Measuring what matters: how to set KPIs in a purpose-led business

Purpose-led businesses possess:

• a clear purpose statement that explains what impact they want to have on improving the world 

• a purpose-led strategy that includes and aligns the entire organisation around fulfilling that purpose

• purposeful leaders who create an atmosphere that enables and ensures the purpose is consistently put into practice, and

• purposeful KPIs to track and communicate their progress and success.

The relationship between purpose and profit is symbiotic.  In the long run, the impact of a purpose-led business will be limited without a business model that is capable of generating sufficient financial returns or investment to sustain the fulfillment of its purpose (whether that organisation is a for-profit, not-for-profit, social enterprise, or government entity, etc).  Synchronously, the profits produced by any business are arguably unsustainable if they are generated in ways that are detrimental to any of the organisation’s stakeholders.

In our work with leaders, whether they are at the helm of organisations that are transitioning to become purpose-led, or those that are “purpose-natives” by design, we encourage them to adopt both performance and impact measures.  

Truly successful businesses are ones that can sustain their success. And success that is lasting and durable requires business models that produce positive impacts purposefully while performing well economically.

Most businesses keep a very close eye on their organisation’s performance against traditional measures such as profit, growth, costs, market share, but few keep track of their impact with anywhere near the same degree of attentiveness.  

In our business, our purpose is to equip business to improve the world.  That’s our WHY.  WHAT we do is provide strategy consulting and leadership development services.  So what might be good impact and performance measures for a business like ours?

The above metrics are just a sample of some of the things we can and do measure in our business. One thing that is interesting to note is that with performance, it’s often easier to measure the lag indicators, but with impact, it’s often easier to measure the lead indicators.

So… thinking about your organisation, how might you better measure your performance and impact?  The first place to start is with your purpose.  What is your purpose? What positive social and/or environmental and/or economic outcomes are relevant to your purpose that you would like to create? And which of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals does your purpose contribute to, if any?