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KEEPING IT REAL How authentic is your corporate purpose? www.powerofpurpose.eu

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KEEPING IT REALHow authentic is your corporate purpose?

www.powerofpurpose.eu

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Based in Switzerland, IMD is ranked first in open executive programs worldwide (Financial Times, 2012 & 2013) and first in executive education outsidethe US (Financial Times 2008-2013). With more than 60 years’ experience, IMD takes a “real world,real learning” approach to executive education(www.imd.ch), applying an open, collaborative andpioneering approach to everything that it does. For this reason, IMD’s newly launched Global Centerfor Corporate Sustainability (CSL) has a research and learning platform with an active membership of global companies and other partners such as NGOs,international organisations and think-tanks focusing on promoting innovation for sustainability.

The CSL Platform pursues a mission of contributing to leadership in sustainable development by focusingon mainstreaming social and environmental issues in corporate strategies and providing knowledge-sharing platforms to promote strategic innovationand best practice in sustainability initiatives(www.imd.ch/csl-learning-platform).

Cover image:©Alexis Robin Original Artwork

Burson-Marsteller, established in 1953, is a leadingglobal public relations and communications firm. It provides clients with strategic thinking and program execution across a full range of public relations, public affairs, reputation and crisis management, advertising and digital strategies. The firm’s seamless worldwide network consists of 73 offices and 85 affiliate offices, togetheroperating in 110 countries across six continents.Burson-Marsteller is a unit of WPP, the world’s leading communications services network. Our purpose is to help our clients discover, define and deliver their corporate purpose. For more information, please visit bm.com.

3Keeping it real

Six years after the financial crisis of 2008 shookpublic confidence in corporations, corporate reputation is showing signs of improvement – butsignificant challenges remain. Less than a quarter ofthe general public in the developed world say thatcorporations were humbled by the financial crisis,and even C-Suite business leaders overwhelminglyagree with the view that corporations are not actingmore responsibly than before1.

There are also real challenges for business leaders,who are still mainly seen to be motivated by greedand maximizing profits for their corporations andthemselves. This means that anything they say is viewed with scepticism. So how do corporations and their leaders overcome this mistrust and comeacross as “authentic”, or real?

We have been working with IMD business schoolsince 2008 on corporate purpose. Our perspective isthat companies who are true to a raison d’etre whichgoes beyond short-term financial considerations, andwhere stakeholders understand not only what thecompany does but also the core principles guiding itswork, have a competitive advantage. IMD researchshows that a strong and well communicated corporate purpose can impact financial performanceby up to 17%2. It also strengthens a company at timesof change and crisis, by providing a common visionaround which to rally its key stakeholders and engage its employees.

This year’s study identifies the key drivers of authentic corporate purpose and reveals a questionnaire that companies can use to assessthemselves if they want to discover, define and deliver their corporate purpose. With social mediaconversations happening all the time across a varietyof platforms, by engaged consumers who are bothaware and concerned about the impact companieshave on society, a strongly articulated corporate purpose helps protect the company’s brand values.As one of the contributors to this study said “While we are sleeping, someone else is awake.”

However – only an authentic corporate purpose will have a long-term positive impact on reputation.An authentic corporate purpose guides businessdecisions and is central to developing strategy. It also plays a key role in guiding and motivatingemployees. Communicating it internally and externally is critical. But the purpose comes first – it is not a communications tool.

As another contributor said: “Authentic corporatepurpose is one of the most important ways acorporation in today’s world can communicatein a world characterised by a barrage of ideas…With the degree of information chaos, with citizen journalists and content circulating ondigital media, if your purpose is not authentic,you will be found out quickly.”

We live in a world where perceptions can be measuredand monitored and where managing reputation is akey element of corporate strategy. This includesmanaging and measuring corporate purpose. Thisyear’s report “Keeping it real” identifies for the firsttime 12 key drivers of authentic corporate purpose,and how an organisation can assess and measureitself against those drivers. The result is a tool that we believe will help corporate leaders and their teamson the journey of developing, defining and deliveringa corporate purpose which is authentic for internaland external stakeholders.

