Achieve a Level of Performance Few Ever Reach
Helping leaders and their businesses
The Hidden Barrier Limiting Your Potential
A business-focus that drives people rather than a people-focus that drives business.
It's only natural to think about business in terms of profit and growth—after all, these are usually the measures of success for any enterprise. So it's understandable when leaders gravitate toward a business-focused, people-driven mindset, that begins with profit targets and financial metrics, followed by efforts to drive people to work towards those predetermined numbers.
But here's what we often miss: every business exists to create value for people to help them live, improve, and enjoy their lives. In other words, businesses exist for people not just profits.
Throughout our years of working in and with businesses, we've discovered a counterintuitive pattern that separates truly remarkable businesses from all the rest. These exceptional organizations maintain an uncompromising focus on their people, their mission, and what makes their business genuinely valuable in people's lives. Rather than solely pursuing profit and growth, they double down on what makes their business important in the lives of people.
This doesn't mean ignoring economic success. Without profits, there is no business, no mission to fulfill, and no difference to be made. Instead, these businesses create a careful balance that harmonizes business fundamentals with human impact. At High Order Group, we call this being:
People-Focused and Business-Driven.
This approach is founded on the fundamental belief that "businesses are run by people for people," with the true value proposition of any business being how it helps people live, improve, and enjoy their lives. As our High Order Group founder notes:
“Everything begins to change when you start looking at your business as a resource for people rather than people as a resource for your business.”
— David Wilson, Founder
This isn't just a nice sentiment—it's a practical philosophy implemented through a framework, skills, and repeatable practices that reshapes how you lead and run your business. You develop a new mindset and perspective that drives every decision. Instead of asking "How can we get more from people?" you ask "How can we serve people better?" Instead of "How can we maximize customer spend per visit?" you ask, "How can we create more value in customers' lives?" The result: sustainable profit and leadership success naturally flows from your exceptional value delivery—to people!
The question is which focus you choose to embrace: Business-Focused, People-Driven or People-Focused, Business-Driven. That choice determines whether you're extracting value, or creating it.
One is a sustainable approach, the other is not.
Disengaged Employees
employee disengagement costs organizations 34%of annual salary per disengaged employee
The Real Price of Putting Profits Before People
The Costs
67%
Reduced Profitability
higher disrupting team cohesion, and operational efficiency costing 50-200% of an employee's salary
21%
Customer Decline
poor customer experience, corporate cost-cutting impacting service quality, and poor community reputation
60-80%
The Benefits
Greater Innovation
Purpose-oriented companies are more willing to experiment with new products and services in pursuit of their mission
Research-Proven Results of Putting People First
30%
Higher Performance
Human-centric environments are 3.8x more likely to produce performers and 3.2x more likely they will stay long-term
3.8x
Financial Success Rate
Organizations that actively listen to employees are three times more likely to meet or exceed their financial targets
3x
Most organizational transformation efforts fail (66%) because they address only half the equation, focusing solely on culture and people while ignoring critical business fundamentals. Meanwhile, strategic business initiatives that overlook the human element face equally dismal prospects, with research showing that 70% fail due to cultural rejection and employee resistance. The common thread? Both approaches treat business systems and people systems as separate entities, creating fragmented solutions that ultimately collapse under their own disconnection.
The High Order Performance Equation (HOPE)
Business System X People System= Performance Few Ever Reach
High Order Group brings to its clients a truly integrated framework that creates a systematic, structured approach with repeatable practices that enables leaders to build and operate a People-Focused, Business-Driven enterprise. This proven system accelerates what typically takes years of costly trial and error, helping businesses find their way to scale and deliver high-performing results.
The Breakthrough
A System that You can Implement to Lead and Run a People-Focused, Business-Driven Business
How it Works
At its foundation, we develop leaders through intensive executive coaching that builds the self-awareness, interpersonal and communication skills, executive presence, and the leadership capabilities essential for driving transformation and superior performance. This leadership development works in harmony with our business and team coaching, where we leverage HOPE as a unified operating system—Business Systems (Strategic Development, Capability Management, Business Model Innovation, and Financial Management) integrate seamlessly with People Systems (Leadership, Culture, Motivation, and Teamwork) built around a business's Positive Core - self-aware, high-character people skilled in building positive working relationships.
What Are The Results?
The result is a sustainable performance system that transforms how organizations operate, led by People-Focused, Business-Driven leaders who have the skills and awareness to navigate both the rational business needs and emotional cultural dimensions of change.
This isn't just another business methodology; it's a comprehensive architecture that develops leaders and enables them to build businesses that serve people while people serve the business, creating the "high order" where profits soar and lives are transformed.
Three Levels of Transformation
LEADER
TRANSFORMATION
TEAM
TRANSFORMATION
TRANSFORMATION
BUSINESS