Mission and Margin: Completed with Care

These days I am fortunate to spend much of my work time with public agencies, mostly police and fire departments.    I volunteer for non-profit organizations, and have been employed by the nonprofit James J. Hill Reference Library and the University of Minnesota.  Ethical Leaders in Action is for-profit, which at this juncture means that we are proud to be entirely solvent and aspire to true profitability.  What have I learned? That mission and margin are perfectly compatible.

For-profit organizations can be as fully mission-driven, and their leadership as entirely committed to service, as any other organization.  Indeed, if the philosophical underpinnings of Ethical Leaders in Action are sound, then the service motive and the profit motive dance beautifully together.  So far, so good.  We do great work that people find valuable, and they pay us fairly for it.  Add a little basic efficiency, and we’ve got…civilized capitalism.  A sustainable business model.  Beautiful music, indeed.

I was delighted when my friend Susan Claeys shared with me her plan to form a similarly mission-driven organization, answering what amounted to a deep calling to serve those in need.  Susan is a charter member of our East Side Ethical Leadership Working Group, and she is a talented project manager and finance professional.  She left the world of cubicles and Gantt Charts behind, however, to found Completed with Care.     Her work: making life easier and more dignified for people in medical crisis.

When we met to discuss her business idea, my first thought was, “where were you when my parents were sick?”   Completed With Care does the paperwork, housework, and yard work that don’t go away in the face of real medical challenges.  They also step in to assist with the supportive tasks that arise because of illness: organizing friends and family, doing the shopping or other errands, etc.   Even people surrounded by love and good intentions can benefit from a little project management and a professional eye for detail.

Maybe most importantly, Susan noticed that how this work gets done contributes directly to her clients’ well-being.    In those moments when we feel most helpless, having things done around us just so means so much.   Efficiency takes a back seat to custom care, and genuine concern.  She earns her fees by being of service.

So…another enterprise is born, pursing financial success alongside a heartfelt mission.  Makes perfect sense to me.