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What is at stake?
The purpose is the direction given to the startup 🚩 It's a long-term promise that links the startup's activity to a positive contribution to society and the planet (collective interest).
Why is it important?
From the outset, every company has a “raison d'être”, whether it is made explicit or not.
Explaining this raison d'être enables us to answer the question: What is the role of the company in society, beyond economic considerations?
In the MVP phase, the first definition of a raison d'être makes it possible to:
➡️ Align the team around a set of founding values and to unite founders’ efforts around a common vision;
➡️ Maintain consistency in the choices made and successive iterations (it's a decision-making tool)
➡️ Anchor the business for the long term.
Three actions to implement right now
1️⃣ Start with individual reflections
2️⃣ Gather together the results of individual work
This allows co-founders to establish shared values for the entrepreneurial adventure and to arrive at a consensus on the company's raison d'être.
The aim of this work is to ensure that the personal values of the co-founders and the startup are aligned.
3️⃣ Continue with collective iteration to arrive at an initial formulation
- Identifying and formulating a company's raison d'être is an ongoing, iterative process.
- The raison d'être must be made manifest on a daily basis by the entire team.
- Once it has been formulated (and only then), the raison d'être can be shared on a larger scale, using all appropriate communication media with all stakeholders (employees, partners, suppliers, customers, etc.).
Creating a dialogue and welcoming feedback from all stakeholders help the founding team to define a raison d'être that is relevant, distinctive, understandable and embraced by all.
A collective approach gives greater meaning to the company's raison d'être and unites people around a common goal.
How can we avoid this? By presenting it as often as possible to the people in its ecosystem, and by adopting a genuinely transparent approach.
📚 Further information
📖 Defining your raison d'être: a process of introspection (”Communauté des Entreprises à Mission”)
📖 The difficulty of defining a raison d'être for startups (”Communauté des Entreprises à Mission”)
🎤 Some examples of corporate “why”
⚖ Loi Pacte
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