The Purposeful Strategist: Recent Episodes
Menkus & Associates
I want to shift the discussion about organisational purpose from being about what organisations and leaders should do – to take a practical look at what they are doing – and what we can learn from that.
We’re going to hear from business leaders across a range of industries how they think about purpose in their organisation - and in business more generally. We’ll explore how they make purpose a building block of their strategy and get their insider tips on the “how” of bringing purpose alive.
In this episode of The Purposeful Strategist, host Belden Menkus interviews Mark Cuddigan, CEO of the UK plant-based food company THIS. They discuss the transition of leadership from founders to new CEOs, the importance of defining a company's purpose, and the role of team involvement in strategy development. Mark shares insights on empowering employees, the challenges of achieving profitability, and the significance of B Corp certification. The conversation emphasizes the need for collaboration within the industry and the impact of purpose-driven leadership on attracting talent.
In this episode of The Purposeful Strategist, host Belden Menkus speaks with Martin Dean, managing director of the UK regional bus division at Go Ahead Group. They discuss the company's clear purpose statement, the importance of connecting communities, fostering innovation in public transport, and the strategic growth plans of the bus division. Martin emphasizes the significance of people in the industry and the need for a balance between strategic and tactical approaches as the bus industry prepares for the Better Buses Act and other changes and challenges ahead.
Britain’s first bank to be launched in the cloud does not use automated credit scores, does not have an automated answering service or an online chatbot, and doesn’t keep customers waiting on hold when they call the bank.
Redwood Bank, which serves small to medium-sized businesses, balances traditional banking values with advanced technology. Its mission is “to be the UK’s best, go-to, specialist business bank.”
In 2021, four years after it obtained its banking licence, Redwood became one of the fastest challenger banks to achieve profitability, while building a strong internal culture and winning high satisfaction scores from its employees and customers.
CEO and co-founder Gary Wilkinson describes the journey and the insights it yielded, in this episode of The Purposeful Strategist.
In this episode of The Purposeful Strategist, Belden Menkus speaks with James Ashton, CEO of the Quoted Companies Alliance (QCA). They discuss the importance of transparency and governance in the business world, the role of small and medium-sized companies in the UK economy, and the challenges these companies face in public markets. Ashton emphasises the need for a supportive environment for growth, the significance of retail investors in the market, and the need for equities to be as attractive and accessible as crypto The conversation also touches on the QCA's growth strategy, the impact of regulatory changes, and the balance between purpose and profit in leadership.
In this episode of The Purposeful Strategist, we dive into the success story of Unity Trust Bank, a Birmingham-based financial institution committed to purpose-driven banking. CEO Colin Fyfe shares how the bank has aligned its mission with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and surpassed £1 billion in lending for the first time in its 40-year history. Discover how Unity Trust's clear purpose fosters alignment among stakeholders—shareholders, board members, executives, and staff—and enables the bank to support businesses addressing social, economic, and environmental challenges. Colin discusses the balance of measuring social impact alongside financial performance, the challenges of leading a purpose-driven organisation, and how growth plays a pivotal role in enhancing that impact.
In this episode of The Purposeful Strategist, Paulo Lanzarotti, CEO of beer-maker Asahi Europe & International, discusses the importance of balancing purpose and pragmatism in organisations. He shares insights from the five-year journey that uncovered the company’s purpose of “creating meaningful connections”. The conversation explores how purpose can influence business decisions, engage employees, shape sustainable practices and drive product development, ultimately linking purpose to overall business strategy. Paolo also offers advice for CEOs embarking on their own purpose-driven journeys.
In this episode of The Purposeful Strategist, host Belden Menkus sits down with Emma Gaudern, co-founder and Managing Director of EMG Solicitors. Celebrating its 10th anniversary, EMG has grown from four employees to 180 across five offices, earning accolades like the Times 100 Best Places to Work and B Corp certification. Emma shares her journey of creating a purpose-driven law firm, balancing growth with values, and fostering a culture of kindness and flexibility.
Key topics include:
Building a firm where flexibility and joy drive success.
The transformative impact of becoming a B Corp.
Emma's vision for a lasting legacy through community endowment.
How EMG uses strategic tools like the Balanced Scorecard to sustain growth and alignment.
Listen to discover actionable insights on integrating purpose into strategy and leadership for long-term success.
