What exactly is an organisation’s purpose?

Published On - 26 June 2026

Sudhanshu Vuppuluri Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Corporate Strategy, Productivity
Together We Grow

Target audience:

Decision makers of manufacturing & allied firms, business strategists, and curious people.

 

Reading time:

5-10 min.

Across the world, each day, numerous employees wake up and come to their workplace with a strong motivation to put their best efforts and to fully engage with their company’s mission and vision.

 

Unfortunately, a sudden strategic (or even tactical) change by the board or senior management that affects the way the employees interact with their customers, vendors or other partners can bring about a big confusion amongst the employees. If these management changes are not effectively communicated with the workforce who are affected, they would feel that the management has disillusioned them. In other words, such staff members could feel that they are being restricted from showcasing their best efforts.

 

Many large corporations with talented and experienced people on their payroll and management across the world—did not take concrete and timely action to adapt to the changes in technology and consumer preferences, which resulted in their catastrophic failure. Key examples include—Kodak, Nokia, Blockbuster, Blackberry, Borders.

What Went wrong?

A classic case can be seen from the highlights of Kodak’s management decisions—

  1. Existing technologies were given a higher weight (incremental innovation of film cameras) and a huge capital allocation set aside towards R&D of these products,
  2. Low R&D investment and marketing efforts towards future technologies (digital cameras), and
  3. Expectations of perpetual revenues from an existing technology (sale of film rolls).

How can we avoid these mistakes?

For instance, AI-led disruptions have reduced face to face and telephonic customer interactions in many workplaces due to rise in usage of chatbots. The frontline staff who had developed a strong relationship with clients due to such communication channels would feel frustrated.

 

For a management team to make better decisions while implementing disruptive technologies like AI to reduce repeatable and mundane tasks, it is important to know the candid opinions of employees. A structured method could be to—

  1. Have a purpose audit (voice of the employees via a thorough feedback),
  2. Initiate an enabling bureaucracy (remove coercive bureaucracy, and co-develop policies that include notable suggestions from employees), and
  3. Proactively communicate important business decisions to all concerned stakeholders within the organisation to get their undeterred support.

In effect, the barriers and policy changes due to disruptive technologies need to be revisited regularly to understand if they may be against the company’s mission and vision statements. If employees feel empowered to act within mutually agreeable rules on the behalf of an establishment, they would be more likely to continue and bring in fresh talent.

References

  1. https://hbr.org/2026/06/when-purpose-backfires?utm_campaign=hbr&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedinnewsletter&tpcc=linkedinnewsletter
  2. https://www.forbes.com/sites/chunkamui/2012/01/18/how-kodak-failed/
  3. https://valuer.ai/blog/50-examples-of-corporations-that-failed-to-innovate-and-missed-their-chance
  4. Photo by Wilfred Panakkal from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/united-silhouettes-against-a-vibrant-sunset-36463969/