The North Star Drift: When Purpose Lost Its People

Verdant Foods is a mid-size plant-based food company with roughly 450 employees and about $180 million in annual revenue. It began eight years ago as a mission-driven startup committed to making sustainable, healthy food accessible while transforming the food system from the inside. It grew quickly, built a loyal customer base, and recently took on growth capital to scale nationally. The pressure of scale changed things. The founding CEO stepped down after a dispute with the board over direction. The board appointed an interim leader, Dr. Priya Raman, a respected operator but not a missionary. Since then the signs of purpose drift have become visible: teams are siloed, departments pursue different goals, the original mission feels diluted in daily decisions, and stakeholders, the founders, the investors, the farmers, the employees, the customers, and the community partners, are each pulling toward their own version of what Verdant Foods should be. Priya has brought you in as a systems thinking consultant. She does not need a new slogan. She needs the organization to get clear about its purpose again and to align the people who bring that purpose to life. This simulation focuses on two connected ideas: systems of purpose and stakeholder alignment. A system of purpose is an organization whose goals, vision, and values are clear enough to guide decisions and action at every level. Stakeholder alignment means the perspectives, needs, and contributions of the people in and around the system are recognized and coordinated toward collective success. The work is to design a system that is coherent, connected, and capable of producing sustained outcomes. Your job is to help Verdant Foods articulate a clear purpose, map and engage its stakeholders, examine where alignment exists and where it has broken down, and design systems and processes that integrate diverse perspectives. Stay in the purpose-and-alignment lane. Do not drift into other frameworks. Have fun with it.

Key Stakeholders

Dr. Priya Raman

Interim CEO

Maya Chen

Co-founder and Chief Mission Officer

Marcus Webb

Lead Investor and Board Chair

Dr. Lila Okafor

Head of Supply Chain and Farmer Partnerships

James Rourke

Chief Operating Officer

Sofia Reyes

Head of Customer and Community Experience

Learning Objectives

• Define and articulate organizational purpose with enough clarity to guide decisions and action across the system
• Map stakeholders and their perspectives, needs, and contributions to the system
• Examine how alignment or misalignment between purpose and stakeholders affects the achievement of organizational goals
• Design systems and processes that integrate diverse stakeholder perspectives into coherent action
• Assess how purpose and alignment influence organizational performance and the success of change initiatives