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

As the BMW Group has grown and internationalized, it needed to ensure its purpose was being lived
in all parts of the company, and in a truly authentic way. To ensure that purpose is consistently lived
across geographies, for any new production site or joint ventures in other countries, the BMW
Group makes sure that managers are experienced in working at the Group’s headquarters as well as
in markets abroad. When the center or “hub” is so connected to the sum of its parts, this helps all
parts of the BMW Group globally to remain consistent and cohesive. At the same time, the BMW
Group values diversity and respect for individual differences. If purpose and trust are present, teams
can leverage their diversity to come up with the solutions that work best for the company in line
with the company’s purpose and objectives.
The BMW Group recognizes the importance of communicating effectively and authentically in
particular in the digital age. The speed of digital channels and the global nature of connectedness
mean that news travels fast – and ceaselessly. “If all parts of the organization understand the
purpose, employees are empowered to make decisions autonomously while being aligned with the
BMW Group’s corporate purpose.
Recommendations to increase organization’s “transparency”
Leaders and stakeholders should work towards the following:
1) Telling the truth.
2) Allowing the organization to admit mistakes when they are made.
3) Openly sharing information with shareholders.
4) Making sure the organization is being true to itself and is not pretending to be what the
organization is not.
8.4 Checking the authenticity of corporate purpose against 12 dimensions
In Sections 8.1, 8.2 and .3, we suggest how it is possible for our “top three” dimensions – awareness,
embeddedness and transparency – to generate a diagnostic toolset from our research with key
questions that firms can ask themselves about each dimension in order to assess authenticity. A set
of relevant questions can be asked against each one of the twelve dimensions of authenticity in
corporate purpose that our research identified. It behooves companies to do so, given that all
twelve of these dimensions count when it comes to having a truly authentic corporate purpose.
9. Executive Benchmarking Session
In addition to the survey and interviews described above, we tested our work with a group of 20+
executives from various functional disciplines in several corporate organizations over the course of
an executive session. The executives were unaware of the topic before coming to the session and
did not receive any pre-reading material. Some preliminary results of the project were shared as
input to a group workshop around the question: What needs to happen for companies to become
better at being authentic with their corporate purpose? During the session, the participants were
divided into five groups to discuss the topic of authentic corporate purpose. The discussions brought
forth some interesting ideas and reflections on the concept of authenticity and corporate purpose. A
number of themes emerged across the five groups, as follows:
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