In this episode of The Purposeful Strategist, Belden Menkus speaks with Robin Mortimer, CEO of the Port of London Authority (PLA), about the challenges and opportunities facing the port sector in the wake of COVID-19. They discuss the PLA's purpose, the ambitious Thames Vision 2050 plan aimed at achieving net zero emissions along with economic, environmental and recreational goals, and the importance of balancing stakeholder interests. Robin shares insights on innovative land use solutions, the evolving role of the PLA, and the need for greater public awareness. The conversation also touches on the hydrogen economy's potential in decarbonisation and the lessons learned from recent years, emphasizing the importance of clear direction and governance in organizational success.
Ignition Law describes itself as “the law firm for start-ups, scale-ups, SMEs and the entrepreneurially spirited”. It also prides itself on being “a force for good” in its community. Since its founding in 2015, Ignition has grown to 70 people, expanded its range of services, won several awards, and qualified as a Certified B-Corporation.
Founder and partner Alex McPherson explains how they did it, on this episode of The Purposeful Strategist.
Powervault, the London-based manufacturer of renewable energy storage systems, exists to help solve climate change by transforming the way people use energy. It’s a big purpose, but achieving it requires people to change their behaviour in a way that many instinctively resist, because they perceive it as limiting their lifestyle. Powervault developed its technology make the change not only easy, but financially rewarding.
Robin Stopford, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer explains the company’s approach in this episode of The Purposeful Strategist.
Culture and purpose are powerful tools when you are challenged to turn around an ailing business. CEO Kevin Donaldson used both to successfully turn around Norman Broadbent plc, the London-based executive search and recruitment firm
After three consecutive years of losses, this year the firm announced its best financial results in over a decade, with a 41 per cent increase in revenues and a return to profitability.
Kevin Donaldson discusses how he did it, on this episode of The Purposeful Strategist.
Messenger RNA and personalised medicine promise to transform how we prevent and treat disease.
Darius Hughes, General Manager in the UK and Ireland for Moderna, the pharmaceutical and biotechnology company, wants the UK to lead the way.
Learn how he uses the company’s purpose to attract and keep the talented professionals he needs to achieve that ambition, on this episode of The Purposeful Strategist. #moderna
Do not put an end date on your strategy, teach your team how to say “no” and use Purpose and Ambition instead of mission and vision. So says Ben Peachey, Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors.
Learn how these beliefs, and the use Theory of Change maps, are key to refreshing and implementing the institute’s purpose-driven strategy. On this episode of The Purposeful Strategist.
ciehf #humanfactors #ergonomics
Employers and health-and-safety professionals face an increasingly complex array of challenges as they try to make workplaces physically and psychologically safe.
Vanessa Harwood-Whitcher is Chief Executive of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health. Listen as she explains how IOSH is equipping employers and health-and-safety professionals to deal with their ever-widening remit, on this episode of The Purposeful Strategist.
Tap water must be safe, reliable and high-quality. The purpose of the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) is to ensure that public water supplies in England and Wales meets those standards.
Delivering on that purpose has required solving a set of complex interrelated challenges, and developing a new approach to regulation.
Marcus Rink, Chief Inspector at the DWI, describes the journey on this episode of The Purposeful Strategist.
drinkingwater #drinkingwaterinspectorate #regulation
Cambridge Building Society turns a branch refurbishment programme into an opportunity to provide practical help for struggling first-time home buyers.
CEO Peter Burrows tells the story, and explains why purpose is like “the force” in Star Wars, on this episode of The Purposeful Strategist.
TheCambridge
Purpose can unlock the potential of Artificial Intelligence coupled with the Internet of Things, to help businesses reach their sustainability goals.
That’s according to Dr Elisabetta Castiglioni, CEO of A1 Digital, the European technology services provider. A1 helps companies globally to translate digital potential into business results.
Learn how the belief in digitisation as a force for good powers her organisation’s purpose, in this episode of The Purposeful Strategist
How can you cut the high re-offending rate among UK ex-prisoners? Max Dubiel decided that the answer is coffee.
Max co-founded Redemption Roasters and opened an industrial-scale coffee roastery and barista training academy inside the UK prison system. Then he and his business partner set up a chain of retail coffee shops across London.
Learn how he did it on this episode of The Purposeful Strategist.
