“Purpose is connected to transformation, and such fundamental changes may require alterna- tive measures of performance and the capabilities to achieve it,” Ventresca said. “For purposeful transformation, we have to think afresh and reimagine how corporations engage broader socie- tal changes.” In any case, several change management experts suggest that employees may be the most important audience for messages around purpose. “It is more important that the purpose resonates with the employees than with the customers. If it doesn’t happen there, then the customers will [catch on] very quickly. And it has to matter to the supplier, and eventually to the community,” Sisodia said. THE PATHAHEAD This research underscores the challenges companies face and the benefits companies see when they make purpose a priority. The survey results suggest that prioritizers’ firms have grown and transformed more vigorously than their peers’. Executives at purpose-prioritizing companies believe that their customers are more loyal and their employees more engaged. They see them- selves as market leaders with a brighter future than their competitors. And they indicate that they are reaping major rewards for their efforts. They also indicate that they will continue work- ing to embed purpose across their organizations. figure 10 “Organizations do better when everyone is rowing in the same direction,” one senior manager in North America told us. “A well-integrated, shared purpose casts that direction. Without the shared purpose, organizations tend to run in circles, never making forward progress but always rehashing the same discussions.” 84% of executives believe an organization that has shared purpose will be more successful in transformation efforts.
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