What is your company’s purpose? As a business leader, your instinctive response might be to make quality products, earn profits, gain market share or perhaps even create and sustain jobs. While these are sound and legitimate goals, they’re missing a higher purpose. Without a greater mission that goes beyond these basic functions, leaders will find themselves challenged to align and inspire both their teams and their customers.
In the classic business book Start With Why, author Simon Sinek conveys the idea that rather than craft their message around what they do, their message should start with why – a purpose, cause or belief. He provides the example of Apple, which describes its purpose not as making great computers, rather “challenging the status quo and thinking differently by making beautifully designed, simple to use and user-friendly products.”
As CEO of Smoothie King, it’s not so much about crafting an external message that conveys a greater purpose, but actually personally believing in and living the purpose. It also means feeling proud of the products we sell. When evaluating potential business investments, I sought something that I could believe in, live and breathe and devote my life to. In looking at franchise concepts, I couldn’t bring myself to sell food that contributes to obesity and health problems. I thought if I wouldn’t want my own children consuming a brand’s products, then I wouldn’t want to sell them to the public.
That’s why I believe so strongly in Smoothie King. This brand was created to help people live a healthy, active lifestyle. I’m proud to share this with the rest of the world, as are my management team, our franchisees and their employees. In 1973, to combat food allergies and health conditions, our founder Steve Kuhnau began mixing various nutrients and proteins together with real fruit in a blender to create custom blends. His health improved dramatically, and he made it his mission to share the message of good nutrition and meal replacement with the world. From there, our mantra “Smoothies with a Purpose” was born.
At Smoothie King, we are all true believers that the more stores we put out into the world, the more people we can reach and the more people we can inspire to lead a healthier life. With this greater purpose, our team, our franchisees and their employees are proud to truly embody what we say with what we do. We realize that making nutrition delicious is critical to helping us achieve our mission. That motivates our R&D team to constantly innovate our menu with offerings that combine nourishment and flavor, such as our Greek yogurt smoothies, our protein-packed plant-based vegan line and
As we target more territories to expand our presence, we are consumed with our mission of inspiring people to live healthy and active lifestyles. This greater purpose is what drives our team and our franchisees to perform, as well as drive our customers into Smoothie King stores around the world. It certainly motivates me each and every day.
What is the greater purpose driving your business?