University and CEN create a business community on corporate purpose and competitiveness

 The University of Navarra, through high school business and Humanism (IEH), and the Confederación Empresarial Navarra (CEN) have established an alliance to create a community of companies interested in corporate purpose , the contribution that an organisation makes to society beyond making money, and the improvement of competitiveness through people. 

"The goal is to establish a forum for dialogue to reflect on the current challenges facing organisations, share experiences and generate knowledge to develop more sustainable organisations that put people at the centre of their strategy", said Álvaro Lleó, Deputy Director of the IEH.

The agreement was presented at the framework of the workshop "How to implement the purpose to be more competitive", organised by the high school business and Humanism (IEH) and the Navarre Business Confederation. In addition to LIeó, other speakers included Iñaki Vélaz, director of IEH; Ignacio Ferrero, Dean of School of Economics at the University of Navarra; Juan Pablo place, CEO of Tigloo; and Javier del Río, of the CEN.

The community will allow, among other things, to reflect with experts, meet and generate links with professionals with common interests, develop knowledge applied to better manage current challenges, obtain ideas to apply them to daily management and discover good management practices. It will also reflect on how to define and activate purpose, how to align purpose with human resources policies and how to introduce purpose in decision-making, how to generate a culture of purpose.

From organisations with purpose to organisations that live their purpose

In his speech, Lleó explained the importance of purpose as challenge for companies: "It is necessary to move from the declaration of purpose to day-to-day experience, which is why core topic is in the implementation. The purpose has to have an impact on the daily work of the organisation". He also pointed out what differentiates it from mission statement: "The core topic is that it is bidirectional and is capable of connecting the organisational purpose with purpose staff in order to generate a shared meaning". 

The professor from the University of Navarra presented the Purpose Strength Project, an observatory of data on the implementation of purpose. "Through the Purpose Strength Model we are able to evaluate the sense of purpose existing in an organisation, the levers that precede the implementation of purpose and, finally, the impact it has on individual commitment, collective unity and organisational performance. With the data collected we are generating an observatory with which to generate evidence-based knowledge ", he concluded.