Purpose Has Gone Mainstream — What does it mean for purpose when it's part of the status quo?

This is the first article in a series about what purpose means for brands as a mainstream business phenomenon.?The second article about the rise of anti-purpose counter-trends can be found?here.?The third article about the waning of employee power as purpose goes mainstream can be found?here. The fourth article about cost pressures driving the future of purpose can be found here.

A?story late last year?in?The New York Times?about the proliferation of classes at elite business schools teaching “corporate social obligations and how to rethink capitalism” is emblematic of what has taken place with corporate social purpose over the past decade. Purpose has gone from an insurgent idea challenging capitalism to a mainstream part of 21st?century capitalistic thinking. Purpose has gone mainstream.

Purpose is nothing new, of course. The modern debate goes back to the Great Depression. Standard Oil scion Nelson Rockefeller argued that corporations should attend to stakeholders in?his report to the company’s board?after an eye-opening 1937 circuit of Latin American squatter towns, saying “the corporation must use its…assets to reflect the best interests of the people.” This debate was eventually settled in favor of the shareholder-only focus advanced by economist Milton Friedman in an?influential 1970 essay?in which he declared “there is one and only one social responsibility of business—to use its resources…to increase its profits.” But with the turn of the century, new ways of realizing profits are becoming popular, particularly the?explosive growth of ESG investing.

The bitter fruits of globalization are the biggest rebuttal now made against a shareholder-only view—inequality, exploitation, job losses, loss of cultural diversity, erosion of national sovereignty, environmental degradation. The urgency of climate change has catapulted purpose to the forefront. It is no longer considered radical when mainstream leaders like Paul Polman, ex-chair of Unilever, or Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, express concerns. Every major company now articulates a commitment to social values. The next generation of employees is putting social values front and center in job-seeking.

Purpose is no longer trending. We still treat purpose like it’s yet to gain a solid foothold, but the reality is that purpose is now mainstream. Unequivocally mainstream.

The mainstream always invites counter-trends, even outright rebellion. We see pushback against purpose arising already. Being mainstream also diminishes the competitive edge, making it a cost of doing business, which brings in pressures for cost-efficiencies. Bottom-line assessments of purpose are growing. And mainstream phenomena lose their luster. Purpose is not yet a dull topic, but a worldwide search on Google Trends for?corporate social responsibility?or?CSR?shows some waning of interest (versus?ESG?which is waxing dramatically).

What comes next for corporate social purpose now that is mainstream??That is the question I will explore in my Four Tuesday articles to come over the next few weeks.