Vision of Building Beyond Business

Empowering a movement of leaders who activate their business as a powerful platform to build a better world.

Building beyond business is going the extra mile to intentionally create value for others beyond the fundamental value of doing good business. When your company begins to have any measure of financial success, the leaders get to decide what to do with that success. They can increase salaries and distributions, or they can increase the positive impact that have on company culture or on customers. They can decide to invest extra profits in customer service or lower costs to customers, even if that doesn't further increase profit margins.

Obviously, you need to be profitable enough to sustain a viable, growing business. But if you are a purpose-driven company, you can strategically invest in things that better accomplish the mission of your company. The highest purpose of the company can't be to build profits. It needs to build beyond business. Your company exists to make the world better for people. People don't exist to make your company better. The sooner you get straight on these priorities, the better.

In every business I have led in the last twenty-five years, we have embedded the following core value, even at the start-up phase when we are primarily only able to focus on the process of building the business:

 We value building beyond business. We believe that our business exists for purposes beyond financial or business interests. All our decisions and actions are based on motives and goals which will ultimately make a significant difference in lives and in communities. What we do today must always be measured against what will matter most beyond this life.

 Your business is not your purpose. Your business is a platform to build a better world. If you think that your business is your purpose, you’re underestimating its power and short-selling your potential. To optimize the real world-changing potential of your business, you need to recognize it exists for something beyond just the doing of good business. Yes, a good business can provide good value to the world just by doing good business. But a good business has so much more potential to provide great value to society beyond what it does in doing good commerce.

For example, a good business can go beyond basic business expectations to add value to its employees’ lives. This could be something as simple as helping employees feel extra special on their birthdays.

If an employee mentions he or she is having an anniversary, you could tell the person to take half a day off and give a gift card to a restaurant so the person can have a nice date with his or her spouse.

It could be something more systemic, like reinvesting a bit of profits into providing extra training or resources for a healthier or safer work environment. A business can invest some of its profits in providing personal financial management training to employees to help them get out of debt and reduce the financial stress that is the number one killer of marriages these days. Or your business can provide time and money for its employees to do service projects for the community, serving together in a homeless shelter, adopting an orphanage, or building wells for people who need water in developing countries.  Or your business can go beyond basic “green practices” to innovate sustainable practices and ecosystems that are regenerative to our planet.

You can do business in a way where you are a true steward of your city. Find out what your city needs and find a way your business can help meet that need. Your business can do things to help sustain our planet that are beyond just basic “green” best practices to innovate and implement practices and ecosystems that are regenerative to our planet.

Your business can become a sure way to shape society and ecology for the better.  Your business can have a powerful impact for good on people and the planet.

As your business begins to do things that build beyond business, you'll begin to notice a virtuous upward success cycle. Being socially responsible is a pathway to greater profit, which is a pathway to even greater social responsibility. You do well by doing good. When you do these types of things to build beyond business, you are building a better world! And you’ll likely see an increase in customer satisfaction, employee engagement, business outcomes, and personal fulfillment.

If this vision resonates with you, you’ve found your home.  The purpose of Building Beyond Business is to connect you with other business leaders who share the desire to build better businesses that build a better world.   We welcome you to join our online communities to learn from others and share your stories about what you are doing to use your business to make this world a better place.