Once your business has discovered its purpose, it’s tempting to launch it with great fanfare and a three-month communications campaign. But some corporate cultures, particularly those that are analytical and problem-solving, will reject that approach.
A slow burn is often more effective than a big bang. That’s the path that Alan Dunsmore, CEO of Severfield, the UK’s largest steel fabricator, choose to take. And it’s working.
Listen to how he does it on the latest episode of The Purposeful Strategist.
What happens to your purpose when the people who buy your product or service are not the people who use it?
Joel Ratnasothy, Managing Director of Interneuron, founded the business to “to provide the health record for every citizen in every country.” The company, now part of Answer Digital, provides professionally managed open-source software as a service to the healthcare sector.
Managing through the unintended consequences of Procurement is just one of the challenges the company faces as it strives to deliver its purpose. Learn how they deal with it on this episode of The Purposeful Strategist.
Sustainable companies deliver better returns on investment and lower risk than extractive businesses. And Paul Herman, founder and CEO of HIP Investor, has almost 20 years of data to prove it.
HIP Investor uses a proprietary zero-to-100-point system (the HIP Index) to measure which companies are more sustainable or impactful and which are more extractive. After 18 years of using the index to advise investors, the results show that it pays to invest in purpose.
Learn more in this episode of The Purposeful Strategist.
Purpose can help solve a common dilemma in professional services firms: how to reconcile the freedom that their professionals and practice areas need to be successful, with the consistency needed to build a meaningful brand.
Sarah Walker-Smith, CEO of law firm Shakespeare Martineau and its parent group Ampa, uses purpose to connect and manage the individual brands owned by the group. In the five years since Shakespeare Martineau first clarified its purpose, the firm has almost doubled in size.
Learn how she does it on the latest episode of The Purposeful Strategist.
Social impact is the driving force behind Shea Yeleen, a skincare products company that supports an African supply chain employing more than 800 women who earn five times the local minimum wage.
Her latest venture is the Yeleen Beauty Makerspace, a hybrid teaching lab and manufacturing space in Washington DC designed to support women and founders of color in the beauty industry.
Learn how she does it on the latest episode of The Purposeful Strategist.
https://yeleenbeauty.com/
https://sheayeleen.com/
A meaningful purpose will guide the behaviour of everybody in your business.
First Mile, a UK-based B-Corporation, defines its purpose as “to revolutionise business sustainability, starting with waste and recycling.” CEO Bruce Bratley uses three core values to help everyone in the business embody that purpose.
Listen to how he does it on the latest episode of The Purposeful Strategist.
No single doctor attends all your medical appointments. But you do. That makes you, the patient, the de facto integrator of the healthcare system.
That insight led Dr Mohammad Al-Ubaydli to found Patients Know Best (PKB), Europe’s largest Personal Health Record and patient engagement platform. PKB’s purpose is to give every person the ability to access their personal health record, control who can see it and use this information to manage their health and care.
Listen to how he does it on the latest episode of The Purposeful Strategist
What happens when a business achieves its original purpose? Where does it go from there?
Find out how Nej Gakenyi, CEO and founder of GRM Digital, faced that unusual challenge in the latest episode of The Purposeful Strategist.
When a business connects its purpose and values to the way it wants its people to behave, the resulting clarity and focus helps drive growth and success. But how do you achieve that?
David Liddle, CEO of The TCM Group, did it by engaging his organisation in an inclusive process to develop a values and behaviours framework.
Learn how on this episode of The Purposeful Strategist.
Words matter when you talk about purpose. Doubly so when you lead an organisation focused on language and communication. But what if that organisation is not comfortable discussing purpose and strategy?
That was the dilemma facing Sara Crofts when she became CEO of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI), the UK professional body for translators and interpreters.
Learn how she solved it in this episode of The Purposeful Strategist.
Loss of momentum can be fatal to any organisational change project. But committed leadership can keep the cause alive. Three years into an ongoing initiative to bring Matrix’s purpose to life, CEO Mark Inskip and his team doubled the company’s size by acquiring another business.
Despite this welcome complication, the purpose is taking root inside the organisation, employee engagement is high, and the leadership team have embarked on an inclusive initiative to develop a set of values that support the purpose.
Learn how Mark and team managed through the distractions, on this episode of The Purposeful Strategist.
