The Compass for businesses: a strong foundation for growth

Part 1 of 3 in the series: The Compass, The Map, and The Journey for companies.

Imagine building a house by starting with the roof.

That’s how many companies approach growth. They rush into hiring, marketing, and execution, without ever agreeing on the foundation. No wonder only 23% of business leaders say their strategy is clearly understood across the organization.

They’re building without a foundation, or as I call it: The Compass.

The Compass is the first building block of my consulting framework for startups and business leaders.

Why a Compass matters: misalignment is expensive

You can have brilliant talent, strong funding, and a great idea, but without alignment on the essentials, you’ll still end up misfiring. I believe that 90% of inefficiencies and missed goals can be tracked back to a misalignment within the Compass.

The Compass gives your team a shared direction: a clear sense of who we are, why we’re here, and how we operate. There are three elements to it: 🧭 Values

🧭 Purpose

🧭 Domain Clarity

Here’s why they matter and what happens when they’re missing.

Values: the building block for performance

Too many companies focus heavily on expertise when hiring, and overlook values entirely. That’s a miss. An overlap in values, combined with a diversification in expertise, is what usually leads to great problem solving and innovation. It’s not about harmony. Conflict is essential for progress. But how conflict plays out is the real differentiator.

"It’s not about who is right, but what is right."

Values differ from company to company and that’s not a problem. What matters is alignment inside your team. Here is a simple, real-world example:

I once ate at an amazing steakhouse with an open kitchen. The energy was intense. A clear, almost militaristic leadership culture. Every instruction from the chef was echoed by a loud “Si, Chef!” and the team moved with precision. The values of hierarchy, discipline, and excellence were on full display. And they worked.

A week later, I had lunch at a top-tier vegan restaurant. Also open kitchen, but the vibe couldn’t have been more different: soft, calm, collaborative. No orders shouted, just quiet coordination. But the product? Equally world-class.

Two completely different value systems. But both teams were aligned internally, and it showed.

What matters isn’t which values you choose, but that your team shares and lives them. That’s why I recommend integrating values not just into your culture deck, but into hiring, onboarding, and performance reviews.

Purpose: the real why behind the work

Too often, purpose is confused with PR. Some companies still write purpose statements that sound like they were spit out by a chatbot trying to win a TED talk. And the market sees through it.

Nobody reads Mark Zuckerberg’s latest AGI manifesto and thinks, “Yes, that feels deeply human and genuine.” But the answer isn’t to swing too far in the other direction either. Purpose isn’t about writing something impressive, it’s about identifying what really drives your company forward.

Purpose doesn’t have to be philanthropic. But it has to be true.

Another example:

One of my clients is an amazing Patissier. Understanding the dedication to her craft and products, I wrongly assumed her passion was purely in the process. In refining the recipe and getting every tiny detail right. But when we talked more deeply about her purpose, she said something that stuck with me:

“What gives me the most joy is when a client lights up. When someone’s genuinely blown away by a cake I created. That’s why I do this.”

That’s a great basis for an impactful purpose statement. It’s not about saving the world, it’s about making someone’s day.

A "good" purpose shows up at the intersection of:

• A real need in the market

• The talent and passion inside your team

• The values that guide your work

  
  

And when you name it clearly, it becomes a filter for decisions, a magnet for the right talent, and a rallying point for your team.

Domains: making strategy accessible, not hidden in slides

Most companies do think about domains:what they do, who they serve, and how they operate. In fact, they often have 50-slide decks for each. The marketing team has personas mapped down to the emojis they use. Sales has elaborate pipeline structures. Operations tracks dozens of KPIs. That’s not the issue.

The issue is accessibility. What’s missing is a concise, high-level summary of the business, clearly written, openly shared, and consistently referenced. Not buried in a strategy file. Not hidden in Notion. Not vague. A one-pager your whole team can keep on their desk.

At a minimum, every employee should be able to answer:

• What do we do?

• How do we deliver value?

• Who do we serve?

• How do we measure success?

• How are we structured to make decisions and move forward?

It’s not about dumbing things down. It’s about making the core direction visible and usable for everyone. Because if your own team doesn’t have clarity, your customers certainly won’t.

The compass helps everyone to fly in the right direction.

Why this is the foundation for growth of your business at any stage

Whether you’re still iterating or scaling fast, a Compass is not a set of restrictions. It’s the clarity that protects your creativity. It’s what enables smart people to move fast, without moving apart. And it’s one of the most overlooked foundations of sustainable business growth.

Coming Up Next: The Map

In the next post, we’ll move from The Compass to The Map, how to translate the foundational alignment into vision, goals, and direction across time horizons. From a long-term vision to day-to-day implementation.

Want to assess your company’s Compass?

I offer a 5-minute Compass alignment survey for leaders and teams. It gives you a quick read on whether your team is truly aligned on values, purpose, and domain clarity.

If you have any questions, just reach out.