Find Your Why: a practical Guide for Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team pdfdrive com

Your HOWs Bring Your WHY to Life

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In the late 1950s, Enrique Uribe, who lived in Costa Rica, decided to import an idea that had
revolutionized grocery shopping in the United States. In Costa Rica, people were accustomed to going
into a store and asking the person behind the counter for what they needed—a kilo of flour, a liter of
cooking oil, a loaf of bread. The assistant would measure out the flour from a large sack and the oil
from a drum and bring them to the customer. That had long been the system in the United States as
well, but now it was different. Self-service markets, which had become the norm in the States, set the
entire range of products on display and left it up to customers to collect what they wanted and bring the
items to the counter. This new way of shopping meant that more choices could be offered and more
customers could be served. Enrique wanted this to be the future of shopping in Costa Rica as well, but,
like anyone with a new idea that bucks tradition, he encountered resistance.
People had various reasons for ridiculing Enrique’s vision. Some predicted an increase in shoplifting.
Others simply preferred the personal service of having a clerk do the work of rounding up all the items.
Others pointed out that the entire supply chain would have to be reinvented. Products could no longer
arrive in vats and sacks; they would have to be individually packaged. And stores would have to
maintain greater inventory.
In 1960, Enrique, together with his siblings Marta, Flory and Luis, opened Mas x Menos, a
supermarket that brought to life his vision of a new way of shopping. And people liked it. As Mas x
Menos grew to become the largest retail chain in the country, with over five hundred stores, it
completely reshaped the market. (Pun intended.)
Enrique’s sons, Rodrigo and Carlos, carried forward their father’s passion for innovation. Though they
eventually sold the family supermarket chain, the brothers went on to found Cuestamoras, a parent
company to more than a dozen businesses reaching into health, hospitality, urban development and
energy. But as Cuestamoras grew over the years, Rodrigo and Carlos, who serve as the chairman and
vice chairman of the board, came to recognize they had a problem.
As a parent to so many businesses in so many different industries, Cuestamoras was in danger of
losing touch with what the brothers felt their company stood for—its founding purpose. This is very
common among companies that expand beyond their original product or service. They become so
focused on what they are doing, they lose touch with why they started and how they should continue.
So in 2014, the Uribe brothers set out to properly articulate the company’s WHY, to find the golden
thread that connects everything it does now to everything that came before. By going through the
Individual Why Discovery process, the brothers identified Cuestamoras’s overarching purpose: to
innovate relentlessly in order to create opportunities for everyone.
They also identified and articulated the HOWs they rely on to make decisions and run their businesses:
Break new ground
Embrace change
Learn with a humble mind
Do what is right
Work together
Now the company places great value on executing its HOWs with a high degree of discipline. While
their WHATs are diverse, they approach every new project by following what they call the
Cuestamoras System. Step one is to ask, “Will doing this project help us bring our WHY to life?” If the
answer is yes, the company then makes sure to stick to its HOWs all along the way as the project
develops.
Although the family business has changed and greatly expanded since the 1950s, Enrique’s true legacy
lives on through his sons, because they have rediscovered his WHY—rooted in that first Mas x Menos
store—and reinforced it with the values and behaviors that are aligned with those of the founder. As

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long as that WHY and those HOWs remain front and center, it doesn’t matter how many businesses or
industries Rodrigo and Carlos enter into. However greatly they alter their company’s WHATs, they
will continue to inspire in the long term.
Elephant Trap: Before you identify your own HOWs, a quick caution. The
sample HOWs you’ve read about in this chapter relate to specific people and
organizations. Guard against thinking that your HOWs need to be the same or
similar. They don’t! Your HOWs will come from the stories you or your group
shared during the Why Discovery process. That is what makes them authentic
and real rather than a catchphrase that was cooked up just to sound good.