How to Design Your Organization’s Raison D’etre―――A translation of Diamond Harvard Business Review (March 2019) Japanese edition

In the past, the key to a successful business lay in the safeguarding of resources. Corporations carefully accumulated and guarded their personnel, capital, data and know-how in order to sharpen their competitive edge. They exploited this edge to create value by continually optimizing operational efficiency. But in the new digital economy of rapidly changing consumer needs, the safeguarding strategy limits the potential for success. The key to value creation for 21st-century companies lies in lowering the walls surrounding them and inviting in outside resources. How do they attract these resources? Prominent strategic designer, Kunitake Saso, argues that the key lies in gaining empathy and engagement from communities and crowds with their organization’s raison d’etre. This paper presents the purpose branding methodology by first redefining some well-known management terms: mission, vision and values, in addition to purpose, which has recently gained attention. It goes on to propose the purpose branding framework to help companies evolve their organization model into the next era, by continually designing and propagating the organization’s raison d’etre.