What does your business stand for?
In today’s ever-changing world, businesses are recognising that purpose needs to no longer be on the peripheral of strategy but at its core to thrive, yet there are still many unanswered questions and for many, these are uncharted waters.
How do you integrate meaningful purpose into corporate purpose, engaging both your employees and customers while driving profitable growth? This is the single most important question any business leader or employee should be asking and demanding right now. For those who answer this question and implement it in their strategy, success follows. One of the best examples of this was quoted by Rose Marcario, CEO of Patagonia when she said “Caring for our planet is not in conflict with running a successful business”.
It has been shown time and time again that the most successful companies who put purpose at their core are able to re-define the playing field and reshape their value proposition, overcoming the challenges of slowing growth and declining profits. In today’s world of COVID-19 and the ever-changing economic landscape, could there be a more important question to ask and resolve?
Being a socially responsible company goes beyond making the world a better place, it also benefits companies in their consumer marketing and recruiting. A recent survey by the Harvard Business Review found that over 87% of people surveyed are willing to pay more for products and services provided by companies that are committed to positive social and environmental impact, and a staggering 70% would rather work for such a company.
I have always believed that the single most important Sustainable Development Goal, as set out by the UN to address eradicating poverty in all its forms by 2030, is SDG#17 - Partnerships for the Goals. Without partnerships, whether they be with our employees, customers or wider industry, we cannot single handedly achieve these goals and it is because of this that I was driven to start Barefoot Citizens and specifically Barefoot Consulting with this single goal in mind. Through a group of symbiotic for-profit businesses, all focused at their core on existing as Barefoot Citizens we create the opportunities together, equally, for everyone to participate in a world of possibilities.
As referenced recently in the Deloitte Trust Survey, “Today’s business world is far more about communities and relationships and far less about transactions.”
So, with growing evidence of what socially responsible purpose can do for business by increasing its values 100-fold, the question is not should we have a CSR purpose driven strategy, but what is our CSR purpose strategy? Over the past five years I have witnessed first hand the rapid shift which occurs within an organisation once a clear and meaningful purpose is implemented internally and externally, and the myriad of opportunities that arise from this.
As quoted by Lily Tomlin “I always wondered why somebody didn’t do something about that. Then I realised I was somebody”. So what are you going to do today to make a positive change?
Get in contact to book a keynote, talk about how you can put purpose at the core of your corporate strategy or to start a conversation about partnerships for the goals .