The founders of Office Space In Town (OSIT) set out to build a company that “reflects who we are as people and the ethics and morals that we live by.” Their goal was to be a provider of boutique, design-led workspaces where businesses thrive and people are inspired, focused and happy.
Co-Founder and CEO Niki Fuchs and Georgia Sandom, Director of Operations and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) explain how the company’s purpose has helped the business grow in a tough marketplace.
Listen to their story on the latest episode of The Purposeful Strategist.
In its quest to become the most trusted personalised service business in the world, the global concierge company Ten Lifestyle Group has kept its purpose and its revenue streams closely aligned.
The result is a remarkably resilient organisation, that has survived some very testing times to deliver long-term success.
Alex Cheatle, co-founder and CEO of Ten, reveals how sticking to the purpose, and consulting with an invisible customer, keeps the business growing. Learn more on the latest episode of The Purposeful Strategist.
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.
Listen to Mike Astell tell Belden Menkus how he and his team did it.
https://www.fcdoservices.gov.uk/about/
Purpose is presenting business leaders with the biggest opportunity in the past 200 years, according toSarah 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.
A purpose that serves an organisation well for over 260 years deserves respect. But can you stay true to it while developing a business strategy that tackles today’s reality? And can you keep that plan so short and clear that almost 90 per cent of the organisation’s people say they understand the strategy and where they fit in it?
That is what Tom Willis, CEO of the UK’s bustling Shoreham Port, has done. Learn how in this episode of The Purposeful Strategist.
Sarah McMath, CEO of MOSL, used purpose as a tool to transform her organisation’s performance. Learn how her inclusive approach to developing a shared organisational purpose helped the UK’s retail water market operator for business customers shape a new strategy, grow the organisation’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 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.
https://baysconsulting.co.uk/
In this episode, I’m very pleased to welcome Melissa Quinn, General Manager of Slingshot UK / Seradata. Melissa wants to make sure space is an asset we can continue to use, even as it becomes more crowded. Join me for an education in the business of space, strategy development in a high-tech global startup, and the components of resilient leadership.
In this episode, I’m very pleased to welcome Elizabeth Muller, CEO of Deep Isolation. Liz wants to unlock the potential of nuclear power to address global warming. Join me for an informative and inspiring discussion about what it takes to bring a breakthrough idea into the world.
How do you stand out as a service provider and a place to work? Jo Farmer and Rich Miskella, Joint Managing Partners of law firm Lewis Silkin, share their views on how they do that.
lewissilkin
Sara Bailey shares her path to find the real reason Trowers & Hamlins needed to grow. It wasn’t just for the money…
Does doing the right thing environmentally have to be a tradeoff or can it create financially sustainable investments? Andrew Wordsworth thinks it can. He’s the Managing Partner of Sustainable Ventures, a business that’s based on this idea. Hear how they navigate the issues of purpose and strategy, while developing sustainability clusters across the UK.
Claire Clarke, Managing Director of law firm Mills & Reeve, for 20 years one of the UK’s best companies to work for, shares how they moved beyond focusing on what they do to get at the why – and the new challenges that brings.
#AchieveMore.Together #Purpose #LegalServices
Twitter: @MillsandReeve
How does the oldest UK law firm in operation make change happen? Sarah Henwood, Chief Executive Officer of Thomson Snell & Passmore, shares their approach to ensuring their strategy doesn’t end up being just a document on a shelf.
thomsonsnellpassmore #sarahhenwood #lawcareers #strategy #purpose #socialpurpose #ESG #leadership
In this episode, I’m very pleased to welcome David Frise, CEO of BESA, the Building Engineering Services Association. David describes how they’ve made their strategy more purposeful, as well as outlining a vision of how construction could become faster, safer, and greener, and less disruptive.
In this episode, I’m very pleased to welcome back David Hall, CEO now of Peritum Group, which is the holding company of Totalkare. David describes how they have been able to maintain their culture and the high level of customer service their strategy is based on, while growing at almost 50% annually.
Adrian Bettridge shares how Baringa has grown to become a global consulting business and the leading energy, climate change, net zero consulting firm in the world, while also being a top 10 Great Place to Work for the last 15 years – and recently becoming a B Corp.
