A4. Ultimately, yes! -
all businesses should be consciously aligned to the long term wellbeing of everyone, and as such they should have a purpose. However the articulation of a purpose should only be the result of a board-level decision to make this their PRIMARY GOAL, with profit being a necessary input and a natural outcome.
There should be some criteria that businesses need to meet before calling themselves purposeful. B Corp certification is an example. And the public setting of science-based targets for CO2 emissions.
I hope that corporation leaders and shareholders are waking up and questioning themselves of the role they and their companies are going to play in the worldā¦ At the end of the day, itās each and everyoneās choice. Its about laying your head in the pillow at night and being able to sleep knowing that you are doing what you can to make this world a better place. It sounds a bit naive, but thatās how I feelā¦ so I always hold this question within me: how can we change peopleās perspective and make them realize that their decisions today when it comes to business, have a massive impact in the environment and people!
Employees are the next front line, action from employees from Google is just one good example of how businesses are being held to account by the people who work for them
I think so, even if we get legislation, businesses still need to decide how theyāll navigate their role and viability in a rapidly changing future. The benefits are so great, why wouldnāt you?..
We need to start thinking about the Management of the corporates. Or fixed it, or replace it.
The communication over āwhatās changing?ā canāt be solve with an act as ānow we are working for a better futureā.
A3: Iām inclined to say YES. However, Iām more interested in the corporate āsuper-statesā we have created in the past three decades than the SMEs that reside in their broader ecosystem or corner shops on the high street. Every business should be āsustainableā and seek to adhere to an acceptable level of ethical, environmental and labour standards, even if theyāre making widgets or baking the bread we eat each day.
Purpose is more than that. If weāre going to have trillion dollar plus market cap businesses that have more clout than a G20 member, then I believe they have to be held to far higher standards on what they do, why they do it and for whom.
Millennial answer here: i think they wonāt survive if they donāt. We are buying more and more consciously - products and services alike. And very much like @costa was saying before, I would really struggle to engage with any business that goes blind in the world.
This idea is very poor as SDGs are not measures that can be used. It will create more confusion since it is impossible to create comparable SDG measures The creators of SDGs have said it themselves and a growing wave of experts in measurements sciences (not the bean counters) are are totally stumped of the drive towards actually using the SDGs in its current form
final qā¦
Yes, every business should have a purpose.
I believe they can and many do inherently, particularly those that are set up from the outset to make a difference to society, from charities and not for profit organisations, to social enterprises.
It is increasingly accepted that businesses have to play a role in society beyond making profit, paying its taxes and employing people, and that role, or purpose, should be embedded into the organisationās DNA.
That is so true and more members of the investor community are beginning to really put pressure on the companies they invests in to improve their Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) standards. Many of the Swedish pension funds for example. Letās not forget the important impact Millennials are having on how businesses behave. As they grow as an investor class, we will see a lot more positive change. This leads me to think that it is important to involve the investor community in the conversation - by trying to map purpose to what the financial community knows best as a conscious metric (ESG) - so that they know what to look for and what questions to ask during the investment selection process.
Great answers and a lot of content for us to reflect on! Thanks a lot to @pilarp@JHH@Tasneem@gibbulloch@afelin@Benkellard@WillG@valentinomagliaro
For people still online please keep replying and discussing. We are going to read all the replies and distill the key learnings from the online conversation.
Indeed, I think mental models are made explicit using system dynamics and new concepts. A new theory of value should be sandboxed->prototyped to show how it captures in the value equation the negative externatilities that our current system produces.
