Purpose-led business - a must for future success!
With increased access to information online, employees, customers and stakeholders have more insight into a business’s values, mission and impact, allowing more informed choices about where they want to work, and who they want to work for.
They’re also more aware of the impact their work can have on issues such as climate change, gender and wage inequalities and social justice, and are looking for ways to align their professional lives with their values.
Certifications such as social enterprise (SE) and B Corporation (B Corp) are purpose-related, encouraging more business to be purpose-led to validate their commitment to creating social and environmental value.
But it’s not only about being a social enterprise or a B Corp.
Your purpose, or your commitment to community and social issues may be closer to home, for example in yours or an associated industry. What can you give back to improve the lives – personal or work – of others?
There’s also a range of sustainable practices that companies can introduce, like reducing waste, building energy-efficient workplaces, and promoting sustainable travel.
A Harvard Business report showed that leaders who treat purpose as a core driver of strategy and decision-making reported greater ability to drive innovation, transformational change, thereby achieving consistent revenue growth.
Sometimes uncovering your purpose is easy – you’re already doing it and just need to distill it into a sentence, but other times it can take a bit of reflection, time and work. It’s not the elusive meaning of life, but it will feel like it when you get it. Here's some examples of successful companies’ aspirational purposes:
· ‘Using creativity to save the world’s resources’
· ‘Sustainable fresh food supply to the world’
· ‘Transforming the construction industry’
Real success is knowing why you do what you do and the healthiest companies know that profit and purpose aren’t opposites. Purpose is a strategic asset. They hold both.
If your business isn’t purpose-led, you need to move.
Purpose only reveals itself to those who seek it.
Start reflecting, talk about your reflections, progress begins with action.
Purpose turns business from survival to significance. When you find it – or even when you begin discovering it – everything changes.
· Your confidence grows
· Your message sharpens
· Your strategy aligns
· Your business strengthens
Start to see the ‘forest’ now. Then live and breathe it in 2026, and watch everything fall in line.
“If you don’t have a consistent goal in life, you can’t live it in a consistent way”. Epictetus
#BWAPIM #BeginWithAPurposeInMind