Raison d’être

It means “reason for being.” I’ve always preferred the French version because it’s a more elegant way of expressing this exceptionally powerful concept. It’s also more fun to say…and I say it often in my work with destinations across the Americas.

Maybe I’m not hanging out with the right people, but I haven’t heard anyone else say “raison d’être” in conversation until this month’s DMOU podcast with 4VI CEO Anthony Everett. And then, just a couple days after recording that episode (which dropped yesterday), the English version popped up (a lot) in a book that I had somehow missed when it was released in 2011. The book is “Grow” by Jim Stengel.

I’m only half way through the book…but the basic premise is crystal clear. Not unlike Simon Sinek’s “Start with Why” (which, coincidently, was released the same day), “Grow” claims to have discovered the secret sauce for business success. And, it’s like these two researcher / authors had discovered the same sauce…but from slightly different angles.

If you’re not familiar by now with Simon’s take, click here for his seminal TED Talk.

But, in this post, I’m going to focus on Stengel. In a nutshell, his angle is that a company must have an “ideal.” That it must stand for something; both in its product and the way it does business. That staff must live this ideal everyday (not because you tell them to but because they want to). That there is a raison’d’etre to your product or service (are we improving the lives of the people we serve?). That there is a reason why people want to work for you, consumers want to buy from you and investors want to invest in you.

And, far from how “touchy-feely” this may sound, his research showed that the top 50 performing companies in the world all had this “ideal.” This raison d’être. That Method wanted to find cleaning products that didn’t use toxic chemicals. That Apple wanted to make people more productive and creative. That Nike wanted to make people faster and more competitive.

Did it cost a bit more? Of course. But these companies, as wildly profitable as they are today, did not start out to make money (well, maybe enough money to live on). They started out to solve an existential need to make us all better. 

So what does this have to do with Destination Leadership Organizations?

It gets back to the now fairly accepted understanding that we do what we do in this sector to enhance quality of life and place for our fellow residents. While it’s taken us longer than it should have, our response to the crisis of the past two years has pretty much put an exclamation mark on the concept. And, those still standing that think what we do is about “heads in beds” should consider another line of work.

These two books are blueprints which we need to consider as we recast our agencies from Marketing (and beyond Management). As Stengel writes, what are the values we embrace? It must be more than overnight stays; and more than daytripers, attraction visits, retail sales and restaurant and nightspot vitality. Through our collective work, we enhance lives and the human condition and connections with each other (cue Mark Twain). But, can we enhance more lives than just those who visit?

I believe we can…and must.

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