Sometimes commercial success can cause an organisation’s original purpose to dim over time. That was the challenge facing Mike Astell, CEO of FCDO Services, an executive agency and trading fund owned by Britain’s Foreign Office, with customers in both the public and private sectors around the world.

Re-grounding the organisation in its original purpose unlocked a surprising amount of enthusiasm and revealed unexpected potential. The initiative also led to a new business strategy and a more effective way of communicating with the executive and the board.

Purpose is presenting business leaders with the biggest opportunity in the past 200 years, according to Sarah Gillard, CEO of A Blueprint for Better Business. And it’s going to happen fast.

But how do you change business to serve society better, while still acknowledging the need to make money? That’s the question that Sarah is helping the senior leaders of large businesses to answer.

Learn how she has evolved her own organisation’s purpose and used it to help her leadership team co-create a new adaptive strategy, designed to focus the organisation’s resources and cope with the chaos and uncertainty of today’s business environment. All in the latest episode of The Purposeful Strategist

When a simple five-word purpose has successfully served the business for over 260 years, how do you use it to develop a strategy that is relevant to today’s reality? The answer, for Tom Willis, CEO of the UK’s bustling Shoreham Port, was to think deeply about the meaning in every word of their five-word purpose, and then engage the organisation to develop a one-page business plan, with just eight bullet points. The resulting brevity and clarity mean that almost 90% of the organisation’s people now say they understand the strategy and where they fit into it.

Listen to the latest episode of The Purposeful Strategist podcast, to hear how Tom did it.  

When Sarah McMath became CEO of MOSL, the UK’s retail water market operator for business customers, she faced some serious challenges. There was no shared sense of the organisation’s purpose among the leadership team; no clear approach to business planning; a low level of engagement among employees; and a skeptical customer base.

Five years later, the organisation has transformed. Join me on the latest episode of The Purposeful Strategist to learn how Sarah took an inclusive approach to develop a shared organisational purpose, and used that to shape a new strategy, grow the organiaation’s capabilities, craft practical operating principles, and turn around employee engagement.

Ben Quinn had a different view of what a restaurant could be, how it could work, and the impact it could have on a community and the lives of their guests.  Hear how he built a business based on positive memories for guests, while addressing the toxic culture that exists in the industry and creating a safer and more equal environment for women – and men.  And, do check out the amazing photos on their website of outdoor events they have catered: really long tables in beautiful locations.

Links  http://www.canteencornwall.com/

In this episode, I’m very pleased to welcome Sophie Carr, the founder and Director of Bays Consulting.  She shares with us how she grew her firm by tapping into and developing a hidden workforce that is able to use maths to solve tough problems and then make the maths explainable.  Join me for a fun and informative discussion about maths, crowds, predictions, and the school gate. 

Melissa Quinn, former head of a spaceport in Cornwall, discusses her transition to her new role at Slingshot Seradata, a the space industry’s leading space data publisher. She explains the importance of space sustainability and the need to regulate the increasing number of satellites being launched into space. She also discusses the strategic planning process at Slingshot and her leadership style, emphasizing the importance of human connection, purpose, humor, and kindness. Quinn reflects on the challenges she has faced in her career and the importance of resilience and support in overcoming failure. She concludes by discussing the future of space sustainability and the exciting developments in the space industry.

What if we had a way to dispose of nuclear waste in a safe, lower cost way? Elizabeth Muller thinks she does.  Join us for an informative and inspiring discussion about what it takes to bring a breakthrough idea into the world.