Lorin Gresser of DemDX had an idea. Turned out it was a bigger idea than she thought. Join me for an interesting and fun exploration of how they are changing the most important part of the health care system: the point of first contact. And, of course, we get into the “how” of their strategy and purpose – what they are doing to work on both.
https://www.demdx.com/
linkedin.com/in/dr-lorin-gresser-b8166069
In this episode, I’m very pleased to welcome Denise Massey, Managing Director of EIC, a platform where great businesses big and small can innovate together to create a safe, affordable, and decarbonised energy system. She shares the first thing a CEO needs to do in developing an effective purpose and describes the role their values played in building the organisation.
In this episode, I’m very pleased to welcome Steve Ford, CEO of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists. Steve shares how listening was the key to developing their new strategy. He also talks about the practical steps they have taken to turn the strategy into action – including some of the difficult choices they had to make. Towards the end of the episode, we touch on why and how professional bodies need to change to remain relevant in the future.
Dena McCallum of Eden McCallum shares how they have pursued a core purpose over more than 20 years, using a disruptive business model in a very traditional industry: management consulting.
How do you prepare for long term success? Mike Carragher, CEO of VHB, returns to share with us what they have been doing to ensure their “generational” company thrives long into the future. As someone at the top of his game in an industry that’s pivotal to creating a world we will want to live in, Mike provides a special view of the current CEO challenges and how to address them.
In this episode, I’m very pleased to welcome Harry Drajpuch, CEO of Amware Fullfilment. Harry delivers a masterclass on how to identify a company's purpose, create a clear strategy, and build a strong company culture. He provides memorable examples and simple rules that everyone can understand and use to guide what they do day-to-day. This episode is a must-listen for any CEO looking to further improve their leadership and management skills.
In this episode, I’m very pleased to welcome Eric Ressler, Founder and Creative Director of Cosmic, a creative agency that is exploring how digital experiences can spark real world change. They empower social impact organizations by helping them nail their impact story, build brand awareness, and inspire action. Eric shares what it takes to embrace and stick with a new purpose and strategy – and why doing so was both the toughest and best thing they’ve ever done.
In this episode, I’m joined by Dave Edwards, Chief Executive of the Royal Aeronautical Society. We explore the challenges of keeping a 157 year-old organisation relevant in a changing digital world, while engaging younger generations and addressing environmental challenges.
In this episode, I’m joined by Philip Goodwin, CEO of VSO, an organisation whose purpose is to create a fair world for everyone. As you will hear, he’s thought deeply about how to develop and use strategy effectively in very uncertain environments, and about the type of leadership needed when you have big ambitions but it’s not clear how you will achieve them. Join me for this episode full of wisdom and practical advice.
https://www.vsointernational.org/
linkedin.com/in/philip-goodwin-41022210
In this episode, I’m very pleased to welcome 3 innovative CEOs, Helen Rippon, Mark Walley, and Julian Mund, to explore how collaboration helps their relatively small organisations effectively pursue huge ambitions. There are valuable lessons here for leaders of organisations of all types and sizes.
Colin Fyfe, CEO of the Hinkley & Rugby Building Society talks about how they serve customers that can be underrepresented by larger organisations, what external support they had in their work on purpose, and how they demonstrate their purpose – not just talk about it.
Learn why RYA Chief Executive Sara Sutcliffe is putting inclusion and the environment at the heart of their new strategy. She talks about the journey she and her team went on to develop a fundamentally different strategy that shouldn’t come as a big surprise to their staff and key stakeholders.
In this episode, I’m joined by Steven Mann, CEO of the IFoA, the Institute and Facility of Actuaries. Steven and I explore why they felt they needed to explicitly define their purpose and the role that newly defined purpose has had in creating connection and change. Please join me for an episode full of provocative points of view and practical advice.
https://actuaries.org.uk/
linkedin.com/in/stephenajmann
In this episode, I’m very pleased to welcome Sarah Turner, CEO of Angel Academe, the UKs most active and longest-established female-focussed network of angel investors. Sarah describes the problem she wanted to fix, why she chose a business as her platform for doing something with a big philanthropic element, how they contributed to changing the conversation around gender in tech startups and startup funding, and what her long term ambition is. Join me for this informative and practical episode.
In this episode, I’m very pleased to welcome Fiona Czerniawska, CEO of Source Global Research. I’ve known Fiona since before she founded Source and have enjoyed watching it grow over the years, becoming the definitive source of data and insight on the consulting industry and professional services more broadly. Fiona talks about how they knew they needed to think more deeply about their purpose and how they went about it. She also describes their fast, flexible approach to strategy implementation – an approach directly linked to their purpose, which many organisations could use. Join me for an informative, engaging, and insightful discussion.