Of the 12 drivers, there are those that relate to identity and those that relate to image. The bestconditions for an authentic corporate purpose occurwhen identity and image are aligned. This means thatthe way the organisation projects itself to its externalconstituencies, including customers, regulators andmedia, has to fit with the way it internally defines itscentral and enduring mission.

And finally – as one of the contributors summed it up – “It is all about leadership”. The report foundthat leadership accounts for almost 50% of thevariance in perceptions of authenticity. Effective leaders who are both convinced and convincing setthe corporate purpose agenda and ensure that anorganisation stays its course and embeds and lives its purpose over the long-term.

As always we are grateful to the executives and companies that agreed to participate in our research and share richly of their own experiences.They all agreed that “keeping it real” is essential tocommunicating and building trust with audiencestoday. I hope the resulting framework and tool willhelp guide corporations as they begin or continuetheir own journeys of corporate purpose.

Jeremy GalbraithCEO Burson-Marsteller EMEAGlobal Chief Strategy Officer

1. Burson-Marsteller Corporate Perception Indicator 2014 - Six years after the 2008 Financial Crisis, Burson-Marsteller and CNBC surveyed 25,000 individualsin the general public and more than 1,800 corporate executives in 25 markets around the world.

2. MD/Burson-Marsteller Report The Power of Purpose, 2013

Over the last century, much has been writtenabout the corporate organisation’s “reason forbeing” (or “raison d’être”). From early debatesabout the fiduciary duties of the corporation tomore recent discussions regarding stakeholderresponsibilities, how an organisation’s leadersposition their company within a broader societalcontext also reflects their own personal ideas and beliefs.

The “corporate purpose” concept was first developed by Chester Barnard, the original management guru, in the 1930s and then further refined by Jim Collins, Jerry Porras,Richard Ellsworth and others in more recentyears. Over time, the term has come to be morewidely used – mostly by leading companies – to express how an organisation sees its role insociety. However, as “corporate purpose” is not yet a term utilized by all companies, a cleardefinition is necessary. We therefore define “corporate purpose” as follows:

Corporate purpose is a company’s core "reason for being.” The organisation’s singleunderlying objective unifies all stakeholders and embodies its ultimate role in the broader economic, societal and environmental context.

Corporate purpose is often communicatedthrough a company's mission or vision statements, but it may also remain informal and unarticulated. However, companies with an implicit corporate purpose are missing out on the true power of purpose which can unify an organisation behind an identity and vision.

Since perception – built on awareness and knowledge gained through experience, learningand communication – is often reality, corporatepurpose messages must be carefully tuned toindicators that demonstrate that the organisationeffectively ‘walks its talk’. Therefore, a trulyauthentic corporate purpose is one where there is full alignment between a company’s perceivedcorporate purpose and the actual strategic decisions and actions that are it takes. However,if a firm’s perceived corporate purpose does not match its actions, both internal and externalstakeholders will view corporate purpose withmistrust and scepticism and perceive it as mere“window dressing”. Clearly, this has knock-oneffects on the overall reputation of the firm, leading to loss of brand value.

In the shadow of the recent and ongoing financial crisis, public confidence in the authenticity of any stated corporate purpose that differs from the predominant profit-maximising norm is increasingly met with distrust. Therefore, we are compelled to understand the drivers of authentic corporatepurpose better so that we can begin to heal the rift between business and society.

The explicit objective of the study undertaken at IMD was to uncover the drivers or “dimensions”of an authentic corporate purpose. Based on a quantitative survey of over 200+ executives and in-depth qualitative interviews with 12 executives from organisations perceived ashaving an authentic corporate purpose, a number of findings were revealed as regardsembedding authenticity in corporate purposewithin the firm, and also anchoring it in leadership across organisations. On the onehand, the findings illustrate the challenges ofestablishing an authentic corporate purpose inorganisations, and on the other hand, they provide executives with a roadmap to achievingan authentic corporate purpose for their firms.

