How To Choose If Your Business Should Exist

If you truly listen to your organization’s purpose, you might realize that it can’t continue the way it is. How do you know if it should still exist?

Here is a 3-point test from my colleague Frederic Laloux. I find it thought-provoking, so I am sharing it with you with the hope that it will trigger some valuable conversations.

1 - Offering strength

If your product or service matters to people, it should be easy to sell. What would happen if you couldn’t do any marketing? Would your organization still exist? Do you constantly need to prop up false needs for your customers to believe they need your brand? Does your business exist because of the meaning of its offering or because you constantly pump money into creating demand?

2 - Radical transparency

If making your product or service does no arm, you should be fully transparent about your production process. What would happen if, before people buy anything from you, they could see an unfiltered five-minute video that shows exactly how what you sell was made. Would they still buy it?

3 - Full cost

If the purpose of your organization is to improve people’s lives, you should be able to take responsibility for everything it takes to run it. What if you included all the costs that you generate and that you didn’t price into your service or product (pollution, stress, inequalities, etc.) Could people still afford it?

Every business has a life. It’s the end of it when there are not enough good reasons why it should exist. It is up to you to face that reality.

The beauty is that everything your organization generates (the value, the IP, the skills, the experience, the knowledge, etc.) can be recycled and go to nourish something new, something relevant, more responsible and less costly.