“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” – Simon Sinek

In late 2021, as the world began to recover from the global pandemic, we gathered in a rented conference room. Jeremy, Denise, and I – BPM’s leadership team – were joined by our executive coach and our fractional sales leader. The vaccine we helped distribute was making a difference, and the economy was on the mend. We were leaders of the company, serving our clients and our teammates. Today we were here to shape the future.

Once we had filled our coffee cups and settled in, we took a few deep breaths and invited each other to calm our minds. Today would be about getting clear. We would discover the words to describe what BPM was all about. We would work to identify our core ideology. In short – we needed a new vision statement.

Our previous vision statement was true, but it said more about what we do and how we do it than why. It was also a bit corporate-speaky and a tad uninspiring.

Extraordinary people building high trust relationships to deliver life science projects that are complex and/or mission critical for us and our clients.

start with why

It was time to reimagine and reenergize. I dimmed the lights and projected Simon Sinek’s amazing Ted Talk.

When the video ended, I let the silence in the room sit and do its work. It was not the first time we had heard Sinek’s wise words, but it hit a little different this time. The concepts began forming in our minds. It began to occur to us.

People don’t buy WHAT BPM does, they buy WHY BPM does it.

People don’t work for BPM because of WHAT we do, they work for BPM because of WHY we do it.

Clicking to the next slide, we read a powerful quote from Sinek’s book, Start with Why

“The goal of business should not be to do business with everyone who needs what you have… The goal is to focus on people who believe what you believe. When we are selective about doing business only with those who believe in our ‘why,’ trust emerges.” – Simon Sinek, Start with Why

With the morning sun beaming through the windows of the conference room, and with freshly piqued inspiration, we began to ask each other and ourselves some bold questions. Are we ready to take a stand? What do we believe so strongly that we are willing to walk away from deals if the prospect does not believe it also? What if an experienced candidate or even a current employee does not believe it? Would we part ways? We had better choose wisely. After all, we may have to put it in our email signature lines.

The mood was set. The room was ready to take a stand for… something. We were ready to believe in… something. But what?

A Brief History of BPM

Jeremy Opperman, the founder and spiritual heart of BPM, has always been clear about his values. He started the company to work with outstanding people—the cream of the crop of top leaders and technical experts. He wanted BPM to be recognized for providing reliable people who could get the important, difficult jobs done. More importantly, he wanted a company that put people before profits, valued relationships over money and status, and served a cause bigger than ourselves.

As Jeremy spoke about those early days, it was clear that we were all resonating with his story. We heard and related to how he loved his work because he got to work with great people. He saw what was possible when high performing people came together into trusting teams with a clear, compelling objective. And he wanted to keep doing that. Jeremy’s experience was a familiar story. We work with people all the time – some great and some not so great. And sometimes, we get to work with a team that is truly extraordinary. What if he could build a company whose reason for being was not just to make money for the owner, but to bring together amazing people to do amazing things. And then everyone could share in the success.

What is BPM’s WHY?

The challenge was to distill these deeply held beliefs into a succinct, inspiring vision. We wanted to avoid another pedestrian statement like “people are our most important asset.” We aimed to flip the script: People first. Period. In the company we envisioned, it wasn’t great people enabling a great business; it was a business that enabled great people. A successful business was necessary to support our vision, but it was not the primary motivator. The primary motivator was working together with great people.

As I listened to Jeremy, and as I heard Denise chime in with agreement, I knew we were onto something. I had already toyed with a few vision statements. The energy in the room that day told me that we were close to putting words to something each of us already believed. In fact, in our individual careers, we had each tried our best to work this way and to find others who worked this way. I made a few wording adjustments and clicked to the next slide. “What do we think of this?”

We believe in the power of extraordinary people working together in a great environment to accomplish important, lasting change.

The room was silent for a bit while we took it in and let it marinate. After a minute or so, we each nodded. And said something like, “That’s it.” Our core ideology. Our shared belief. Our Core Purpose.

A Lasting Legacy

I often tell folks that 100 years from now, if you go to downtown Indianapolis and find the tallest skyscraper, you may find the CEO of BPM Associates. If you ask them, “What does BPM do?” they might say life science consulting or asteroid mining or some futuristic thing we have not even heard of yet. But if you ask them what the Core Purpose is, they will tell you some version of, “We believe in the power of extraordinary people working together in a great environment to accomplish important, lasting change.” Because people will always come first. A great environment will always be non-negotiable. Extraordinary people accomplishing important, lasting change will always be at the heart of what we do. Whether we are mining asteroids, creating endless clean energy, or delivering medical innovations to patients, our core belief remains the same. How we accomplish this will evolve as the needs of people evolve.

Having discovered the language to express what we believe, we continued the planning session. With our core ideology expressed in this inspiring way, the rest of the day took on an even greater air of excitement. Financial targets, sales strategies, internal project planning, and methodology roadmaps took on a sense of purpose and reality. Strategic planning just became fun!

As we filed out of the building into the twilight of that crisp winter evening, we each had a smile on our face. As we headed to meet up with family and friends for dinner, no doubt we would talk about work differently. We would be proud to share not just “what we do” at work, but “why we do” the work that we do.

Oh, and we all put the Core Purpose it in our email signatures…