The Purpose Gap

Today I'd like to talk to you about something that I call the purpose gap and I believe the purpose gap is one of the biggest opportunities but also threats in the world of business today. Now the reason the gap is an opportunity and a threat is a gap is the difference between what people want, what people hope for, and what they are actually getting or feeling is being delivered to
them by a business or an organization. And it turns out when it comes to purpose there is a very clear what I call purpose gap and the gap exists both for employees and for customers.
Let's start with the gap for employees. About seventy seven percent of employees globally say it matters a good deal to them to work for a company they believe in and in a job where they have a sense of purpose. Fifty percent of Millennials say they would actually take a pay cut
to work in that kind of job or for that kind of company and a full thirty seven percent of the global work force, almost four in ten are very focused on purpose as a main driver of their engagement and retention and yet when you ask employees do you work for that kind of company, it turns out about three out of four or seventy-five percent say the company that I work for cares mostly about its profits and its own self-interests not the well-being of its customers, clients or the greater society.
So get the picture, big gap, seventy seven percent of employees say I want it, fifty percent say I take a pay cut to have it, forty percent are highly motivated to act on it, but seventy-five percent saythat's not the company that I'm working for. Now when it comes to the purpose gap for employees, I don't believe that 75 percent of companies don't care about the well-being of their customers or clients or the greater society but the point is the employees don't feel it, they don't see it day in and day out, so those companies that do have a sense of purpose but aren't clearly communicating it, aren't putting it at center stage are missing a tremendous opportunity to engage their people and to keep them and of course if you don't have a sense of purpose, if in fact your company is mostly interested in profits and not the well-being of society or your customers, then you've got to address that. Now it turns out customers experience a very similar gap while about 80% of global customers say I want to buy from companies I believe in that are doing good in the world. It turns out customers have confidence that only about 6% of the companies that they do business with are good, in other words, they want to buy good but they say I have no idea if the companies I buy from are actually good. Only six out of a hundred do I have any high level of confidence and it turns out that about 33% or one out of three global customers are regularly punishing bad companies and rewarding good ones with their business and with their social media support but they really can't see that goodness so again another tremendous gap or opportunity. So those companies who can close the line of sight to customers help tell an authentic story that customers can see, feel and believe in, can make it real and palpable for people, are going to really win in the Purpose Revolution and those are the kinds of things that my colleague Jeff Vander Wielen and I talked about in the Purpose Revolution. This gap such an important factor and such a great opportunity for wise businesses. So look, I'd love to hear your comments, tell me how companies have closed the gap for you either as an employee or customer, how have they helped you to see that they do care about customers, clients, and the greater society or where have you experienced that gap as an employer team member and what do companies have to be careful of if they want to convince us that it's real and authentic