The Fit for Purpose Model Navigator (AI)

The Fit for Purpose Model is a free strategic framework designed to help purpose-led leaders design and transform their organisations to become aligned with a higher purpose and capable of creating long-term value for stakeholders while contributing positively to society and the planet. It can also help impact entrepreneurs explore and identify potential new business ideas, for better business and a better future.

It is based on my design research and long practice in business, strategy and leadership development, and was first introduced to a wider public in my book Better Business Better Future (2022).

In essence, it is a business alignment and transformation model for future-fit business. At its core, it asks: Is your business truly fit for the higher purpose it claims to serve?

If you, already now, want to test the Fit for Purpose Model Navigator AI (GPT), go here >>
Note that you will need a valid login for ChatGPT and Open AI to access it. Version 5.0 or higher is advised.

If you want to know more about the model first, keep reading.

The Big Idea

Starting in the ecosystemic context, the Fit for Purpose Model ensures alignment between five essential dimensions of a business to its higher purpose:

• Why – Why you exist (higher purpose)
• What – What you offer (products, services, value proposition)
• Who – Whom you serve (customers and stakeholders)
• Where – Where you operate (industry, markets, geography, channels)
• How – How you operate (culture, governance, value chain, operating model)

These dimensions must be mutually aligned and designed around the higher purpose. And, the higher purpose itself, aligned with the ecosystemic context. If one dimension contradicts another, the business is not fit for purpose.

1. The Ecosystemic Context

The Fit for Purpose Model starts by recognising that a business does not operate in isolation. It exists in an ecosystemic context, where the company has chosen to play a certain role – sometimes meticulously designed from scratch, sometimes not.

A Fit for Purpose organisation:

• Understands its ecosystem
• Identifies and contributes to solving a “big problem” – an ecosystemic and/or global problem, big or small (e.g., climate crisis, lack of water, polluted indoor air) – there are plenty around to be identified and attended to
• Contributes to shaping and upgrading its industry for the better
• Collaborates across sectors and systems
• Positively contributes to systemic change

It moves from “How do we compete?” to “How do we co-create value in a larger system?”

2. WHY – Higher Purpose

This is where the design and alignment process starts. The Why defines the organisation’s reason for existing beyond profit.

It answers:

• What positive difference do we want to make?
• Why do we deserve to exist long-term?
• What societal or environmental challenge do we contribute to solving?

A Fit for Purpose “Why”:

• Is deeply connected to a meaningful systemic challenge and opportunity
• Is meaningful and authentic
• Is long-term oriented
• Is the anchor point when designing or redesigning a company
• Guides decisions and investments

Example from the book (Better Business Better Future, 2022):

• Patagonia – “To save our home planet.”

3. WHAT – Value Proposition

This dimension defines:

• What products and services you offer
• What problem you solve
• What value you create

A key question is: are your offerings aligned with your higher purpose?

For example:

• If your purpose includes a future- and climate-positive impact, but your products and/or services are carbon-intensive, there is misalignment.

This is where sustainability becomes embedded in:

• Product and service design
• Innovation
• Business models
• Portfolio strategy

4. WHO – Stakeholders

Traditionally, companies focused mainly on customers and shareholders.

The Fit for Purpose Model expands this to include:

• Customers
• Employees
• Suppliers
• Communities
• Investors
• Future generations
• The planet

The question becomes, for whom are we creating value — and are we harming anyone in the process? This shifts the business from shareholder primacy to stakeholder value creation.

5. WHERE – Market & Arena

This dimension clarifies:

• Choice of industry
• Geographic scope and presence
• Distribution channels

Key reflection:

• Are we playing in industries, markets and geographies that support or contradict our purpose?

6. HOW – Operating Model

This is often where misalignment hides.

“How” includes:

• Governance structures
• Incentives & KPIs
• Leadership culture
• Supply chain practices
• Resource allocation
• Innovation systems
• Financial logic

The key question is: Does how we operate reinforce or undermine our purpose?

If sustainability goals are not tied to executive compensation, alignment is weak. If culture contradicts purpose, transformation fails.

Alignment Is the Core

The power of the model lies in coherence (which is, in essence, another word for alignment).

Ask yourself:

• Does our WHAT reinforce our WHY?
• Does our HOW enable our WHAT?
• Does our WHERE support our WHY?
• Does our WHO reflect our values?

Misalignment leads to:

• Greenwashing
• Cynicism internally
• Loss of trust externally
• Strategic confusion

Alignment creates:

• Credibility
• Engagement
• Resilience
• Long-term competitiveness

A Practical Reflection Exercise

You can apply the model immediately on a piece of paper or even on a whiteboard in a workshop:

ECOSYSTEMIC CONTEXT – What is our current ecosystemic context? How is it evolving
BIG PROBLEM – Which big problem or opportunity have we identified?
WHY – Why do we exist beyond profit? Does that align with our ecosystemic context and big problem?
WHAT – Are our offerings aligned with that purpose?
WHO – Whose well-being do we affect?
WHERE – Are we playing in the right arenas?
HOW – Do our systems reinforce our purpose?

When you have discussed and aligned all of the above with your team (which may take a while), then discuss:

Where do we see tension or misalignment? That tension is your strategic work.

You will also notice that there is potential for improvement in the alignment between you and your leadership team members. Hence, this is a great opportunity to align on what your business is all about and what needs to be aligned going forward. Because the best businesses are the best aligned.

Test the Fit for Purpose Navigator

If you are serious about strategy, you should be serious about coherence.

Many organisations invest heavily in purpose statements, sustainability roadmaps and transformation programs — yet still experience friction, inconsistency and strategic drift. The reason is often not a lack of ambition. It is misalignment.

The Fit for Purpose Navigator is a practical AI-tool (GPT) designed to help you assess whether your organisation is structurally aligned with its stated purpose and long-term ambitions. And, to help you design a future-fit version.

It helps you evaluate:

• Is your purpose clear — and embedded in decision-making?
• Do your offerings and business model reinforce that purpose?
• Are you serving the right stakeholders in the right way?
• Is your operating model designed for long-term value creation?
• Where are the most critical gaps between intention and execution?

This is not about branding. It is about strategic integrity.

The Fit for Purpose Navigator gives you a structured overview of your current state and highlights areas where alignment needs to be strengthened. Use it as preparation for strategy off-sites, transformation initiatives or board discussions.

If you want a sharper view of your organisation’s readiness for the future, you can test the Fit for Purpose Navigator here >>

The Fit for Purpose Navigator is a free tool (GPT) accessible via ChatGPT through your OpenAI account. Version 5.0 or higher is advised.

Clarity precedes performance. Alignment precedes resilience. The question is simple: Is your business truly fit for its purpose — and for the future it claims to serve?

Reach out and let me know if you have any questions at elisabet.lagerstedt@future-navigators.com. I would be happy to help you design a workshop around the Fit for Purpose Model and help you get started with the Fit for Purpose Navigator.

Elisabet Lagerstedt

Elisabet Lagerstedt is the founder and director of Future Navigators. As a trusted advisor, consultant, and Executive Coach, she helps business leaders navigate beyond business as usual to build Better Business and co-create a better future - through insight, strategy, innovation, and transformation. Elisabet is also the author of Better Business, Better Future (2022) and Navigera in i Framtiden (2018).