Do Aspirational Businesses Really Outperform? The Data is In.

It started out innocently enough.  Just an offhand comment to a group of students.
 

"Someday I am really going to prove how well the Aspirational Business Model works."

Student 1: "Well, why haven't you?"

"Uh... because it would be really hard."

Student 2: "Not really. You'd just have to score a bunch of companies and run a regression analysis." 

Entire class: "Doooo iiiitttt."  

"Dang it. Challenge Accepted."

Finally, after twelve months of research, hundreds of annual reports, thousands of pages of publicly available data, scores for over 75 companies, validation from peers at Notre Dame, Purdue & Butler, and my father's validation, I finally have my answer:

Aspirational Businesses outperform their competitors in Net Income, EBIT, EBITDA & Return on Equity. 
 
While the correlation itself wasn't surprising given what we already know about purpose-driven organizations, I was delighted and surprised at how significant the correlation was!  And I'm so glad that my students pushed me to do something that seemed too hard. 

Since my last email, I continue to be pushed and inspired by so many of you sharing your efforts to make a positive impact in the world.  One answered the call to consider becoming the principal of a school.  One started a non-profit.  Another declared an intention to play bigger in his own work. 

The Aspirational Business Model works.
Our community needs us.
We were made for this time.

What are you avoiding because it seems too hard?  What would happen if you just took the first step? 

"Doooo iiittttt." 

Here with you,
Dora

PS: if you want to learn more about about what your organization can do to enhance its efforts in this space, get your free customized Aspirational Business Assessment here.