Aligning Culture, Purpose and Strategy for Boards/NEDs

Developed to complement the IA Culture Framework, this is a unique programme focused on the opportunity to heighten the quality of strategy, and focus culture on its enablement, through a more rigorous definition of company purpose.

We all know how vital it is to manage culture. Yet the myriad influences on culture, internal and external, make it hard to do with precision. Meanwhile the imperative for avoiding bad outcomes means culture initiatives are often more associated with complying than performing. This can drive culture down the management agenda and make it hard to drive engagement.

Investors and Boards alike seek sustainable company performance. In a competitive world this means outperforming other companies in creating customer value. In a violently changing world, with ever-increasing public scrutiny, it relies on societal alignment. Yet often, the strategies of firms are not written in context of the customer, and less-so, society. More often, strategy is written from an internal perspective – a list of whats and hows, lacking a who or why. Hardly surprising that strategy and culture are distant agenda items.

Purpose, as the name suggests, should be the missing link. In theory, purpose sits atop the strategy of any firm: a compelling, externally grounded, long-term lens for developing the strategy, and in turn, the requisite culture. In reality, it doesn’t in most firms.

Yet the need for resilient firms has never been greater, and continually growing evidence shows that purpose-driven firms outperform over the long term. This course examines the expectations Boards should place on company purpose and its influence on strategy and culture.

Key Learning Objectives

• Understand how to evaluate the company’s purpose and its integration with strategy and culture
• Understand how to distinguish purpose-driven companies from purpose promotion and CSR
• Understand the business case for ensuring the company is purpose-driven
• Be provided with an opportunity to discuss practical examples of effective purpose integration
• Understand when purpose should be proactively reviewed
• Understand how a purpose review should be governed

IA Member £195.00 +VAT
Non-Member £295.00 +VAT

Pay using a credit card online, or if you wish to be invoiced please email your full details to: Training@theia.org

PLEASE NOTE: Full payment for the course must be made prior to the course commencement date.

Any cancellation must be made in writing. For all cancellation received 15-30 days prior to the course start date, 50% of the course fee is still payable. No refund is given for a cancellation made 14 days or less prior to the commencement of a course. Transferring from one course to another is treated as a cancellation. You can substitute one delegate for another at no additional cost. In this instance, please give two business days’ notice.

Simon Clarkson

A former executive at Invesco, Simon Clarkson led the global unification of the Invesco corporation and its many acquired firms under a single purpose, which now shapes its overall strategy and culture. His work on corporate purpose was described by McKinsey & Co as “best in class”. Simon is an independent consultant with over 25 years' experience in building resilient customer-focused branded businesses, from Stella Artois to the BBC to Nike. As former Board head of strategy at Clear, a global strategic marketing business, he also led the financial services portfolio whose clients include leading firms in retail banking, asset management, settlement, payments and fintech. In his roles as an executive and an advisor, Simon has led change in complex, multi-divisional organisations and highly-regulated industries, across EMEA, North America and APAC.

09:30 Introduction and learning objectives

09:45 Opportunity for aligning purpose, strategy and culture

• Good vs better: what matters to employees
• Where purpose, strategy and culture intersect
• Business case for being purpose-driven

10:15 Misuse of purpose

• Failure to define purpose rigorously
• Purpose and CSR
• Purpose as a marketing platform

10:45 Break

11:00 Case studies

• Exploring three case studies of purpose-driven firms
• Key learnings

11:30 Effective purpose identification

• Foundational evidence
• Credible discovery process
• Coherent articulation
• Importance of consensus

12:00 Governance

• Scenarios for purpose review
• Pitfalls
• Key governance components

12:30 Course Conclusion

Board members
Non-Executive Directors (NEDs)