Purpose’ is the latest buzzword to sweep the corporate world. According to Ralph Zebregs, the driving force behind De Droomfabriek, a company specialising in creating and transforming organisational cultures, some have even begun using the term ‘meaning economy’. Within this concept, ’being meaningful’ determines the success of companies and building brands. Zebregs wrote a column for NPM about purpose.
“I am a big fan of the work of the Belgian author Frederic Laloux and his 2014 book Reinventing Organizations. I admire the book for many reasons, but what particularly resonates with me is his stance that in the future, businesses will need an ‘evolutionary purpose’ in order to survive. He defines this purpose as the “collective impact toward which the organization should strive to evolve” (to quote the master himself).
The notion of ‘purpose’ has been much discussed lately. I should probably first explain how we define this term here at De Droomfabriek. To us, a purpose is the higher goal to which an organisation aspires – its contribution to the world.