Aileen Ionescu-Somers, PhDDirector, CSL Learning Platform, IMD GlobalCenter for Sustainability Leadership (CSL)

4 What is authentic corporate purpose?

5What makes corporate purpose real?

Our most important premise for a “real” or authentic corporate purpose is that it needs to be central to the company strategy and notsimply a marketing or communications exercise(IMD/Burson-Marsteller Report The Power of Purpose, 2013).

What we have set out to do here is to dig deeperinto the drivers behind a truly authentic corporatepurpose. What key elements need to be present?Do companies that are identified as havingauthentic corporate purpose exhibit similarcharacteristics? Could these be replicable forother companies seeking to develop an authenticcorporate purpose for themselves?

The research unveils two types of dimensionbehind corporate purpose: those involving thedefinition of what the company stands for, i.e.its identity; and those involving how the companyprojects itself, i.e. its image.

With these dimensions defined, companies – and indeed any organisation - can follow a path fortesting their potential for having a truly authenticcorporate purpose. Use of these dimensions formeasuring corporate purpose performance isequally valid for those companies at the stage ofdiscovering or defining their identity as it is forthose who are some way down the corporatepurpose road and want to improve its delivery.

6 12 Key drivers

The Burson-Marsteller/IMD research identifiedtwelve key drivers of an authentic corporatepurpose, divided into those that relate to identity and those relating to image. Within thetwelve core dimensions, the study grouped theminto a further four fundamental categories: leading,stewarding, differentiating and delivering.

Our survey indicates that managers identified awareness as the top dimension that organisationsneed to have if they are to have a truly credible andauthentic corporate purpose. However, although awareness is critical to authentic corporate purpose, all twelve dimensions matter. Focusing on a handful of dimensions is unlikely to overcome the scepticismof internal and external stakeholders.

7Identity and image

An organisation’s identity is about how an organisation defines its central, distinctive and enduring features.

Image is about how people outside the company,notably customers, perceive the organisation.Having an authentic image is also about beingdistinct and recognized for your passion and

excellence, which can be attributed to a company’s differentiation strategy.

The two broad concepts of identity and image are a mirror reflection of each other: the important insight for companies is that the bestconditions for an authentic corporate purposeoccur when identity and image are aligned.

The four dimensions grouped under the leading category (shown on the top right of the diagram) allrelate to how the company chooses to lead its interactions with its stakeholders. The concept here isvery much of an organisation pursuing external stakeholder dialogue in order to gauge societal interestand to understand its impacts in an open way. It is striking that as many as four dimensions of an authenticcorporate purpose, including the study’s top rated dimension of awareness, combine to form the leadingcategory, indicating how important it is for authenticity that an organisation defines its identity througha deliberately open and proactive process of external verification.

Balance means the company solicits and objectively takes into account all relevant information and points of view in its decision-making, including views that challenge deeply-held positions or which evoke its ownorganisational limitations and shortcomings.

Several of the interviewees agreed stating that“The holistic view is very important” and that “it’s especially important to have this holistic view of the company, society and the environment it is acting in”.

A truly authentic company will be balanced bynot dismissing opposing views. There needs to be space in the internal company strategy discussion to consider whether a stakeholdergroup taking a differing position critical of thecompany is actually right. That NGO may besaying something that your company does notlike to hear but is the NGO actually right? For one interviewee “Internally, corporate purpose creates a questioning process”.

This suggests that having a clear corporate purpose can empower those with different viewsin the company decision-making process.

This does not mean to say the company strategyblows with the wind of stakeholder opinion.Instead the purpose can act as an anchor. As one interviewee stated, “Progressive companies understand that you need toembrace the chaos and this involves standing behind purpose, really living up to it and starting a dialogue”.

