In the first part of our ‘Best Practice’ series on corporate purpose, Re_Set Director, Emma Nineham, shares her recommendations for establishing and articulating your purpose
This article is part of a three-part series on corporate purpose. You can go back and read the introduction to the series here: Why does corporate purpose matter?
Do you know what your company stands for, and the issues it cares about? If yes – great! Now, does your board agree? Would an employee you bump into in the corridor say the same thing? In a survey, while 76 per cent of marketing heads believed their organisation had a defined sense of purpose, only one in 10 could produce a corporate purpose statement and plan to back-up these beliefs. Oh dear. If the marketing team is struggling, it doesn’t bode well for the rest of your business.
Having a defined purpose will unify your organisation and ensure your business continues to thrive and achieve its goals. So where do you start?
1. Understand the status quo
Before trying to do anything else, a critical first step is a diagnostic to understand your status quo. If you’re not willing to understand what the reality really looks like, there’s very little point reading on – or investing time and resources into trying to become purpose-led.
A range of techniques, from interviews, to focus groups, to surveys, to reviewing past performance, customer feedback and what the media has to say, can help in this exercise. What’s important is the questions you explore, for example:
- Why do employees across the organisation think you exist? why did they want to take a job here, and how do expectations match to the reality?
- Why did your investors decide to put their precious money into backing this organisation over the millions of others out there?
- Why do customers or clients buy your products or services, and why might they go elsewhere?
- What’s your heritage and why did someone decide to start this organisation in the first place? How well does what you do reflect these roots today?
2. Stand strong and stay committed
When Re_Set worked with Primark and Sue Garrard to develop the retailer’s Primark Cares sustainability strategy, one thing that stood out was their ongoing commitment to bring the joy of fashion to all through a commitment to affordability and low prices.
This strong ‘reason for being’ wasn’t at odds with what they were trying to achieve in the way of sustainability. Instead, it became a core foundation of the Primark Cares commitments. As CEO Paul Marchant made clear when Primark’s commitments launched: “The key is to make sustainable clothing affordable to people… We realise sustainability is something we need to invest in, and we’re not afraid to invest.” Having a strong commitment like this as a guiding principle to all you do helps act as a reminder when big decisions need to be made.
Delving into what makes your organisation unique is an important ingredient for shaping a purpose people can get behind. Defining what makes you stand out and what you can bring to the world that would otherwise be missing can be an inspirational moment for any organisation.
And, in a world where every brand is looking to differentiate themselves from the competition, purpose can be a great reality check for what this means. Particularly when we’ve had to spend the last couple of years being so reactive – could purpose be a lever to take control again?
3. Step into the shoes of your people
A strong purpose should make sense and be relatable for both the organisation as a whole and for each person within it. When defining your purpose, make sure to interrogate your assumptions from the angle of all stakeholders – does it connect to every function and level in the organisation?
If you’re willing to invest in stress-testing the answer to this question, you’ll likely be surprised at the unintended benefits that come from the exercise that can in turn help understand and shape the culture, mindset, and behaviours of the organisation.
4. Embrace co-creation
When we work with organisations to define purpose, this is a non-negotiable. Locking ourselves away in a windowless room with a whiteboard and then doing ‘a big reveal’ to key leaders is not the way to shape a purpose that sticks.
To get buy-in, it’s crucial to involve those who represent the purpose at the highest levels. You want to connect the insights gained from the exercises above to why they want to lead this great organisation.
If these leaders can imagine themselves using the purpose to help them be ruthless and tough for the greater good of embedding the ‘why’, then you’re likely onto something that’s going to be influential in your future success as an authentic and trusted brand.
5. Challenge and stretch it
Think about your purpose as a lever of value creation – and challenge and stretch it to ensure it helps achieve this aim.
Your purpose is not the same as your vision, values, or mission. It’s not the ‘what’, it’s not an ambition statement, and it’s not the ‘how’ – it’s the ‘why’. And as author and leadership guru, Simon Sinek, has taught us, it’s critical to ‘start with why’. In his own words: “People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it.”
While some stakeholders may historically have seen purpose as a ‘soft’ element of an organisation’s story, increasingly all, including investors, are recognising the link between a clearly defined and lived purpose, and the material performance of a business.
This article is part of a three-part series on corporate purpose. You can read the other parts here:
Emma is a Director at Re_Set. Want to talk to her about people-led change and purpose? Email her.
Meet the rest of the Re_Set team here
