The Sweet Spot: How Purpose Can Drive Business Results
What if we lived in a world where every time you bought something, something good happened as a result? Where corporations designed their business models so that their products were tied to purpose, not just profit?
This was the vision shared by attendees of the
Net Impact Conference, which took place this past weekend in Seattle. Student and professional leaders came together to discuss how to harness the power of the corporate sector to tackle the toughest social and environmental challenges facing the world today.
For years, the traditional approach of business to affect positive social impact has been philanthropy. Now, social missions are being incorporated into the fabric of companies – no longer is social impact bolted on, but instead, it’s being built in.
On Friday, I had the pleasure of participating on a panel with two other companies called, “
Guardians of the Mission: Protecting Purpose in Impact-Driven Companies.” We discussed the successes and challenges in protecting purpose among competing forces – including profit margins, parent companies and quarterly metrics. I was joined by
Jenny Burns, Director of Mission at Honest Tea,
Shira Shafir, Director of Social Innovation and Impact at TOMS Shoes, and
Sue Tobias, Principal at Mission Measurement LLC, for a lively discussion on the roles each of us has within our organizations to build and sustain cultures committed to driving shared business and societal value.
Some of the key themes and takeaways from our session included:
- Measuring impact: How should companies measure social impact outcomes alongside overall business performance? Companies shouldn’t separate social impact results from business results – they aren’t mutually exclusive. Instead, they should be transparent about how their business is driving both. Businesses should also report on the tangible impact of their efforts. This is a major undertaking for Shira at TOMS Shoes, who’s leading an effort to synthesize and communicate the positive social outcomes of customer purchases from the past decade for TOMS’ upcoming 10-year anniversary.
- Structuring teams: How should companies organize their teams when it comes to purpose? All panelists agreed that for it to work, purpose can’t be walled off. Rather, it needs be an integral part of employee roles across different functions of the business, with everyone driving toward the same mission and goals. I pointed to PayPal’s “matrixed approach,” for example, where our Social Innovation efforts are driven through a corporate center function as well as a broader team of colleagues embedded within product, marketing and other organizations across our business.
- Demonstrating business value: How can businesses ensure that purpose is given top billing in their organizations? For Honest Tea, as its business grows, so does its impact – but that’s inherently different from the way its parent company, Coca-Cola, was set up. That’s why it’s incumbent upon Honest Tea to constantly make the case for social impact across the organization. The key to maintaining mission within a larger company is to pursue activities that demonstrate both positive social impact and core business results. I call that the “sweet spot” of Social Innovation.
It was evident from the energy at Net Impact that social purpose is an essential part of the future of business. And if the audience for our session was any indication, the next generation of business leaders will expect the companies they work for, and purchase from, to make purpose a priority. I was pleased to share PayPal’s vision and story to date as a part of this panel, and I encourage you to follow our ongoing Social Innovation efforts
here.
Sean Milliken, Head of Global Social Innovation, PayPal