Over the weekend, I finished a book that begins to upend the foundation .beyondcomms is built on. The title? The Road to Hell: How Purposeful Business Leads to Bad Marketing and a Worse World And how Human Creativity is the Way Out. The author? Nick Asbury.
Before we dive in – TL;DR
Below is a shortened version of Goodreads’ description of Asbury’s book:
Asbury’s book challenges the core assumption of purpose-driven business that emerged after the 2008 financial crisis. His central argument? The ‘do well by doing good’ mantra has backfired, leading to:
- Inauthentic advertising that lacks impact
- Companies overstepping boundaries on social issues
- Businesses neglecting their core responsibilities
Through case studies of major brands like Bud Light, Patagonia, and Unilever, Asbury dismantles the current purpose movement and offers an alternative path forward: embracing human creativity and genuine empathy instead of corporate virtue signaling.
In an era where purpose dominates business strategy, this book is a timely critique.
Is there a place for purpose?
.beyondcomms is built on my conviction that purpose will make for better businesses that do good for the world. The question that has always stuck with me is: Can an inanimate legal structure of a business have a purpose? The answer I arrive at is: No, a business cannot, but the people inside it can. From the start, I knew that marketing based on purpose tends to be weak, but purpose as an internal strategic lever can have some impact.
The most important function of a for-profit business is to make a profit. Profit that can nourish and sustain employees and leadership and grow the business. Every individual searches for their purpose or has found it already. Often, that lies outside of the organization they are working for. That’s true for large corporations. A small start-up, on the other hand, is often driven by a spark of purpose. A purpose that the founders share and try to bring their new joiners along on.
Often, that purpose is not a grandiose moral obligation, but it can be as simple as “we want to become THE definitive platform for agentic testing” (Coval). It’s a far-away aim that will take some time to achieve but allows everyone to rally behind. Laura acknowledged how important purpose has been in her story of founding Audicin and the role it plays in hiring people who align with the values of the company.
What does that mean for .beyondcomms?
Asbury’s argument calls for a more nuanced understanding of purpose in the context of business. For .beyondcomms, this means a shift in our foundation. We still unearth and center purpose.
We don’t look at a grandiose business purpose. In the future, we will create spaces for founders and owners to unearth their purpose so that they can understand what kind of business they want to build. For start-ups and SMEs this understanding can be fundamental in understanding where business clashes with individual purpose.
What about Businesses?
When it comes to the business side, we focus on creating ‘strategic clarity.’ It doesn’t have the same ring as the p-word, but it’s much more accurate. Most of the founders I speak with have incredible ideas, interesting products, or amazing services. However, they often don’t know how to align their communication with their ideal audience, falling into a pattern of marketing shoulds and hacks. What they need is clarity on where they are going in the short- and long-term and then they align their comms.