This year, EMCS turns 40. A great milestone. However this set me thinking about what makes businesses stand the test of time. Below are some insights from leading research.

Research indicates that businesses that stand the test of time, have the following common ingredients. These are a (i) A Sense of Purpose (ii) Good Servant Leadership (iii) A Healthy Internal Culture built on humbleness and openness (iv) Sustainable view on Growth (v) Open to Change (vi) Continuously Learning

A Sense of Purpose: Research clearly shows that businesses that have an outward perspective, who truly care about their impact on society at large, then have a stronger sense of purpose. Such a strong sense of purpose allows such businesses to then build stronger teams and to attract the best talent that are inspired by this purpose, allowing them to compete well in the market they are involved in.

Good Servant Leadership: Research also indicates that long standing businesses have learnt not to place people with large egos in leadership positions. Instead, they would prefer to find humble stewards, who are keen to learn from the previous leaders and who are more concerned about the organisation they’ll leave behind than how it looks while they’re there leading it.

Fostering an internal culture built on humbleness and openness: Humble workplace cultures embrace honesty, experimentation and learning that lead to success. Humble leadership is characterised by a willingness to see the self accurately, an appreciation of the strengths and contributions of others, and openness to advice and feedback. Research suggests that humble people are more generous and helpful and humble leaders may engage employees more and help teams be more integrated. Humble leaders aren’t meek or unable to make tough decisions—in fact, research clearly indicates that humility is the midpoint between the two extremes of arrogance and lack of self-esteem.

Sustainable Growth: Research also indicates that businesses that stand the test of time are more interested in sustainable growth, rather than growth at all costs. Their first focus is on becoming better rather than bigger, tirelessly tweaking the way they go about doing things. Such businesses would be focused on achieving a balance between growing enough to remain relevant and be financially stable, but not growing so much that the business than loses control.

Open to change: Business that stand the test of time, while grounded in the previously mentioned area of Purpose, would remain open to disruptions and innovations to remain fresh, relevant and continuously improve. They would be open to collaborate with other entities and outside professionals deliberately, to stay fresh and create a continuous flow of new ideas.

Continuously Learning: Whether they succeed or fail in anything they are working on, they are focused on learning and seeing what they could have done better. Business that stand the test of time have a long term view and have thus realised that real progress comes from constant tiny tweaks, rather than large breakthroughs. This learning culture means that people within the company widen their interests and could thus work on different projects and areas.

I am lucky enough to be working at EMCS, that was ingrained in the above characteristics from the very start and has therefore stood the test of time. As a business advisor, I can vouch for the benefits that many business leaders would derive if they adopt and work on building the above mentioned characteristics, to build businesses that outlive them.