The Story of Purpose: The Path to Creating a Brighter Brand, a Greater Company, and a Lasting Legacy

13

The Road to Camelot

In short, there’s simply not

A more congenial spot

For Happily-Ever-Aftering

Than Here in Camelot.

—Alan Jay Lerner, lyricist1

As many of us are aware, Camelot is the stuff of legend. Made famous by twelfth-century legends of King Arthur, lyricist Alan Jay Lerner’s 1960 hit musical, and President John F. Kennedy’s wildly admired administration by the same name, Camelot today has simply come to mean a place or time of idyllic happiness.

For business, it can be a real destination where organizations of meaning bring both goods and good to the world. Camelot companies and brands have created their own mythologies by their benevolence and goodwill. These organizations were born with great purpose and garner the love of their associates, customers, partners, and shareholders. Of course, many organizations are still seeking Camelot after having lost what made them extraordinary in the first place.

The Journey to Camelot

For purposes of identifying corporate purpose, BrightHouse, along with Emory University business dean Andrea Hershatter, created a visual framework that positions and classifies organizations along a vertical and a horizontal axis.

The worn path takes us east, in the direction of operational excellence. More purposeful brands move along a new path toward soulful excellence and a brighter company. Purpose-bound organizations use the graph shown in Figure 13.1 as a benchmark for where they are on the road to Camelot.

FIGURE 13.1 Camelot Matrix