Business for Purpose
Weekly Announcement #33
compiled by Allyson Hewitt / VP Impact, MaRS Discovery District / July 16, 2021
#ONE — Coro’s Corner
Measuring Purpose: An Integrated Framework. By Enacting Purpose Initiative UK (great new resource). This is a technical briefing (8 pages) that pulls together the latest thinking on how companies can measure and disclose performance against their purpose. Thanks to Coro Strandberg for this suggestion.
#TWO — Post-Covid Reset
Sustainable Brands conducted “an extensive research project engaging over 100 sustainability leaders from around the world to understand how they thought sustainable business would evolve after the pandemic.” They applied their Roadmap under 5 pillars: Purpose, Brand Influence, Supply Chain, Innovation and Governance.
“While we are currently living in the ‘era’ of purpose and many companies are working on establishing a powerful and well-phrased purpose, relatively few have been able to concretely bring purpose to life and successfully embed it into full-blown strategies and action plans.”
#THREE — Social Marketing
How Nike stays ahead of the curve with its socially conscious marketing. Fast Company. July 14, 2021 (Video, ~25 minutes)
#FOUR — Business of Purpose
ReGenerate suggests this compendium of stats by the Business of Purpose “showing purpose-driven business return on impact”. Statistics support: Consumers seek brands with purpose & are more loyal to them; purpose-driven businesses outperform the market; and people seek meaningful, engaging work — even if it means sacrificing income.
PwC Canada’s most recent Canadian Consumer Insights Report states that “Retailers will also need to adapt their product mix to better reflect key consumer trends that will shape the new environment, including the rising interest in locally made, environmentally sustainable and socially conscious products.” Half of the survey’s respondents said “they expect businesses to be accountable for their environmental impact.”
#FIVE — International Trend Watch
Hong Kong’s future depends on companies finding purpose beyond profits. South China Morning Post. July 14, 2021 by David S. Lee.
“The pandemic has prompted significant reflection for individuals and organisations. Even before the pandemic, there was significant debate about the purpose of business beyond solely maximising profits. Increasingly, there is a push for businesses to focus on purpose as well as profit and stakeholders rather than just shareholders.”
Quote of the week
“We ask people would they take a pay cut to work for a company that aligns with their values, and across the board, people say yes.”
– Alison Omens, Chief Strategy Officer of JUST Capital in BBC’S Worklife
The Great Resignation: How employers drove workers to quit. July 1, 2021 — really worth reading if you want to understand why 41% of workers were considering quitting or changing professions this year. Also note: “the great resignation” is a trend watch item getting significant media coverage over the past few weeks.
Enjoy the reading and enjoy the week-end … on purpose!
Allyson
What is the Business for Purpose Network? The B4PN is an initiative catalyzed by the JW McConnell Family Foundation and the MaRS Discovery District to help build a movement engaging companies to put purpose at the core of their work.
Past editions of the B4PN Weekly Announcements are available on LinkedIn and on Medium.
Interested in joining this movement? Please contact Marek Nakonieczny, Associate, B4PN at mnakonieczny@marsdd.com to indicate your interest in this work, to join the mailing list or to unsubscribe. We’d also love your comments on anything you read here or to promote any relevant articles you would like to share with others.
