Corporate Strategy, mission, and purpose

[Anonymous]

I heard about corporate purpose and strategy to fulfill that purpose all the time.

I came across this Ted talk and I am acquaintance with this woman, she is sharp as whip and accomplished, but her talk feels so... empty?

https://www.ted.com/talks/ashley_m_grice_the_power_of_purpose_in_business?language=en

What IS strategy that all these consultants talk about, business mission statements? It all feels like made up talk to frame "we sell your info for ads" or "buy our widgets" that I believe is the real crux of business? But there is obviously a whole industry of strategy consultants like this?? I almost want to email her and ask, but I feel like it would be insulting to be as skeptical as I am now. My work is very concrete, I'm a lab researcher at a biology lab, so my purpose is clear "does this make people healthier". But we don't have a mission statement like that anywhere... hence my confusion.

[Anonymous]

It’s all buzzwords. Basically, they just are there to make money. That’s it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s all buzzwords. Basically, they just are there to make money. That’s it.

I mean that is my cynical take, but clearly there are people HIRING and paying real money to these companies for strategic consulting, purpose consulting, etc

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s all buzzwords. Basically, they just are there to make money. That’s it.

I mean that is my cynical take, but clearly there are people HIRING and paying real money to these companies for strategic consulting, purpose consulting, etc

Like what concretely happens when they do this:

"Since then, we've helped clients around the world transform their culture, align their people, accelerate their growth, and infuse true meaning into their brands."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s all buzzwords. Basically, they just are there to make money. That’s it.

I mean that is my cynical take, but clearly there are people HIRING and paying real money to these companies for strategic consulting, purpose consulting, etc

Like what concretely happens when they do this:

"Since then, we've helped clients around the world transform their culture, align their people, accelerate their growth, and infuse true meaning into their brands."

Pretty much. Just all buzzwords. In reality, they just looked at what departments aren’t profitable, re-org’d, get rid of people they don’t need, and seeing how execs can bring in the most for their bonuses. All while trying to appear to not be divisive anymore and pretending they care about their employees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s all buzzwords. Basically, they just are there to make money. That’s it.

I mean that is my cynical take, but clearly there are people HIRING and paying real money to these companies for strategic consulting, purpose consulting, etc

Like what concretely happens when they do this:

"Since then, we've helped clients around the world transform their culture, align their people, accelerate their growth, and infuse true meaning into their brands."

Pretty much. Just all buzzwords. In reality, they just looked at what departments aren’t profitable, re-org’d, get rid of people they don’t need, and seeing how execs can bring in the most for their bonuses. All while trying to appear to not be divisive anymore and pretending they care about their employees.

Okay fellow cynics, I appreciate you. I feel heard. But this town is full of consultants, please come one here and set me straight!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s all buzzwords. Basically, they just are there to make money. That’s it.

I mean that is my cynical take, but clearly there are people HIRING and paying real money to these companies for strategic consulting, purpose consulting, etc

Like what concretely happens when they do this:

"Since then, we've helped clients around the world transform their culture, align their people, accelerate their growth, and infuse true meaning into their brands."

Pretty much. Just all buzzwords. In reality, they just looked at what departments aren’t profitable, re-org’d, get rid of people they don’t need, and seeing how execs can bring in the most for their bonuses. All while trying to appear to not be divisive anymore and pretending they care about their employees.

Okay fellow cynics, I appreciate you. I feel heard. But this town is full of consultants, please come one here and set me straight!

Former consultant here. We were brought in to justify management's decision. They didn't want to be seen as the bad guys for implementing a reorg or cutting costs, so they could lay blame on "objective, third party McKinsey." The buzzwords are just that, and are mainly used to make consultants feel important; no one knows what they mean, really. I remember when cloud was all the rage; I knew consultants who worked in the field and admitted to not knowing what it really was and laughing about it. Lots of people who are good at checking boxes set out by people they perceive to be better than themselves join the profession and have their imposter syndrome used against them to make money for the company and guilt them into working late/sacrificing their personal life.

[Anonymous]

As for corporate strategy: the CEO has a very vague idea but doesn't want to do the dirty work. So he employs ex-consultants in-house to make sense of his harebrained that he'll forget about in 2 weeks, and use the corporate strategy team to harangue everyone into doing his bidding to 1) seem important and 2) take the blame of being a pest off his back and place it on the corp strat team. It's just busywork at the end of the day.