Aliging Profit with Purpose - Global Goals Yearbook 2019

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The rules for companies have changed. The focus is increasingly
on their sustainable, social, and ecological impacts. The
strategic orientation toward the so-called corporate purpose is
decisive for profitable growth in the future.
Dr. Elmer Lenzen
Publisher
Global Goals Yearbook
This currently results in a large number
of questions for businesses: How do you
find an inspiring and future-oriented
corporate purpose, and how can it be
aligned in such a way that it brings profitable
growth and social responsibility
in concert? This edition of the Global
Goals Yearbook offers answers to these
crucial questions thanks to its consistent
orientation toward the UN Sustainable
Development Goals and a competent
editorial board and author pool.
The driver of development is to a large
extent competition for the best minds.
“When everyone is competing for the
same kind of talent, you need a much
clearer way of explaining how you will
attract those people to your organization,”
says Jeff Joerres, Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer of Manpower-
Group. But it is not only the human
resources departments that are pushing
the topic. Experts speak instead of
“inclusive capitalism” and urge that all
stakeholders be taken along, including
boards of management, customers, and
even fund managers. Responsible businesses
have governance structures that
monitor and advise on environmental,
social, as well as financial issues. When
leaders understand and thrive within the
broader social and environmental contexts
in which their businesses operate,
it signals to employees, investors, and
key stakeholders just how important
purpose really is.
What is business for? What role does
and should business play in society? To
what extent should it perform a public
purpose alongside its commercial activities?
How should the aspirations of
humanity, as set out in the Sustainable
Development Goals, be reflected in the
objectives of business?
Oxford university professor Colin Meyer
argues: “Corporate purpose is distinct
from the consequential implications
of the corporation’s profitability and
shareholder returns. The purpose of
corporations is not to produce profits.
The purpose of corporations is to produce
profitable solutions for the problems of
people and the planet. In the process it
produces profits, but profits are not per
se the purpose of corporations.”
How, then, does a company
become an effective agent of
systems change?
As part of the Tomorrow’s Capitalism
Inquiry, John Elkington, doyen of the
sustainability community, together
with Richard Roberts write: “Being a
little more ‘sustainable’ than your >>
Global Goals Yearbook 2019
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