A Business Legacy: Providing More Value for its Customers

Discovering a moral mission requires a little soul searching. Typically, it involves an exercise that serves to identify an intrinsic value embedded in a company’s DNA, which is a logical extension of the business that can do good for the world.

…A few years back, I asked Sam Allen, chairman and CEO, Deere & Company, what he wanted his legacy to be at this venerable company, which has been in operation since 1837. His answer was not to simply sell more green tractors than the previous CEO. His vision was to, yes, continue to have Deere deliver profitability to stakeholders by selling plenty of those machines, but moreover to elevate the brand by delivering a higher value to its customers and the world. The strategy, which moved Deere into an entirely different category than its competitors, was to use software to enable farmers to maximize their yield, ultimately helping them feed an ever-growing planet. With the population expected to grow by two billion, this enabled Deere to address a major world issue. This was Deere’s moral purpose.

This purposeful moral path is analogous to Aristotle’s eudaimonia, a Greek word that often is translated to mean the state of having a good in-dwelling spirit. Aristotle’s concept was that a man who possesses excellence or virtue in character does the right thing at the right time and in the right way. Similarly, companies that follow this path of “right” will prosper on multiple levels, as it will fuel business prosperity and deliver an entirely new level of engagement with stakeholders.