Leading

Balance

IDENTITY

To measure whether they are balanced, companies should be asking themselves questions such as whether they:

Solicit views that challenge its deeply heldpositions;Listen carefully to different points of viewbefore coming to a decision.

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8 Identity and image

Awareness means that the company – through direct interactions with its stakeholders – displays acontinual openness to acquire a deep understandingof its own strengths and weaknesses, what drives or motivates its actions and how it impacts societyand the environment and how it is perceived by stakeholders.

With awareness the top scoring dimension in IMD’s survey of corporate opinion leaders, all that is incorporated in the term is critical for authenticity. A company with its finger on the pulse of stakeholder opinion is likely to be viewed as authentic. Similar to a politician’s thirst for opinion polling in the run up to an election, companies need to pursue a never-ending quest to understand stakeholder opinion. And this means engaging with all relevant stakeholders. As one corporate leader said, “We will listen to anybody and meet with anybody”.

This can involve structured engagement with NGOs:“Our sustainable sourcing advisory boardcontains 10 external members from NGOs toindependent consultants. They come from theirown angles and also have criticism in how wecould do things even better”.

It can also mean structured dialogue through theindustry value chain: “You always try to really getmore industries around the table to work onsustainable solutions in value chains”.

Part of awareness related to the company’s impactson stakeholders and the environment. Here thedirectional purpose of the organisation needs to bebased on “the attitudes and true belief in whatthe future looks like and what’s your role as a company in society. So if you feel that a company has a role to play in society and if you know that you run a business with longevityin mind then there is no other way than doing it in a sustainable way, and you need to thinkabout how to do it better than today and you need to keep challenging yourself.”

Awareness

To test how aware they are of their impact onsociety and how they are perceived, companiesshould be asking themselves questions such as:

Does the company seek feedback to improveits interactions with stakeholders? Does the company accurately describe how stakeholders view its actions?

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Transparency means the company promotes trust by openly sharing information with its stakeholders, demonstrating coherence betweenwhat it commits to and it actually does, is honestand truthful about its activities, admits mistakes and does not pretend to be something it is not.

Corporations will be trusted if they are viewed as having clearly defined values and their behavior lives up to those values. The importance of a strong set of values was underlined by one of the respondents to the study: “The most important thing is the expression of the corporate purpose and its values”.

In times of low public trust in companies, it isunderstandable that transparency scored stronglywith the corporate opinion leaders interviewed,coming out as the third highest scoring dimensiondemonstrating authenticity. If a company fails to live up to its promises and does not demonstratecoherence between “talk” and “walk”, it is unlikely to be seen to be living up to its purpose.

Being open about the challenges that the companyfaces means that it will have a greater chance to be believed by its stakeholders. If all a companycommunicates is the positive, there will be few whobelieve that it is authentic to its purpose. As onecorporate interviewee commented, “You bring out your dilemmas. You really talk about the difficulties that you have; openness and transparency and willingness to debate the difficult issues”.

Transparency

So companies wanting to test how transparentthey are in living their corporate purposeshould be asking themselves whether they:

Tell the truth about their values, behavioursand actions?Admit mistakes when they are made?

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The second group, the stewarding category - top left in the main diagram – brings together the three coredimensions of corporate purpose that reflect how an organisation sees its role as a steward with responsibilitiesin the broader environmental and social context.

StewardingIDENTITY

9Identity and image

Self-regulation means the company makes decisions that are true to its stated corporate purpose and that exhibit restraint with regard topurely pursuing growth and profit ambitions basedon strong internal moral standards and values that promote legal and ethical norms.

Our corporate interviewees confessed to tensionsbetween staying faithful to the longer term purposeof the company while faced with shorter term challenges. What is key is that the “Corporate purpose has to relate to the essence of thecompany” and also that the values of theemployees making the everyday decisions need toreflect that purpose. This means that the right peo-ple need to be brought on board: “If you’re the

smartest person in the world, and you don’thave the right value set, you don’t get hired”. With that in place “Authentic means that it resonates with everyone in the company and resonates with your own values andbeliefs, therefore executing that purpose comes naturally”. In that way, decisions are more likely to live up to the stated purpose.

