Ross’s number one hit: “Theme from Mahogany, Do You Know Where You’re Going To.” In the song, Diana Ross asks the listener insightful questions to reflect on their life and determine what they truly need. The point was to help us figure out where we were going in life. We would listen quietly and reflect on the words of the song and then share with the class. It felt painful at the time, but as an older, wiser version of myself, I not only appreciate Sister Evelyn’s lesson personally, but I have put the principle to work every day, asking my clients these questions for their companies. If you don’t know where you’re going, how will you even know if you got there? If you don’t know where you’re going as a business, or if you don’t have clarity and focus on the destination, your organization will never be aligned and committed to reaching your goals. Building an unrivaled business ethos It’s not as simple as writing down, “I want to become a billion-dollar company in the next ten years.” If it were that easy, you’d already be there. Explosive growth and decisive market leadership require creating a brand that your ideal customers love and admire, that inspires trust and loyalty, and that overcomes competition and attracts the right attention. Make no mistake: customers choose you, not the other way around. If your ideal customers don’t understand who you are, why you exist, what you stand for, and why you’re different, they don’t know how to choose. When it’s not clear why your company is the best choice for them, they are down in the muck and can only assess you on price. Selling on price is a race to the bottom. They will leave you as soon as budgets get tight or someone cheaper comes to town. If your go-to-market is all about the features and widgets, you’ll be compared to that shiny new start-up that has all the features and widgets. Real customer loyalty is built on shared values. Buyers want to do business with a company that stands for something they care about (aka, your Business Ethos). Both customers and employees want to be part of something that has a larger purpose. Your Business Ethos is not about checking a box just to say you have one. It’s about using your greatest untapped asset—what you stand for—and bringing it to life. When you can articulate your Business Ethos, especially when you use words that resonate with your ideal customer, it’s easy for people to join you because your beliefs align with their beliefs. You run a differentiated business that is grounded in purpose. “I’ve been a great believer in values through my entire CEO career because I believe values, Mission, and strategy are the most important boundaries you put into an organization,” says former adidas® CEO Kasper Rorsted. “It defines a framework on how you operate and how you behave.”1 Your Business Ethos has three components: ■ North Star Vision: Your North Star Vision is the change you want to make in the world. It’s a picture of a better world thanks to your company solving a big problem. Think of it as the ultimate destination. It feels far away, scary, and audacious—it’s that bold. ■ Mission: Your Mission is what your company will do to achieve that Vision. You know where you’re going now, and you see a future in which you have solved a big problem for your ideal customers (and maybe for the world). What drives your company to get there? The Mission gets everyone in your company out of bed in the morning and working hard to achieve your North Star Vision. ■ Core Values: The Core Values are the pillars that hold up your house. They are your belief system and part of your DNA: strong and unique, guiding what matters most to your company. How will you conduct yourself on the way to this better world? Your Core Values provide the guardrails to keep you from going offtrack on your road to Unrivaled. The combination of a North Star Vision, a Mission, and Core Values creates your Business Ethos and tells everyone who interacts with your business what you stand for. Together, they serve as a foundation for everything else you do. Just like the foundation of a house, they are sound enough to carry you through the storms and strong enough to hold the weight of whatever you build next. Excerpted from Unrivaled: Five Steps to Achieving Explosive Business Growth by Michelle Heath. Used with permission of the publisher, Amplify Publishing. Copyright © 2025 by Michelle Heath. MICHELLE HEATH is a business growth expert and brand strategist, founder and CEO of Growth Street, and the author of the #1 Amazon bestseller Unrivaled: Five Steps to Achieving Explosive Business Growth (Amplify Publishing, 2025), available now at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop. Her background includes tenure as a brand, marketing, and customer experience executive for household brands, including Fidelity Investments, J.P. Morgan, and E*TRADE Financial. Michelle jumped off the corporate ladder to build start-ups, and in 2013, she founded Growth Street and pioneered the fractional growth leadership category. Michelle is a graduate of Boston University Questrom School of Business and lives in Boston. She can be reached at michelleheath.com. References 1. “The Role Core Values Play in Strategy Execution: HBS Online.” Business Insights Blog, November 21, 2023. https://online.hbs.edu/blog/ post/how-to-implement-core-values -in-the-workplace. If you don’t know where you’re going as a business, or if you don’t have clarity and focus on the destination, your organization will never be aligned and committed to reaching your goals. enterprising Women 73
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