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The purpose is a statement of intent that allows business to define how and to what extent they contribute to society.

By: Xavier Martínez, Ana María Estrada, Ruth Criado and Aitana Mendicute Alza

The second roundtable of the meeting was about companies with purpose. Álvaro Lleo, director of Master's Degree at Personnel Management Service in Organizations and researcher principal of the Purpose Strength Model, introduced the table with an analysis of the growing trend of purpose in companies and management.

The academic pointed out that it is not easy to define the term purpose, since it tries to bring together important and valuable aspects, however after the session it can be pointed out that it includes the concepts of: identity, values, mission statement, and vision. The model that the researcher and his team have built defines purpose as a triangle, where at each end there is a dimension: a more rational one, symbolized by the head, a more emotional one that has to do with connecting with people's hearts, and a more motor or hands-on one, which is what we want to achieve and translate it into day-to-day life.

There are two main approaches that are essential when working with the corporate purpose :

- approach that is born from the inside out. The fundamental need is how we engage talent and that requires us to be able to generate links (how we connect with people's intrinsic and transcendent motivations). challenge How we bring it to the day-to-day life of people and balance between the needs of the purpose and the business.

- approach born from the outside in. More focused on reputation and investment. challenge management of priorities and authenticity. On the other hand, as for the benefits of purpose and its implementation in the business both to employees and among managers themselves, it is of absolute relevance.

Following Lleo's introduction, Remedios Orrantia, Director of Human Resources for Europe at Vodafone and Mariví Sánchez Jiménez, Director of Sustainability and Communication at group Calvo joined the conversation, and below are some of the questions that the speakers answered:

How has it been the path to implement purpose on business?

Mariví Sánchez Jiménez stated that they are in the process of implementing it. She talks about materializing what they already knew or had been doing. She considers that for a family business it is easier to work on these issues, because it is a place that has a purpose in itself. The purpose, according to the professional, is a declaration of intentions made by the business to define how and to what extent they contribute to society.

Remedios Orrantia, on the other hand, considers that purpose is the reason why a company exists. In the case of Vodafone, they have defined the following purpose: Connecting people for a better future, and from this they defined the mission statement, from there the strategy, and finally the values. They launched it globally and wanted to make them live that purpose.

Where are you now with purpose?

The group Calvo continues to work with an external expert to the business in a process of approximately one year. Today they already have the purpose C by the committee Administration, but the statement is still missing. There are three pillars under which it is based: nutrition, practicality and sustainability.

For her part, the Vodafone executive affirms that they are capable of having extra generosity to accompany people in difficult times (for example, Covid). They have projects to help all generations to have access to new technologies. They are in 6% of public schools in Spain with children between 6 and 12 years of age who do some subject of training in technologies.

Finally, it is worth mentioning the case of Vodafone, and how it carried out its implementation of purpose at the organizational level. They started working 5 years ago questioning the reason for business in this society. They came to the conclusion that it is essential to connect with people to ensure a better future, purpose, it is also very important to make all employees live the purpose without exception, because their work is what gives meaning to the company.

Thus, from Vodafone the purpose worked under three pillars: inclusion for all, so that everyone has access to this connectivity; the contribution to the planet, in mission statement of eliminating the carbon footprint, and the fact of linking as business to commit to creating a digital society, and agile businesses To carry out this task, they implemented some very specific metrics: connectivity is the fundamental core topic to keep society active, and improving the communication of purpose, and making it palpable on a daily basis.

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