A better world

Your customers want you to save the world.

- STEVEN VAN BELLEGHEM

I admit that ‘saving the world’ might sound a little bombastic. After all, should it really be the role of companies to try and save the world? Isn't that a task for governments? Or perhaps it should even be a task for us all, through a greater sense of global solidarity?

Well, according to the annual 'trust barometer' published by the American PR and marketing advice bureau Edelman, no fewer than 76 per cent of the population hope that CEOs will become the driving force behind positive change in the world. So how do you and your company measure up?

There is no disputing that companies already have a huge impact on the world and on society. Companies not only generate economic value, but also social value and societal happiness. The world is facing so many daunting challenges that companies are morally obliged to consider how they can make a positive contribution that will improve things for some of us, if not all of us.

The weakness of a purpose

In recent decades, CEOs, HR teams, and marketeers have talked for countless hours about their purpose. In your company as well? I bet. The problem is that there is no uniform definition of what the 'purpose' concept is supposed to be. Some company leaders define purpose as creating social added value. Others talk in terms of the problems their company solves for their customers. Yet others see purpose as the company's raison d'être, the reason for which it was founded.