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Mark D. Taylor President
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Tyndale House’s Corporate Purpose
"Minister to the spiritual needs of people,
primarily through literature consistent with biblical principles.'
We developed this statement about 25 years ago, when the company was already 20 years old. My mother (one of our co-founders) commented at the time, "This is nothing new. It’s a description of why we've existed from the very beginning. We just never put into words.'
Now, 25 years later, we find that our statement of corporate purpose continues to describe what we do and why we do it. Most companies exist primarily to make money for the shareholders. It's usually not stated quite so crassly, but it's true nonetheless. But at Tyndale House we exist in order to help people spiritually. After all, that seems to line up with the core teachings of Scripture.
Furthermore, we see our niche as being in the literature business. Some publishing companies try to redefine themselves periodically as "media companies" so that they can expand from book publishing into radio or TV. Or they try to expand into retailing. We had a stint at retailing many years ago, and we discovered that it's a very different kind of business. We were not good at it, and we eventually sold our handful of Christian bookstores. We got back to our core business of publishing, and we've been operating successfully ever since.
The final element of our statement of corporate purpose is that we publish materials that are consistent with biblical principles. This is our lodestar. We can and do evaluate everything we publish by asking if it fits within biblical principles.
Our corporate purpose sounds like the kind of mission statement one might find in a not-for-profit organization, but we are a regular tax-paying company that takes pride in operating profitably. Profits reflect good business principles, and profits that are reinvested in the company allow us to grow. And if we grow, we trust we will be ministering to the spiritual needs of more people.
One last comment. In 2001 my parents gave most of the stock of Tyndale House Publishers to Tyndale House Foundation. So we are a tax-paying company owned by a not-for-profit foundation. The company pays dividends to the Foundation to help support its $4 million program of making grants to other charities all around the world. In this way, we fulfill our corporate purpose both by the products we publish and by helping other ministries do what they do best. It's the best of all worlds!
