The Emergent Way: Working on Purpose
At Emergent Strategic Partners, we live by the words of Teddy Roosevelt: “Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”
Work worth doing is work that meets the needs of the time—work that meaningfully improves the welfare of humanity and the well-being of our planet.
At Emergent, given our values and unique skills, that work means partnering with businesses whose innovations make the world more sustainable and helping them scale those innovations as broadly and quickly as possible. We work with entrepreneurs who share our vision and values, who have already commercialized their innovations successfully, and who are poised to scale production to meet the demand of large customers.
We believe the best—indeed the only—way to do our work is through Principled Entrepreneurship. Inspired by Charles Koch’s Science of Success and the principles that guide his companies, we have developed a framework of principles that guide everything we do. We reject a zero-sum mindset and worldview, born of ignorance, greed, and the lust for power. All spiritual traditions and fundamental findings in physics and biology point to our total interdependence. At Emergent, we strive to create value for others and virtuous cycles of mutual benefit. Our goal is to become a preferred partner of customers, employees, suppliers, communities, and other core constituencies. We live and work by a code with clearly defined principles, and we partner with those who share the same values.
While we do not have blind faith that technology will deliver us from all our problems, we do believe in the power of Creative Destruction, that force by which the outdated is continually replaced by new and more efficient practices. We align with that force by repeatedly letting go of the familiar and the habitual, the better to support that which can best serve the present. We partner with those who pursue constant innovation and improvement.
Embracing creative destruction means committing to Continual Transformation. What got us here will not get us where we need to go next. We live as change, in constant questioning, curiosity, and improvement. That is the only way we can continuously meet unmet needs and create superior value in an ever-changing world. We partner with those who embrace change as the ground for ongoing growth and service.
Living in Continual Transformation allows us to pursue the related principle of Self-Actualization. Crucially this does not mean an individual trying to reach some final place or promised land where he or she can rest for all time in personal glory. No—self-actualization is an ongoing process grounded in relationship, purpose, and service. We live lives of meaning when we continually discover, develop, and apply our unique gifts to benefit others.
We relentlessly pursue Knowledge, striving to learn at an ever-increasing rate in order to serve a rapidly changing world. We commit to Humility, knowing that being honest with ourselves about both our strengths and our limitations is the surest path to success and sanity. We embrace Openness, encouraging radical transparency and candor and inviting the free exchange of ideas. We believe that the best ideas can come from anywhere, that every person can make significant contributions to a venture’s success, and that an organization is strongest when it values diverse perspectives. At Emergent, our Challenge Process encourages everyone, regardless of their position in the company, to question decisions and propose new solutions.
These principles feed into our belief in a Bottom-Up approach, which respects the inherent worth of each person and unleashes their creativity, talent, and initiative. In our experience, the outcomes are always far greater and better than what any individual could have planned or predicted. Individuals and society benefit when behavior is mostly governed by general principles rather than detailed rules, freeing individuals to use their knowledge and gifts to tackle problems and pursue opportunities. That is why a bottom-up approach leads to the phenomenon of emergence—the whole becoming greater than the sum of our parts. Emergence is at the heart of everything we do. Our belief in it is so fundamental and profound that we named our company after it.
Of course, all of these principles are just empty words unless we live in our deepest Integrity. Our word is our bond: we do what we say we are going to do, in accordance with the values we have committed ourselves to. If we fall short, we take responsibility and make it right. What we do when no one is looking is at least as important as what we do when everyone is looking. We have turned down major investment opportunities when we have seen red flags in those who would manage the funds.
Our long-term relationship with our investors—and with ourselves—mattered far more than a short-term payday. Maintaining faith in ourselves as moral beings is of the utmost importance. The erosion of self-trust is a poison that quickly compounds irrevocably, while building self-trust creates virtuous cycles of prosperity and positivity.
These principles guide us in everything we do. They are how we work on purpose. Without them, we are lost. With them, we have a chance at meeting the needs of the time. It is impossible to make the world better unless we are also making ourselves better along the way.
