Good and Better Culture (Part 1 of 2): Sustainable Advantage Through Rigorous Purpose

Developed to complement the IA Culture Framework, this is a unique programme focused on the opportunity for sustainable advantage through a more rigorous definition of company purpose.

Purpose is widely held aloft as the key to a meaningfully different firm, definitive in its industry, prized by customers, loved by employees. For most firms though, this state seems unattainable. Far from the strategic North Star, purpose is relegated to a communications and CSR activity, breeding a damaging stereotype of vacuous purpose statements.

This missed opportunity results from a misapprehension about purpose. The race to be “good” has obscured the need to be distinctive - critical for sustainable performance in the profitability sense. The purpose lobby has not helped itself by diminishing the profit imperative that defines every company - the very basis of GDP.

And yet, continually growing evidence shows that purpose-driven firms outperform over the long term. Defined properly, purpose sets out why and how a firm will remain valuable: vital for investors, employees and boards - transcending strategy and culture. This course examines the strategic opportunity and conditions required for purpose-driven advantage.

Key Learning Objectives

• Understand how to define purpose effectively and the inputs required
• Understand the strategic opportunity of effective purpose
• Understand the pitfalls and effects of purpose misuse
• Be provided with an opportunity to discuss practical examples of purpose-driven companies
• Understand how effectively-defined purpose anchors culture
• Understand the challenges associated with introducing purpose within a company

IA Member £350.00 +VAT
Non-Member £450.00 +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.

Senior Business Leaders in all functions

09:30 Introduction and learning objectives

09:45 Opportunity for inherent differentiation

• Examples of purpose-driven firms
• Drivers of inherent differentiation
• Anchoring the culture

10:15 Where purpose fails

• Purpose commoditisation and its effects
• Misapprehensions about purpose
• A look at the Investment industry

10:45 Break

11:00 Case studies of purpose integration

• Exploring three case studies of purpose integration
• Key learnings

11:30 Good and better: making purpose real

• Gathering the evidence
• Discovering not inventing
• Actionable articulation

12:00 Challenges with establishing company purpose

• Gaining commitment to the initiative
• Moving from purpose statement to customer value
• Shifting to purpose as a lens for all decisions

12:30 Course Conclusion