, however indented passages are often quotes)

Interesting:

I’m not sure I’ve ever read a more persuasive statement about why companies infused with a sense of purpose outperform those whose leaders and front-line employees don’t have a crystal-clear sense of the impact they’re trying to have and the reason the company exists in the first place. And this doesn’t just go for high-profile consumer brands. One of my favorite purpose-driven companies is DPR Construction, a go-to building contractor for some of the most cutting-edge companies in the country, from Pixar to Apple to big semiconductor companies.

Back in 1990, before Doug Woods, Peter Nosler, and Ron Davidowski (the “P” and “R” in DPR) hammered their first nail, they hammered out a “core ideology” designed to set them apart from their peers — and to announce their intention to challenge convention in their industry. “We exist to build great things,” the ideology declares. “We must be different from and more progressive than all other construction companies. We stand for something.”

DPR didn’t just build its business (and these buildings) in accordance with its aim-high ideology. The founders also established “tangible images” and “vivid descriptions” of the future — rich, easy-to-visualize portraits of what success would look like if the company lived up to its ideology. Early on, success meant being recognized as a different kind of company, a change-minded maverick in a slow-moving industry. “Our families will say we work for a great company,” read one of the company’s first 12 descriptions. “Our friends back East will mention that they have heard about DPR’s greatness,” read another. “We have built a major project that has been recognized in an industry magazine,” read another.