Deep Purpose: The Heart and Soul of High-Performance Companies [Hardcover]

Forbes, Best Business Books of 2022

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Thinkers50 Top 10 Best New Management Books for 2022

Axiom Award Bronze Medalist for Business Ethics

A distinguished Harvard Business School professor offers a compelling reassessment and defense of purpose as a management ethos, documenting the vast performance gains and social benefits that become possible when firms manage to get purpose right.

Few business topics have aroused more skepticism in recent years than the notion of corporate purpose, and for good reason. Too many companies deploy purpose, or a reason for being, as a promotional vehicle to make themselves feel virtuous and to look good to the outside world. Some have only foggy ideas about what purpose is and conflate it with strategy and other concepts like mission, vision, and values. Even well-intentioned leaders dont understand purposes full potential, struggling to balance purpose and profit and engaging half-heartedly with it. Outsiders spot this and become cynical about companies and the broader capitalist endeavor.

Having conducted extensive field research, Ranjay Gulati reveals the fatal mistakes leaders unwittingly make when attempting to implement a reason for being. Moreover, he shows how companies can embed purpose much more deeply than they currently do, delivering impressive performance benefits that create long-term value for customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, and communities alike. To get purpose right, leaders must fundamentally change not only how they execute it but also how they conceive of and relate to it. They must practice what Gulati callsdeep purpose, furthering each organizations reason for being more intensely, thoughtfully, and comprehensively than ever before.

In this authoritative, accessible, and inspiring guide, Gulati takes readers inside some of the worlds most purposefull#½