Oprahvangelism: The purpose-driven team behind you-know-who

Q: You know you’ve made it when …__(insert your most compelling answer here)___.

A: … when Harvard Business School spends years preparing a case study on you.

For years, Harvard Business School has studied industries that have huge consumer followings. The techies, the eco-groupies, the auto afficionados -- and now, the Oprahvangelists. Apparently, Oprah’s empire has gained more followers than any computer or car company in the world. Combined.

Harvard professor Nancy Koehn presents Oprah not as a celebrity or talk-show guru, but as a case-in-point of a shift in business trends. “Consumers have always been interested in how a product or offering meets a specific need or satisfies a given want,” states Koehn.” But with the new century comes an increasing interest by consumers in looking at companies’ business practices. How they treat their employees, how they create a sense of community and justice. In other words, the company’s purpose is becoming every bit as important as the company’s product.

(Ahem. My point exactly.)

As I have stated in a number of my seminars, we’re now competing in a world where emphasis on the self (and self-promotion) is no longer enough. A company’s strength and level of satisfaction hinges on their core purpose -- on how they connect not only to a customer’s needs, but the needs of a community. The more you can connect with others, the more they become not just customers, or employees, but followers.

Oprah has been unbelievably successful at modeling leadership with a small “i,” and creating an environment where people love to work. There is little turnover, and employees truly want to come to work every day. According to HBS, you can feel the passion when her executives talk on the phone, and you can hear the vast scope of their knowledge about the business they support.

When you get a chance, check out hbs.org. For $6.95, it’s money well-spent for the Harvard case study on Oprah Winfrey, by Nancy F. Koehn, Erica Helms, Katherine Miller and Rachel Wilcox.