Purpose, Mission, Vision, and Values

For me, the traditional hierarchy of Mission, Vision, Values, and Purpose is inverted. I see Purpose as the cornerstone from which everything else emerges. 

My Purpose 

I worry for my daughter and the world she’s inheriting. The challenges are manifold and not limited to the existential threat from climate change. Or the more insidious but no less life-threatening threat from the continued use of plastics. There is the continuing aggregation of wealth to a tiny number of people and the digital serfdom that is arising. There is the threat to human purpose from robots and AI. And increasing social divisions and tribalism arising because of perceived threats from all directions. And, of course, there is the persisting fixation on economic ‘growth’ on a planet with finite resources.  

When asked about the purpose of business, some might prioritize financial profit. However, I believe that while financial viability is necessary for business survival, it should not be the primary goal. Instead, I propose that the fundamental purpose of business should be to foster social cohesion. This includes providing meaningful employment that contributes to community building at the local level and promoting peaceful international relations through trade at the global level. 

Interactual’s Purpose 

As the owner of Interactual, there’s only so much I can do through doing business to resolve these issues. But these are the things we can do to make a small difference: - 

• Offer direct employment because fulfilment comes from working as part of a team towards shared goals. 

• Nurture talent internally and hopefully influence staff to adopt a shared purpose to make the planet a better place. 

• Help start-up and small businesses through innovation, to solve little bits of these big problems. In this instance I want them to grow, because ultimately, we want businesses that make the planet better to grow, and those that do harm, to disappear. 

• Encourage my clients to localise production and redistribute the ownership and means of production. 

So, what do we value? 

Whilst it’s great to have life-affirming purpose, it’s hard to stay motivated without some more basic day-to-day values that inform how we work. 

• Getting to work with rockstars and superheroes. These can be great clients, externals specialists or homegrown talent. It’s just so much less stressful to team up with people who are absolutely at the top of their game and whilst they are not always the cheapest, greater certainty almost always offers a better client experience. 

• My clients trust. To gain this, my team must be deeply committed to our clients’ goals but also be willing to question everything even when it may not be in our best interest. 

• Integrity and Respect. A culture of honesty and transparency extends to clients, suppliers and within my own team. It’s simple - treat others how you want to be treated! 

• Agility. We’ve worked hard to develop a genuinely agile approach for hardware development. Now we get further, faster and at lower risk and can pivot rapidly as a project evolves. 

• The chance to work on meaningful stuff. Projects don’t have to be overtly planet saving. But we’ll politely decline if a project negatively impacts our core purpose. 

• Joy & Passion. Work should be fulfilling and fun…for everyone. The trick is making sure people have what they need to succeed. That can be resources but also enough time and budget. 

Vision 

I’ve been making physical stuff for most of my working life. I set up Interactual when I realised that what I’d been doing by making stuff was taking risk out of the new product development process. Along the way I’ve gained knowledge and experience of every part of NPD strategy from user research through to funding and business structure.  

So, my vision is for Interactual to become recognized as the go-to partner when physical verification is required, providing not only verification services, but helping customers to develop the right strategy to take risk out of innovation