T
TALKING HEADS
What is the purpose of having a purpose?
W
Helmut Schuster
Organisational
purpose is no longer
an afterthought,
but what can it help
us achieve?
riting this piece, I began by
asking myself “what is the
p u r p o s e of h av i n g a
purpose?”.
This process made me realise
that my thinking around purpose has
evolved significantly over recent years.
Organisational purpose has gone from
being a very theoretical concept — a
nebular afterthought — to being essential
to strategy. It’s now so important that
the UK Corporate Governance Code
requires company boards to engage
closely with their organisations’
d e ve l o p m e n t a n d a r t i c u l a t i o n
of purpose.
I firmly believe, and have seen plenty
of evidence proving, that a purpose-led
organisation enjoys three core benefits.
• Purpose brings people together from all
walks of life. By breaking down barriers
and silos, purpose allows people to have
real and open conversations — sadly
rare in today’s offices, and extremely
underrated.
• Purpose inspires people and allows
us to pursue meaningful work. This is
work that aligns with our own personal
ambitions as well as the dreams
of society. It’s powerful for existing
employees and key to attracting bright
new talent.
• Purpose provides a guiding north star
and long-term direction for a company.
This is vital in an ever-changing world.
Being able to adapt quickly, while
maintaining your central reason for
existence, is critical. Having spent much
of my career in the energy industry, I
speak from experience as we deal with
the current energy transition.
BP announced its new purpose
on 12 February this year, defining it as
“reimagining energy for people and
our planet”.
Many people have been involved in
developing the statement and deciding
how we embed it deeply across the
company. I’m obviously biased, but I
love its simplicity and boldness. Over
the past year I have already noted the
three core benefits come to life within
BP, resulting in ways of working that
genuinely inspire me.
44 // Future Talent
Taking a step back, there are two
wider questions for all of us to consider:
as more companies embrace purpose,
what possibilities will this create for
businesses and society over the next
10 years? Following on from this, how
do we assess whether purpose is truly
impactful and does not just constitute
polished words and slick presentations?
“Purpose will be
measured over
decades and it will
be the actions, not
the words, that will
be counted”
Albert Einstein allegedly once said,
“work is the only thing that gives meaning
to life”. When I was in my early twenties,
this quote didn’t resonate with me at all.
However, as I matured and mostly made
career choices that led to meaningful
jobs, I increasingly understood what
he was saying.
At the start of this new decade — the
decade during which millennials will
increasingly shape the world – purpose
will be more than just an afterthought;
it will become an expectation, an
expectation that work will not feel like
work, that companies will help to create
a better world. We will be invited to
dream together and to reinvent. Purpose
will be measured over decades and
it will be the actions, not the words, that
will be counted.
Helmut Schuster is group HR director
at BP.