A company’s digital evolution can result in startling changes. Shopify, for instance, started out as an online store for snowboard equipment and is now an e-commerce platform worth billions, used by small businesses globally. For mission-driven organizations, a digital pivot can offer a similarly powerful opportunity to maximize impact. But bold moves can also cause mission drift: diluting or distorting an organization’s core work to create positive change in the world.
Making a Big Pivot — While Staying True to Your Original Mission
How your organization can find new ways to fulfill its core purpose.
December 14, 2021
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Summary.
It can be hard to differentiate what your firm does from how it does it — and that means finding new ways of accomplishing your core mission can be hard. For Accion, a nonprofit that had pioneered the commercial model of microfinance, its identity was bound up with its role as a leader in its field. But when new technology made it possible to achieve its mission through different means, it needed to decide whether its history as a microfinance innovator would prevent it from investing in fintech. Its CEO explains how — and why — the organization was able to make major changes to its approach while remaining firmly grounded in its mission.
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