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11Purpose, Strategy, and Positioning

To know what a business is we have to start with its purpose. There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer. Because its purpose is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two—and only these two—basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs.

—Peter Drucker, People and Performance, 2007

Imagine you or a loved one has made the painful and difficult decision to obtain a divorce, a high‐stress, high‐anxiety situation. Searching for a local family law attorney, you will discover what and how they do what they do, their credentials, areas of practice, etc. What very few will inform you is why they do what they do. Then you run across the website of Chinn & Associates PC, in Jackson, Mississippi (full disclosure: Mark Chinn is our VeraSage Institute colleague):

At Chinn & Associates, we believe that divorce may end a marriage, but it doesn't have to end a family or ruin your future. We are here to protect your interests.

What is meaningful about this is he is letting potential customers know why he does what he does, what he stands for, what he believes. As Simon Sinek says, people buy why you do what you do, not just what you do. This conveys something deeply personal about Mark's philosophy, his worldview, which is vital, as we humans are defined by what we believe, not what we know.

Defining your purpose is crucial because we believe everything ...