How to define your purpose, and align it with your mission and vision

… and take action to fulfil your promise! 

Whether you are implementing your purpose for the first time or reviewing it in light of the "new-normal", it helps to get clarity on the differences between purpose, vision and mission. As HBR explains, your purpose is your why, your mission is your what, and your vision is where you want to go. 

A survey conducted by EY defines organisational purpose as “an aspirational reason for being...which provides benefit to local and global society”. To help develop your purpose from scratch, it is worth turning to the Sustainable Development Goals for inspiration to see which causes align with your core skills and expertise and what opportunities they present for social-value creation in your enterprise. The SDGs provide a great framework for positively impacting your employees, partners and stakeholders. 

Tip: Check out the SDG Compass - your guide to how the SDGs affect your business, and how you can take action to put sustainability at the heart of your strategy.

Leading brands have an opportunity to reflect and ask what part they can play in the current crisis and beyond that reflect their brand purpose. Many brands worldwide are doing their best to assure their customers and employees that they are there for them. Some are visibly acting on these assurances by putting purpose before profit. Profit will come later when consumers remember how these organisations behaved and will choose them ahead of others. Developing a corporate purpose is one thing, but activating a purpose-driven strategy is another – it is crucial that the chosen purpose translate into action.

Definitions and differences

• Vision: Articulates what an organisation wishes to be like in some years’ time, and what they hope to achieve in the long term. It’s usually drawn up by senior management, in an effort to take the thinking beyond day-to-day activities in a clear, memorable and impactful way. For instance, the Swedish telecoms company Ericsson defines its vision as being “the prime driver in an all-communicating world”.
• Mission: Describes what business the organisation is (and isn’t) in - both now and into the future. It is a simple statement of what you do, and who you do it for. A consulting firm might define its mission by the type of work it does, the clients it caters to, and the level of service it provides. For example: “We’re in the business of providing assistance to senior managers in large finance firms.”
• Purpose: Your business purpose is the reason you have formed your company boiled down to a single sentence (or two). It can be industry specific or general enough to include ancillary and future business activities. To understand business purpose, it is important to distinguish it from your company's vision or mission. Patagonia in 2019 condensed their existing vision/mission, into one unifying purpose: “Patagonia is in business to save our home planet”

Get inspired by companies leading with purpose

• Unilever: Former CEO Paul Polman successfully launched Unilever into a new era of purpose-led business. His successor, Alan Jope, remains true to Polman’s business ethic, and continues to push Unilever’s purpose “to make sustainable living commonplace”.
• Aster: The housing association Aster Group created the Aster Foundation to invest into local communities through a range of initiatives including employment training, financial wellbeing and volunteering opportunities. They partnered with Goodsted to launch their Aster VIP platform to invite their colleagues, customers and suppliers to volunteer and support their local non-profit partners.
• Petit Pli: Founded in purpose, this sustainable fashion brand built its product development around its purpose: “to clothe the future of humanity, starting with the next generation”. For Petit Pli, a lived experience built a sense of purpose which led the way for the company to be born. Through play and discovery centred around a purpose, the founder Ryan Yasin used his aeronautical engineering skills to transform the future of fashion. As a takeaway, with purpose your aims gain meaning, clarity and determination and as you drive for change your innovative potential is activated.

Taking action towards your social purpose to engage employees and stakeholders

Even with the definitions clear in mind, taking action towards social purpose remains a challenge. While the commonly followed routes include charitable donations to organisations that align with your corporate purpose, or engaging employees in team-building type volunteer activities with their colleagues, we challenge you to go beyond donating a percentage of your annual profits and explore practical ways to put your purpose into action. 

Discover the benefits of putting your purpose into action:

Promote skills-based volunteering

• Engage employees to contribute to your company purpose by using their skills and expertise
• Research from Deloitte shows it positively impacts employee wellbeing and skill development
• Help your employees to become leaders by developing their management skills
• Cultivate an engaged workforce with a purpose-driven culture

Enable employee-led initiatives

• Encourage employees to take initiative and launch their own mini projects within the company to support a community cause they’re passionate about
• Employees can ask their colleagues to participate in these projects too for even greater greater collaboration

Engage all your stakeholders

• Collaborate with partners to make internal processes more sustainable
• Encourage your customers and suppliers to participate in your social purpose

If your company still needs convincing on the benefits of instilling or reviewing your purpose, now is the ideal time to address it. For practical ways of putting your purpose into action, check out the Goodsted platform and discover how to support great social impact causes that align your brand to your social purpose. 

Book your free Goodsted platform demo today and find out how to support causes aligned to your brand.