BM_IMD_REPORT-How-Authentic-is-your-Corporate-Purpose

7. Qualitative Research Findings
In order to lend some richness and depth to the quantitative survey, we conducted interviews with
several of the companies identified in the survey as having an authentic corporate purpose. We
were interested to know how these companies define corporate purpose, what they see as the
internal and external impacts of having an authentic corporate purpose, how they use corporate
purpose in decision-making processes in their companies, as well as what are the barriers and
enablers to living an authentic corporate purpose. Rather than probe each organization specifically
regarding the twelve dimensions of ACP that we identified from the literature, instead, we listened
for the emergence of these dimensions in their responses to our semi-structured interview
questions.
These interviews were conducted with senior executives from functions such as communications,
procurement, sustainability and compliance and provided further insight into how companies view
the importance of authenticity of corporate purpose and its influence at both the strategic and
operational levels.
7.1 Defining authentic corporate purpose
All interviewees identified authentic corporate purpose as being extremely important to their
company. What is an authentic corporate purpose and how is it expressed by companies? While
some companies did not distinguish between corporate purpose and mission statement, others
suggested that while corporate purpose was something internal – driving the company’s
understanding of itself and how it operates – a mission statement was a way to communicate the
company’s purpose externally. Sustainability (generally defined as the ability to create economic
value over the long term while protecting the natural environment and positively impacting
societies) is central to the corporate purpose of five of the nine companies interviewed; three
companies expressed their purpose as effecting positive change at the societal level. Several
companies view purpose as being the central idea linking the company’s activities, and creating
consistency between a company’s strategy, positioning and operations. One company defined
purpose as being the internal driver of passion by building employee engagement and commitment
to the company’s key activities.
When discussing their individual companies, interviewees expressed corporate purpose in two main
ways: (1) as a function of the company’s impact on customers or (2) how the company has a positive
impact on broader society. We discovered that many companies have an explicitly stated purpose,
whereas a more expanded implicit purpose emerges from discussions with their executives. For
example, Google’s stated purpose is to affect positive change in various aspects of the world, whilst
employees may express purpose as, for example “bringing people together, enabling them to work
on issues that they believe will effect positive change, contribute to building knowledge and making
good things happen at scale”. BMW’s explicit purpose is expressed as being “the most successful
provider of premium mobility products and services” while more implicit expanded purpose
emerges in discussions with employees such as “being a leader in the iconic change occurring in
society around mobility, understanding the company’s social and environmental context, and
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