Your organization's purpose is the fundamental reason why it exists. It is the problem to be solved, the job to be done that brought about the organization's formation. Purpose by its definition is always linked to the core problem an organization intends to solve profitably with its solutions for people and the environment, that will significantly improve their wellbeing. The purpose statement should also specify that the organization will not be profiting from producing negative impacts.
Think of an organization as a machine that a group of humans get together and build to address some fundamental wellbeing problem out in the world. Typically, though not always, this is a problem to be solved or job to be done that might be practically impossible for a single individual to solve. That problem to be solved or job to be done is highly consequential, so when we find solutions, they make the world better or the lives of the individuals impacted by the problem appreciably easier. Organizations make tools we call products and/or services that they provide to clients or customers to use to try to solve the problem. Understandably some of these products do better than others.
Given this analogy, a product cannot be the purpose of an organization. It is a means to an end, a tool that an organization uses to do the job of achieving its purpose. There may be other products or other tools that an organization might use. While these tools might change, the purpose of the organization remains the same.
A product cannot be the purpose of an organization.
Thus, it would not make sense to say that an insurance company's purpose is to sell insurance. Insurance is only a means to an end. The insurance company's purpose is the problem it is trying to help its customers solve by providing them with insurance. For instance, the problem might be framed as assisting customers to ensure their futures are safe and secure. Insurance is a tool to achieving safety and security, but it is not safety and security itself. It is not the purpose itself.
Making money, in this sense, is a critical by-product from the pursuit of purpose. It is not purpose itself.
Under this logic, making money or profit can never be said to be the true purpose of an organization. Money is made when customers compensate an organization for tools it has created that aid in achieving its true purpose.
In the insurance example, customers pay premiums in exchange for the assurance that the insurance product provides them. Making money, in this sense, is a critical by-product from the pursuit of purpose. It is not purpose itself.
It may fuel the engine of purpose but making money is not the purpose itself. Indeed, making money can no more be the purpose of an organization's existence than breathing air could be the purpose of human existence.
QUALITIES OF PURPOSE
Purpose is big and consequential by its very nature. It has certain qualities.
In as much as purpose is about solving fundamental human problems of wellbeing, you know you are zeroing in on your true and most compelling purpose when it speaks to solving a fundamental need that impacts people, our world, society, or the environment. Therefore, contributing to solving world hunger, eradicating disease or poverty (no matter how small the contribution) is not too lofty for purpose. In this sense, purpose is big, not small.
PURPOSE VERSUS MISSION, VISION, VALUE.