Self-regulation

Companies looking to understand better whether they are good at Self-Regulationshould ask themselves whether they:

Resist pressure to do things contrary to theircorporate purpose?Act according to their corporate purposeeven if others criticize them for doing so?

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Connectedness means the company is anchored to a business context that aims to contribute tosocietal wellbeing by protecting and improving theenvironment and quality of life while respectingsocietal values, norms and traditions.

With a political leadership vacuum and foundationsfor business such as economic growth and societalprogress under challenge, corporations need increasingly to communicate and play an active role in society. It is not therefore surprising that corporations often see their role in terms of itscontribution to society at large: “The clear purpose is whatever we do should servesociety.” This implies that the corporation’s purpose goes beyond profit and loss and exists for a higher purpose: “I do believe that in whatever industry you are in, there must be an opportunity to articulate a much broaderpurpose, or a much broader purpose, than I think you see as of today in general”.

A company’s relationship with society can also be seen the other way around in that it needs permission from society or a societal acceptancein order to do business: “We strive and we fightfor it and we want to be a solid contributor tosociety. That is also part of it, this notion thatwe are part of the whole, this should also bereflected. We have to deserve our license to operate, authentically”.

Connectedness5

Companies assessing their level of connectedness need to ask themselves:

Does the organisation aim to protect and improve the quality of the local environment in which it operates?Does the organisation respect the quality of life, values, norms and traditions of thelocal communities which it serves?

10 Identity and image

Long-term orientation means the company plans for the long term by focusing on sustainable goals,understands the interdependence of current andfuture benefits and maintains long-term relationships.Companies that plan for the long term understandthe interdependence of current and future benefitsand maintain long-term relationships are likely to be able to be guided by a broader purpose.

“You aim for the longer-term not for the next fewyears”was a typical view of our corporate intervieweesin general and also for many specifically in terms ofresource management: “We are really looking intoresource availability in the long-term”.

And it was a widely held view that “A corporate purpose (itself) cannot be short-lived”.

Rather, “A company’s purpose needs to be built over the long-term in order to be reallypart of the decision-making process, for peopleto really believe in rather than to put it down to greenwashing”.

Long-term orientation 6

To test their long-term orientation this, companies can ask themselves:

Does the company give priority tomaintaining a long-term relationship withits stakeholders?Does the company have a specific long-term focus?

Embeddedness means the company’s choices andactions are partly generated by the actions andexpected behavior of other actors; thus, it remainsclose to its stakeholders who enable it to remainconnected to the world around it.

Co-creation with stakeholders, whereby some of thecompany’s actions are influenced by external actors,is likely to result in deep long-term engagement andauthentic behavior. Think of some of the resourcesustainability platforms which brought companiesand NGOs together - many continue today withstrong momentum. This is recognition that no company is an island. As one of our interviewees

stated “You always try to really get more industries around the table to work on sustainable solutions in value chains and thenyour impacts can be much, much bigger”.

Embeddedness7

Companies who want to test the dimensionof embeddedness should ask themselves questions such as:

Does the company remain close to its stakeholders?Does the company have a sense ofconnectedness with society?

The first group of dimensions under Image are linked to differentiating - the firm’s ability to be seen asunique and distinct from other firms in the marketplace. Projecting a specific corporate purpose can be oneeffective way for a company to differentiate itself compared to its competitors with many of its audiences,both internal in terms of employees and recruitment and external ranging from communities to investors.

DifferentiatingIMAGE

Reputation is put forward as a differentiating dimension in that it means the company can gaugehow outsiders are judging it, has a good reputation inthe community, among customers and in the indus-try as a whole, is actively involved in the communityand is known as a good place to work.

An effective corporate purpose can help drive recruitment: “What attracts talent is the belief that the organisation is working on a broader cause and is trying to effect positive change in various aspects of the world”.

