What KonMari Stands For

Japanese tidying expert Marie Kondo has been listed as one of Time’s 100 most influential people in 2015. At the core of her tidying method and philosophy is the idea of sparking joy, an expression you might have come across over the past few years. After her Japanese bestseller book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up has been translated in various languages, she had opportunities to go abroad and see houses and families around the world.

According to this Japanese interview , it is during this time that her desire to contribute to the world through tidying up grew stronger, which she captures in the purposeful expression of Organizing the World. She elaborates her purpose below.

Mission

Our goal is to help more people tidy their spaces by choosing joy, and we are committed to developing the simplest and most effective tools to help you get there.

Bringing the mission to life
To bring the mission to life, her company does three main things.

  1. Her books
  2. Her own line of products such as these storage boxes (current sold out)
  3. Seminars including ones that trains and certifies KonMari Consultants

She also has a Netflix show released in last month, which has made some noise in social media. Here’s an interview from LA Times where you can learn more about the show as well as her origins.

On a related note
This method-centered business model method brings to mind David Allen’s GTD (Getting Things Done) company. His company has a David Allen Academy which certifies coaches and trainers on his time management method. This model is fascinating as the methodology is given away; you can learn the essentials from the Internet or buy the book, which doesn’t break the bank. The secret ingredient of the business, however, is sustained by a network/platform/community built around this method.

Speaking of sparking joy and decluttering, I think we’re seeing a movement towards this on the digital sides of things as well. Cal Newport, author of Deep Work’s, upcoming book Digital Minimalism is about this.

Purpose Link of the Week
10 Steps to Creating Core Values That Your Company Lives By A blog post from the folks at Delivering Happiness about how to create core values with a simple and clear roadmap infographic.

What Weight Watchers stand for and how they connect purpose to strategy

The 55-year-old company Weight Watchers (a company that offers a diet program to members in over 30 different countries)recently went through a rebranding transformation to reposition themselves in the wellness domain with help from SYPartners.

Similar to how IBM rebranded themselves from International Business Machines into their famous initials, Weight Watchers changed their name to WW. During this process, they also re-articulated their purpose.

What WW stands for

Purpose
We inspire health habits for real life.
For people, families, communities, the world—for everyone.

Mission
To create a world where wellness is accessible to all, not just the few.

Here’s an article on Fortune with an interview from WW’s CEO talking about their brand purpose and the importance of purpose.

You can also find their purpose film on their about page. And if you like to learn a bit more about their CEO and the transformation, here’s an insightful read about Weight Watchers over at New York Times.

I also encourage you to check out their Impact Manifesto, which not only explains their purpose, 3-year goals, and key strategic elements to realize them, but also a purpose filter (a tool for employees to make purpose-driven decisions).

Finding Purpose and Putting it in Action

As I mentioned above, WW worked with SYPartners for the transformation. SYPartners is known for their purpose-centered approach in helping organizations change.

Although I haven’t found any details on how SYPartners helped WW rediscover their purpose, SYPartners chairman and founder Keith Yamashita wrote a short essay titled Finding Your Purpose and Living It in the book, Make Your Mark: The Creative’s Guide to Building a Business with Impact . Though it’s from four years ago the contents are still relevant as ever. The essay covers what purpose is, how to find it and put it in to action. (If you have an Amazon Unlimited account, you can access it for free.)