The Purposeful Organization: TOMS Shoes

I have fallen in love with an organization after my own heart! An organization that is driven solely by purpose and is seeing tremendous success because of it!

This amazing company is TOMS shoes.

TOMS is a shoe company built on a one for one program - meaning that for every pair of shoes someone buys, they give a pair of shoes to a person in need!! What a meaningful purpose!

Here’s a brief video of Blake Mycoskie, founder and CEO of TOMS shoes, talking about how the company began:

Here is an organization that is truly built with purpose. If they aren’t selling shoes, they are unable to deliver their promise!

The product TOMS is selling is a means to accomplishing its brand promise – the shoes are not the brand. Rather, the brand is about supplying shoes on a regular basis giving people a chance to avoid disease and serious injuries, even giving children the opportunity to go to school (as some countries don’t allow children to go to school without shoes).

It is their purpose that has enabled them to sell close to 500,000 pairs of shoes, since its inception in 2006 without any advertising. Actually, I shouldn’t even say sold, because that’s not how TOMS measures success. It measures success in terms of how many shoes they have been able to give to people in need! Here we can see that the purpose is so ingrained in the fabric of this organization, that their success metrics reflect its purpose!

TOMS is a fabulous example of how brand purpose can build a strong organization from the inside and out!

Half a million shoes purchased without major advertising. That speaks volumes to how moving the purpose is – it’s so moving that everyone who hears about this organization wants to tell someone about it. When someone comments on the TOMS shoes they are wearing, they become so excited to tell people the story behind their shoes (I have become one of those people, hence I’m sharing this amazing brand story with all of you!!) making advertising completely unnecessary.

People with Ivy League educations and senior level backgrounds from Nike & Asics are jumping at the opportunity to work at TOMS, knowing they’re not going to make the same hefty salaries had they continued on their path. But this is what purpose evokes: passion and motivation to deliver on the brand promise!

After working at TOMS shoes for a year, you are given the opportunity to go on a shoe drop (this is where TOMS shoes are given to those in need first hand) compliments of TOMS. They have found this to be a great way to further motivate & ingrain the purpose of what TOMS is all about in the minds of its employees. Going back to my post the other week on internal branding, this exemplifies a great way to engage staff in the organization’s purpose first hand.

Blake notes in the video that they need to be a profit oriented organization and charge a premium on its shoes in order to attract top talent, as it is the people who deliver the promise by creating the shoes and keeping them current so they can sell more, which enables them to supply more shoes to those in need around the world!

This is a great example of how an organization sees profit as a means to its purpose, rather than profit being the purpose. I believe if more organizations took to this philosophy, we would see much greater initiatives coming out of organizations.

The devotion and love held by TOMS’ employees, interns & volunteers for the organization’s purpose is what helps spread the story to consumers and equally motivating them!

The purpose is so moving, that it has encouraged customers to find their own way to get involved. Customers have hosted parties to customize shoes, they even take pictures of themselves in their TOMS and post them to Facebook and/or the company’s website to show how they are wearing them.

Here’s a picture my friend, Dylan, took of his new TOMS shoes!

Here is another picture of a happy customer from the TOMS Facebook page:

People are also getting involved in events like “One Day Without Shoes” which happened last Thursday, where people were asked to go a day without shoes to raise awareness of the importance of what a simple pair of shoes can do for someone.

I participated in this day, with a colleague from work, Adam Bracegirdle, and we were amazed to learn how much we took shoes for granted – and it didn’t help that it snowed in Calgary last Thursday either - haha!

Here’s a picture of me at work without shoes! It’s definitely an odd sensation leaving your home without shoes – you become so much more aware of your surroundings as you try and avoid stones while walking around!

But from this event, I became even more attached to the TOMS brand that I bought a second pair of shoes and am going to try and volunteer for a shoe drop! So, it’s clear that with a meaningful purpose and allowing customers to embrace it on their own terms only furthers their devotion to the brand!

From this amazing brand example, it is clear to see that having a meaningful purpose drives your organization forward internally, and it also creates external love and admiration for the brand by its customers! Personally, I will continue buying shoes, so that TOMS can continue its purpose giving shoes to those in need!!

If you want to give a pair of shoes (and receive a pretty awesome pair as thanks) go to www.toms.com.

Got to love a brand with purpose!!
Here are a couple more shots I took on the "One Day Without Shoes":

My feet on the walk to work:

Adam rocking his bare feet at work:

Adam's feet managed to stay clean all day, where as mine went black! I think his feet are meant to be without shoes - even though they became icicles throughout the day!