Scaling with Purpose, Sustainably

Well, what a great start to the Ignium “Scaling with Purpose, Sustainably” event series. On June 8th we hosted the first of what we hope will become a quarterly event looking at the world of purpose and sustainability.

With thanks to John Rosling, CEO of Contexis; Robert Barnard-Weston – the ‘grandfather of sustainability’ and Lee Chadwick, Founder of Futurelec.

We looked at a number of key elements each designed to help guests learn and understand how purpose leads to engagement in business. Robert shared his wisdom and experience of working in the early days with the likes of Anita Roddick at the Body Shop and Paul Polman at Unilever. One of the keys in his message was that you need a champion – someone to bang the drum and keep people focussed on the longer term goals. Robert believed that to drive real change we need to create a movement – something bigger than ourselves. Only when that happens does real change come about. And the good news is that this can happen in any size of business – we just need to find our purpose and communicate that message to everyone!

John Rosling believes activation is key. He shared two quotes as a starter – one from Larry Fink, CEO BlackRock:?“To prosper over time, every company must not only deliver financial performance, but also show how it makes a positive contribution to society”.

The other from the UK Corporate Governance Code: "A board must define the purpose and values of the company, and what type of behaviours it wishes to promote in order to deliver its business strategy"

?It’s no use having a purpose written on a page if no one knows, or cares, about it. It has to be brought to life. Once again engagement is key. John shared his thoughts on some of the greatest ‘purpose’ led companies globally including Patagonia and Southwest Airlines.

The research carried out by John and the team at Contexis shows, unsurprisingly, that “purpose activation” is associated with increased performance in business. There was a direct correlation between the two.

At this time where the search for talent is at a premium it’s imperative that businesses have a clear purpose if they are to attract top talent. In fact employees who believe in your purpose are unlikely to quit in the short term compared with over 38% of those who are negative about that purpose. (the others who are negative are also the detractors in your business who suck the energy and are disrupters to everyone!)

Southwest is an interesting ‘purpose-led’ business. Its purpose “To connect people to what’s important in their lives” drives the values, behaviours and actions of everyone – to impressive effect. Employees feel empowered to take ownership and responsibility. They inherently have absolute trust in the company and its culture.

Lee Chadwick shared his story of creating his latest venture, Futurelec. A business with a dual purpose. Lee wants to contribute to the UK becoming carbon neutral by 2050, and Futurelec is the vehicle to do that. He also is on a mission to help disaffected young people get into work. He wants to provide opportunities – and again Futurelec is the vehicle to do that too.

The conclusion of the event was that purpose matters! Yes, we knew that before we started but it’s good to have it reiterated. As a group we want to contribute to the purpose driven movement because we know that’s what changes lives ultimately!

To find out more about our plans for the next “Scaling with Purpose, Sustainably” event please drop us a note. What would you like to learn? Who would you like to hear from?