T
TALKING HEADS
Henry Playfoot
Why do only big companies
talk about purpose?
W
e have, it seems,
entered an age of “woke
capitalism”. Edelman,
Deloitte and others all attest to the
fact that consumers and employees
now expect companies to take
a clear position on a whole range
of social issues. Even BlackRock’s
CEO Larry Fink has been calling
on businesses to focus on purpose
above profit. The days of merely
increasing shareholder value are
long gone: the message is clear, your
business needs to have a purpose.
And yet – if you go to one of the
UK’s thousands of small businesses,
family firms or independent shops,
you’d be hard pushed to find a
purpose statement in sight. In
fact, if you did, it would seem
distinctly odd. That’s because, for
workers in those businesses, there’s
a very proportionate link between
their efforts and the outcomes of
the business. In simple terms, a
worker in an independent bakery
makes a nice cake and their business
prospers. Their contribution has
made a tangible difference in a way
their colleagues can appreciate; their
efforts are evidently meaningful.
But at large organisations, most
of us aren’t so lucky. The majority of
us are very small cogs in very large
machines (one of the reasons why
working at a start up has become
such a common cultural fantasy). It’s
much harder to see how uploading
a document to the intranet, securing
a better-priced catering supplier for
the regional office or negotiating a
new software licence, is having much
real impact on the world.
Partly as a result, big business
is facing a crisis of engagement.
According to Gallup, only 8% of
UK employees today would class
themselves as “engaged”. That’s
not great. But there is room for big
businesses to hope. Gallup’s data
also suggests that when a company
has a clear purpose, employees are
more motivated, more productive
and more likely to stay.
So for a big business with
a poorly motivated workforce,
the logical next step is to hire an
agency and start crafting a purpose
statement right? Not so fast. In
January this year, Gillette, owned
by P&G, launched its ‘Best a man
can be’ campaign, a provocative
or (depending on your viewpoint)
deeply cynical advert, tackling the
reductive, square-jawed masculinity
the company has profitably traded
on for years. According to the
media commentariat, Gillette’s
#MeToo bandwagon hop was a
serious misfire, with thousands of
affronted men threatening to grow
revenge moustaches.
What went wrong? We don’t have
to look far. To ‘join the conversation’
about the reality or extent of toxic
“
Purpose,
built from
the inside out,
takes years
and requires a
willingness
to invest for the
longer term
”
masculinity is to miss the point.
Gillette’s stab at a purpose started
with the brand team: it was about
re-positioning in response to falling
market. Admittedly, Gillette did
commit some small change to a
charity that relates to the campaign,
but the product and the way it’s
made stayed the same. And it’s still
selling razors and other identical
shaving products to women and
charging them a premium for the
pleasure (and the fact that they are
pink). In other words, the company
has adopted the clothes of the caring
corporate, but their commitment is
clearly skin deep.
P&G’s long-time rival Unilever,
on the other hand, is a company
that has taken careful, considered
action on its carbon footprint and its
supply chain over the years.; not to
differentiate its products, but to try
to do business in a more sustainable,
equitable way. And beyond that,
some of the company’s campaigns,
such as the one for Lifebuoy soap,
have actually saved lives. It’s likely
that employees who worked on
those campaigns felt a sense of pride
when they went home, sensing that
their work had made a difference,
however small. Purpose like that,
built from the inside out, takes
years and requires a willingness to
invest in the short term for a much
longer-term upside.
As for companies that view
purpose as just another marketing
initiative? They risk turning off not
only their customers but, more
importantly, their staff. FT
Henry Playfoot is a pitch doctor
and strategist. He helps individuals
and organisations develop, refine and
communicate what they do.
March – May 2019
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