Be a force for good
Every business has a corporate purpose statement, but that doesn’t mean it has ambition to be a force for good.
Over the past six months we’ve had conversations with leaders at some of the UK’s biggest organisations who genuinely want to make a dent in some of society’s biggest problems.
It’s not easy. We heard “The transition to being a force for good is a never ending challenge, it’s like when you slay one dragon, two more pop up over there.”
All agree on 4 big challenges. And that they still have work to do.
What leaders say about becoming a force for good
"We’ve invested all this time with leadership and Ex-Co to get them on board, but we can’t deliver on those promises without the rest of the business getting behind it."
"We don’t have a sustainability strategy, we have a business strategy that defines how sustainability and social responsibility is going to help us achieve it"
"It wasn’t until we got specific and tangible about the positive change we wanted to make, and how we were going to make it that things really started to change for us"
"Lets face it, if I go to the CEO for my annual review at the end of the year and I’ve hit my P&L targets but done nothing against our sustainability or social impact goals, I get my bonus. If it’s the other way round, I get fired."
Four Key Challenges Discussed in the Report
1.
Defining the social problems you are uniquely placed to solve
Only by unlocking your unfair advantage in doing good will you come up with something that feels unique and authentic to your brand.
2.
Finding your ‘Return on Impact’
Without impact being fundamentally aligned with the strategy and performance of the business, a company can never have real, authentic impact.
3.
Making impact everyone’s job
A business that truly wants to be a force for good can’t just rely on a Sustainability or Social impact team. It needs to become part of the way colleagues across the business think, act and make decisions.
4.
Delivering impact at scale
When you move beyond embedding impact internally, you can start to deliver impact at scale externally through beacon initiatives that help shine a light on what you’re doing, and through your products and services.
