Samuel Palmisano stood down as chief executive of IBM in January 2012, after almost a decade leading the venerable IT company. His aim had been to re-establish the firm as standard setters and, in an interview with the New York Times to mark his departure, he said he had done so using a guiding framework of four questions:
“Why would someone spend their money with you?”
“Why would somebody work for you?”
“Why would society allow you to operate in their country?”
“And why would somebody invest their money with you?”
Writing in HR Zone recently, Ron Thomas, managing director of the Strategy Focused Group, argued that the second question was the most important. He wrote: “Every organization should not only think through this powerful question but also needs to develop a mission statement that specifically focuses on why an employee would want to work with you.”