Several years ago, I was teaching a group of CEOs of small to midsize companies, and during one of the sessions I decided to try a workshop exercise I had never done before.
I asked them to define their personal philosophy of business.
At first, most of them looked confused because they had never thought about their company that way. They had strategies, budgets, growth plans, and operating goals, but they had never really stepped back and examined the deeper set of beliefs driving how they wanted to run the business. What became clear was that every one of them already had a philosophy of business; they had simply never taken the time to think it through carefully enough to explain it to other people.
One of the first questions I asked was how they viewed competition.
A CEO immediately said his philosophy was simple: crush the competition, take market share aggressively, and do everything possible to put competitors out of business. A few people around the room nodded in agreement. Then another CEO, who owned a construction company, said they looked at competition very differently. They believed in what he called “co-opetition.” They competed hard for projects, but they also regularly worked alongside competitors, shared equipment when someone was in a bind, and occasionally partnered together on larger jobs. His belief was that there was plenty of business available for companies that did good work and treated people fairly.
I then asked how they viewed customers.
One CEO who owned a software company laughed and said, “Honestly, I never want to see them. I want them to go to the website, buy the software, send me the money, and leave me alone.” A different CEO said the exact opposite. He explained that his entire company was built around customer intimacy. They wanted long-term relationships, deep trust, and clients who became advocates for the business. Their philosophy shaped hiring decisions, training, compensation, communication standards, and even the type of customers they pursued.
We had similar discussions about employees, quality, profitability, growth, culture, and accountability.
One leader viewed employees transactionally. People did the work and got paid for it. That was all there was to it. Another believed the responsibility of leadership was to hire the best people possible, invest heavily in them, support them, challenge them, and create an environment where they could do exceptional work. In his experience, taking care of employees ultimately produced stronger customer relationships and better financial performance over time.
As I listened to the conversation unfold, I realized the exercise was much bigger than I originally intended. Senior leaders usually have strong beliefs about how a business should operate. The question is whether those beliefs have been examined carefully enough to become intentional.
You can often discover your philosophy by paying attention to your reactions when you hear other leaders describe their organizations. Sometimes you hear someone explain how they treat employees, customers, or vendors and your immediate reaction is, “That makes complete sense. That is exactly how I would want to run a company.” Other times, you hear a leader describe their culture or management style and think, “I would never want to work there or lead that way.” Those reactions tell you a great deal about your own beliefs.
Your philosophy of business eventually shapes almost everything inside the company.
It influences who gets hired, what behaviors are rewarded, how decisions get made, how customers are treated, what gets prioritized, and what kind of culture develops over time. It also becomes one of the clearest signals your leadership team receives from you. People watch closely to understand what you actually believe, not what is written on the wall.
That is why I believe it can be valuable for CEOs, founders, and presidents to spend time thinking through their philosophy of business deliberately. You do not need to create a perfect document. You just need enough clarity that you can explain, in practical terms, what you believe about running an organization and why those beliefs matter.
Here are a few questions that can help begin the process:
- Why does this business exist beyond making money?
- What do we want to be known for in the marketplace?
- How do we want to treat customers?
- How should we treat employees?
- How should we treat vendors?
- What standards do we want associated with our products or services?
- What behaviors should be rewarded?
- What behaviors should never be tolerated, regardless of performance?
- How do we want people to describe our culture?
- How much risk are we comfortable taking?
- What does excellence look like here?
- What kind of people do we most want to hire?
- What responsibilities does this business have to the community?
Most leaders already have answers to many of these questions. The work is to organize those answers into a coherent philosophy they can communicate consistently to the people around them.
Organizations are expecting more from the people they bring in to speak.
A strong keynote still matters. But leaders are also looking for practical tools, planning support, useful takeaways, and someone who understands the pressure behind the event.
John Spence does not just walk on stage, deliver a keynote, and leave. He works with you as a trusted partner from the first planning conversation through the final follow-up.
