Blog
How to Ground Your Purpose in Reality
When you set out on your purpose journey, what steps can you take to ensure that your purpose will be genuinely transformational for your business?
Every purpose journey must start with an intensive "dig" phase - an effort to research and analyse the past, present and future trends that affect your business. Only through a thorough "dig" phase can you ensure that your purpose is properly rooted in the political, economic, social and technological context in which you operate. This will give your purpose real purchase on your day-to-day operations, rather than being an abstract aspiration.
How to dig:
Dig into the political: Consider the direction of regulation and policy when it comes to things like emissions. LEGO, for instance, is investing c. $150 million to find alternatives to the oil-based plastics it uses to make its bricks. In LEGO’s own words, its purpose is “not just about products, it is about realising the human possibility”. Engaging with the political can also mean aligning your purpose with positive and constructive political movements, as Ben & Jerry's has repeatedly done, or signing up to shared political commitments such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals, as global brands like Pearson, BT and Microsoft have done.
Dig into the economic: By this we don’t mean the ups and downs of the S&P500 or the FTSE, but the broader trends affecting your sector, the nature of work in your industry and, of course, your customers. Is your sector facing consolidation? How will you attract the talent you need – not just next year, but over the next 20 years? What does the emergence of a middle class in the Global South mean for your company - and your purpose?
Dig into the social: What do major demographic trends such as urbanisation or the rapidly ageing population mean for your customers? How can you respond purposefully? For example, brands like IBM are embracing the potential of greener “smart cities” as part of their core mission. In the same way, UK bank Barclays is responding to the social challenges experienced by an aging population through initiatives such as its “Digital Eagles” campaign, which aims to help older generations build online skills.
Dig into the technological: Technology is the wild card that disrupts the political, economic and social dimensions. But it can also enable you to deliver your purpose on a larger scale. Financial services firms, for example, are taking advantage of greater mobile penetration in Africa to make money services available to legions of previously “unbanked” people. We’ve also been inspired by Vodafone’s initiative to create a ‘hidden’ app that allows women in Turkey to secretly report domestic violence. The app has been downloaded by 24% of smartphone-owning women in Turkey, and represents an impressive manifestation of Vodafone’s purpose to “transform societies and contribute to more sustainable living”.
Beginning your purpose journey with a thorough “dig phase” is crucial. Putting in the hard yards from the start will bring a lot of “reality” into the equation early on and prevent your purpose-led vision from becoming too abstract and ephemeral.
This is an abridged version of an article that originally appeared in Sustainable Brands - click here to read the full article.