The Cranky Middle Manager Show #72 Your Company’s Purpose- Nikos Mourkogiannis

Posted on 26. Nov, 2006 by Wayne in Podcast

The Cranky Middle Manager Show #072 (MP3 10.3MB 30:05 Min)

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This show was 4 months in the making. I got an advance copy of Nikos Mourkogiannis’ book, “Purpose, the Starting Point of Great Companies” . Maybe it’s because of the internal chaos at the Dreaded Day Job, but this book really resonated with me, and couldn’t wait for it to be available and share it with you all.

Note for the faint of heart- it’s not an airplane read. It’s a heavy serious book and you’ll have to take your time with it. It also uses words like “moral” and “duty” and if you’re looking for “Who Moved My Cheese”, this ain’t the place- at least not this week.

Show 72 Notes

0:00 I”m excited about this book Purpose. I’ve been driving people at work absolutely crazy about it. Take some time with this episode, gang.

The show is dedicated to Sir Bedivere the last great knight of the Round Table. Arthur and Bedivere understood the purpose of their outfit, unlike most managers and CEOs today. I also present the mission statement as a consultant would have crafted it for them.

3:37 The quote of the week is from Epictetus, one of my favorite philosophers. You have to define what you want before you go for it. You can read more about Epictetus in my book, “A Philistine’s Journal- an Average Guy Tackles the Classics”.
5:14 NOTE The sound on my end of the conversation is funky for reasons I can’t even begin to fathom. My recording software sometimes does this. I beg your forgiveness and the important thing is that Nikos sounds very clear- in more ways than one.

What is purpose? It’s above, Mission, Vision or Values. It’s what the human race finds good. This is not going to be the normal light weight interview, kids.

7:13 What does morality have to do with companies, and why are people so afraid of it?

9:20 In business, there are four major “purposes” and he provides very in-depth examples of each:

• Altruism: Sam Walton of Walmart
• Heroism: Henry Ford
• Discovery: Tom Watson of IBM
• Excellence: Siegmund Warburg and Warren Buffet

13:44 Some of these examples were brilliant for a while and faded… purpose is not eternal and if it doesn’t there would be no growth or transformation

19:04 How do you get a community of purpose? How do you get people on board?

22:34 Purpose is not something you can just create. It’s for grown-ups and requires a functioning organization.

• You start with financial advantage- make it a success
• Then you go to strategic advantage- growth and expansion
• Finally you have the larger purpose revealed

25:20 There are 6 questions in the book that are designed to reveal purpose, but one question above all- “why”?

27:28 For resources, Nikos suggests reading philosophy. Execution is great, but you can do really bad things really well. Management is doing things right, Leadership is doing the right things.

Folks, we’ve done 72 episodes, some of the light, some of them heavier and thoughtful. Check out the archives on the right side of your screen and listen to our back catalogue of episodes.

Don’t let the weasels get you down.