Reputation8

11Identity and image

Companies wanting to test their reputation shouldask questions such as whether they are:

Actively involved in the community;Attract attention because they are known as a good place to work.

Passion means the company has a sense of purposethat inspires a particular sense of passion that people like, find important and in which they investtime and energy. The company appears highly motivated to excel in everything it does.

Corporate purpose can help create a focal point for an enhanced energy around the organisation: “I found that by establishing corporate purpose,we drew people together and there is a ‘rallyingcry’ moment where it all clicks into place. You know instantly whether it is right.”

Making the corporate purpose live, bringing it in a visual way into the everyday work “contributes to the passion behind what people in the business do”.

Passion9

Companies wanting to test whether their purposeinspires a sense of passion about the companyshould ask if the company:

Appears highly motivated to excel in every-thing it does;Is a compassionate organisation.

Originality is the third and final dimension for a differentiating corporate purpose. It means the company has a unique corporate purpose thatstands out because it is fresh, creative, original anddifferent to that of other companies in the sameindustry, and it cannot be easily replicated.

By communicating an original corporate purpose, “people understand”, one corporatecommunications leader conveyed, “that this is ourunique point that we own in the industry”. This can have a benefit from an internal stakeholderpoint of view as well. From an internal perspective,“if you’re able to clarify (your corporate purpose) so the organisation can live it, they understand that this is part of our uniqueness”. In so doing, corporate purposebecomes “an asset”.

Coming up with an original corporate purposeinvolves taking a hard look at how your company has a differentiated offer and culture.

“One thing I learned is to differentiate our business from others. If you take the code ofconduct of the Fortune 500, it’s more or lesscopy-paste, including the mission statements.The art is to break it down to your business andif you can deliver to these promises.”

Originality10

And a reputation can disappear quickly due to inauthentic corporate behaviour: “Inauthenticityerodes trust. You have to build credibility. It takes a long time to build credibility, butjust one error to wipe it out”.

Companies that want to test originality in theircorporate purpose should ask to what extent they have a corporate purpose:

That is different from other companies;That stands out from other companies in the same industry.

12 Identity and image

The final pair of dimensions are focused on delivering – that is how external constituents perceive a firm’sability to maintain its commitments.

DeliveringIMAGE

Reliability means the company consistently pursues its purpose over time, making promises and delivering on them, no matter how challengingthe business context, while either meeting or exceeding its stated objectives.

The challenge to be reliable with one’s corporatepurpose over time is considerable given the waves of pressure and new challenges companies face.This was summed up by one interviewee as follows:“Making the numbers is the biggest barrier allthe time. I’ve heard stories since forever abouthow difficult the market has been for the last 5years and how this has changed what we can

do and how we can do it. But somehow it hasn'tinterfered with this idea (of a corporate purpose)because people understand that this is our uniquepoint that we own in the industry. And so theyunderstand that that’s not the right thing to let go.”

Reliability11

Companies wanting to test reliability indelivering their corporate purpose should ask to what extent:

They deliver on what they promise;They make promises that are credible.

Consistency means the company honors its heritage,actively creating connections with its origins, and alsocreating an internal consistency and continuity.

It was remarkable how, almost without exception, thecorporate opinion leaders interviewed in the study madereference, without prompting, to their company’s heritagewhen tracing the history of their corporate purpose:“Corporate purpose goes back to the founding of the company”.

“The vision is not just from the management teamtoday, it goes at least 15 years back”.

“It is about the principles and the values that aredriving this company for 70 years”.

Much accent was stressed on these long-held visionsbeing “still alive across the board and across thecompany”. Indeed one interviewee stated that today

“All employees ,know the (central guiding) statement by our founder more than 50 years agoon resource efficiency. He is no longer here to dismiss us but we basically have been using thatstatement in many ways”.

This means that there is an ongoing dynamic wherebynot only “It is important to document the corporatepurpose but also to institutionalize it within thecompany… at all levels.”

