How to Build Purpose to Scale

Daniel Goleman is author of the international best-seller Emotional Intelligence and Optimal: How to Sustain Personal and Organizational Excellence Every Day. He is a regular contributor to Korn Ferry. 

According to the US Census Bureau, there are roughly 4.7 million new businesses that are started every year. Some of these are solo endeavors – individuals who register a business in order to have a brand under which to offer their services. But many of these are companies with small teams – organizations across industries who are going to try and make it in the competitive market.

What’s harrowing to know is that 90% of these will fail – 10% of them closing up shop within the first year. For those that make it two, three or even five years, running a startup can be like trying to train a baby animal. Especially in fast moving industries like technology, these cultures are bursting with energy, full of ideas, and often a little untame.

As complicated as they can be to work in, the great thing about start-ups is that they can be incredibly close to their sense of purpose. Founded on an inspiring idea or a clear and identifiable need in the marketplace, their mission is more likely to be front and center. Even if they haven’t articulated their values, chances are, everyone feels them. This is especially true if they are founder-led: these are the companies where the person with the most influence and power is the direct channel for inspiration and meaning.

For many modern start-ups the issue isn’t about getting clear on purpose, but on how to scale it.

How do these companies hold on to culture while allowing room for innovation and change?

How do they become profitable without sacrificing the things they believe in?

One way to do this is through the use of Objectives and Key Results, or OKRs. One example comes from a small consultancy, founded in 2011. In 2021, this company started a dedicated internal OKR team whose primary goal was to figure out how the company could scale without putting their culture on the chopping block. Designed to serve as "the catalyst for building the company that we are proud to work for, both now and in the future,” the OKR team was active for two years. During this time, this little company involved every single person in discussion – prototyping new improvements and inviting feedback from everyone on the team.

While this consultancy might be small, the process isn’t too far off from what companies like Apple and Intel did in their early years.  OKRs were developed in the 1970’s by Andrew Grove – Intel’s first hire. Under Grove’s leadership, what was a small emerging technology company went from $1.9 billion in revenue to $26 billion, increasing its market value by 4,500%.

Though seemingly dry, OKR’s are inherently connected to how meaning and purpose get prioritized and scaled throughout an intense period of growth. This is because they are designed to meet certain criteria, answering the key questions around “what” you want to accomplish and “how” you will determine it’s been done.

The nuance is that objectives have to be what Grove called “significant.” In his view, it’s not enough to write down what you want without clarifying why you want it. The why is inherent to the success of OKR’s. It’s here that leaders and teams begin to have a deeper conversation around what makes a goal actually matter – not only for profit, but also for something beyond the bottom line.

In 1999, American investor and venture capitalist John Doerr brought OKRs to Google. The company credits him and the process with helping to take them from a team of 40 to the 180,000-plus employees they are today.

This is important information for all those little startups out there – the 4.7 million who each year strive to make it. Not only is purpose pivotal to the future of work. Successfully scaling any business is all about taking the opportunity to figure out how each person, role, and department tracks to a central mission. It’s not enough to have a future goal for growth. Founders will need to know why they want to be in business to begin with. 

Co-written by Elizabeth Solomon

Click here to learn more about Daniel Goleman's Building Blocks of Emotional Intelligence.