ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the role that leaders play in contouring purpose and discusses why purpose is critical to sustainability ownership. It presents a number of strategies that companies such as Enel, Marks & Spencer, and Unilever use to broadcast purpose far and wide, including direct exposure to stakeholders and their needs, training and development, co-creation activities, and personalized. The chapter describes how purpose rebounds to the company’s benefit. It also describes how best to communicate purpose to the organization, aligning corporate values with the personal ones of individual workers. An organization without purpose manages people and resources, while an organization with purpose mobilizes them. Purpose is a key ingredient for a strong, sustainable, scalable organizational culture. Most employees lack the sense of purpose that’s essential for seeing business through the sustainability lens. A company with a clear and authentic purpose that incorporates sustainability goals is also attractive to potential employees.