Consistency12

Companies seeking to test consistency of corporate purpose should ask whether they:

Have a clearly articulated corporate purposethat they pursue;Have a corporate purpose that is consistentover time.

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Highlights from our corporate opinion leaderinterviews regarding leadership include:

“It’s all about leadership”.

“It’s leading by behavior and by example”.

“The role of leadership is to ensure that the company is walking the talk”.

“If you have the privilege on the top ofthe company, to have leaders who live the values and determine the strategy,it’s much easier to follow a corporate purpose”.

“Leadership is absolutely key. The initiator and the challenger and the need to keep challenging the organisation to go an additional fewsteps, or taking bigger steps to make progress. If leadership let it go, then the activities would go with it and itwouldn’t happen. Leadership really needs to lead by example.”

Leadership is critical

Strong and committed leadership is crucial to authenticity.

Our study found that leadership accounts for almost50% of the variance in perceptions of authenticity.This is not surprising since leaders set both the direction and overall objectives of the company.Leaders also personify the company’s identity andimage through communications with both internaland external stakeholders.

This supports the idea that corporate purpose mustbe consistent with both corporate leadership andaction (i.e. both “walking the talk AND talking thewalk”). Leaders who are perceived to be effective,dynamic and leading successful operations are muchmore likely to be running organisations that have an authentic corporate purpose.

However, in a complex and uncertain global business context –as organisations grow in scale and across territories – it is increasingly challengingfor leaders to ensure that an authentic corporate purpose is maintained.

14 KEEPING IT REALHow authentic is your corporate purpose?

Corporate purpose is an organisation’s single underlying objective which unifies allstakeholders and embodies its ultimate role in the broader economic, societal andenvironmental context.

Authenticity has both internal and external components and an authentic corporate purposeis both how the organisation sees itself as well as how others see the organisation.

First empirical study of authenticity in corporate purposedesigned to produce a roadmap for executives by Burson-Marsteller/IMD.

Living an authentic corporatepurpose is challenging as companies seek to

balance short-termfinancial considerationswith their long-termvalues and identity.

AWARENESSThis was the top dimension identified as driving authenticity – meaning that a company has anunderstanding of its ownstrengths and weaknesses, what drives or motives itsactions and how this affects key stakeholders andthe environment.

PASSION & EMBEDDEDNESS

Passion means the company has asense of purpose that people areinspired by, find important and inwhich they invest time and energy.

Embeddedness means there is co-creation with stakeholders,whereby some of the company’sactions are influenced by externalactors, It is likely to result in deeplong-term engagement and authentic behavior.

Leadership at all levels needs to live the purpose.

Having a well-communicated corporate purpose is not enough.

It has to be real and authentic.

12 KEY DRIVERS OF AUTHENTICCORPORATE PURPOSE

IDENTITY AND IMAGE

Authenticity of corporate purpose happens when there is alignment between a firm’s perceived andstated corporate purpose and the actual strategic decisions and actions a firm takes.

150%

of the variance in perceptions of authenticity is driven by leadership.

1st

2 3&

15Methodology

The explicit objective of the 2015 Burson-Marsteller/IMD study is to uncover the drivers of an authentic corporate purpose. The findings are based on an extensive literaturereview, a quantitative survey of 200+ executivesand in-depth qualitative interviews with tenexecutives from organisations perceived as having an authentic corporate purpose.

Respondents of the qualitative surveyincluded the following industries: Packaging, Technology, Food & Beverage, Cement, Pharmaceutical, Automotive, Energy & Environmental Affairs, Chemicals and health

The Burson-Marsteller diagnostic toolis designed to enable business leaders to explore each of the authenticity dimensions ina comprehensive and intuitive way. The end result of this analysis will form the guidelines to chart your company’s progress towards an authentic corporate purpose.

For more information please contact:Lawrie McLarenChairman, Corporate [email protected]

Burson-Marstellerdiagnostic tool