I’m very pleased to welcome Alyson Watson, CEO of Woodard and Curran. In this episode, Alyson shares with us their journey to articulate their purpose and then use that to develop a strategy that responds to the deep uncertainty businesses are facing. She describes the inclusive approach they took to get understanding and buy in, as well as some of the challenges in taking this approach. She also describes the way they embedded the strategy into the organisation, which required a few unexpected changes. Join me for this informative and inspiring episode.
CEO Maddy Phipps-Taylor describes the challenges Eva Health Technologies faces as an innovator and disruptor in the medical records space. She talks about how she navigates the potential tensions between her personal purpose, the organisation’s purpose, and the expectations of their various stakeholders. She also discusses the practical impact for their customers and themselves of moving their technology to the cloud.
In this episode, I’m very pleased to welcome Richard Wazacz, CEO of Travelex. In addition to describing how he sees the links between shareholders, purpose, and culture, he discusses their different approach to transformation, which combines the speed and agility of a start-up with the scale and impact of global player. He also talks about how he ensures he stays on track with their strategy. Join me for a frank, pointed, and informative discussion.
linkedin.com/in/wazacz
https://www.travelex.co.uk/
In this episode, I’m very pleased to welcome Marcia Philbin, CEO of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine. She takes us “behind the curtain” to describe the engaging process and practical tools she used to involve multiple stakeholder groups in developing a new purpose and values for the organisation. She also talks about how this has contributed to her own personal and professional growth and development.
In this episode, I’m very pleased to welcome back Mark Inskip, CEO of Matrix SCM. Mark shares how the business has developed over the last several months and how he aims to get a return on the investment they have made so far around their purpose. He also describes how he deals with his own Friday six o’clock list: all those things you just don’t get around to in the working week.
In this episode, I’m very pleased to welcome Mike Lord, Chairman and CEO of Stiltz Lifts, back to The Purposeful Strategist. He shares with us how their continued growth has helped them more fully realise their purpose of fun, freedom, financial. He also describes what they’ve put in place make it easy for the whole organisation to know where they are going and how they are going to get there.
CEO Herman Heyns shares with us his views on why data quality is going to be a key factor in fixing the big global problems we face – and the role that better business decisions play in this. He also discusses the linkage between personal purpose and start up success.
In this episode, I’ll be joined by Stuart MacLennan, Circular One Health’s Executive Chair and CEO. He shares with us their vision of making entire communities healthier and the key part family-based empowerment plays in that. He outlines the linkages between energy, food, and health needed to create a sustainable society. He also shares how his agricultural background prepared him for a CEO leadership role.
Senior Partner Mike Scott shares with us the 18-month journey they went on to clarify their firm purpose and develop a strategy to support it. He discusses the sort of external support they used – and why. He also shares the critical first step he took on that journey.
linkedin.com/in/mike-scott-671a343
https://www.cripps.co.uk/
In this episode, I’ll be joined by Laura Soucek, CEO of Peptomyc, a spin off company from her research lab that aims at treating cancer with anti-Myc peptides. Laura shares with us the 20-year journey she has been on to turn her breakthrough science into a drug that could change how cancer is treated. She talks about the role of profit in realising this purpose, the importance of people who say “no”, and how she has had to change to maintain progress towards her goal.
https://www.peptomyc.com/
linkedin.com/in/laurasoucek
strategy #purpose #leadership
In this episode, I’ll be joined by Paul Campbell, Founder and CEO of Amazing Media, who shares with us how he used his personal interests and experiences to define Amazing’s purpose. He explains how they have provided freedom, connection, and control to their artists and their audiences, becoming a launch pad for new music and musicians globally. He also describes how he has been able to keep Amazing true to who they are, while evolving their business model over time.
linkedin.com/in/paulcampbell4
https://amazing.media/
In this episode, I’ll be joined by Paul Campbell, Founder and CEO of Amazing Media, who shares with us how he used his personal interests and experiences to define Amazing’s purpose. He explains how they have provided freedom, connection, and control to their artists and their audiences, becoming a launch pad for new music and musicians globally. He also describes how he has been able to keep Amazing true to who they are, while evolving their business model over time.
linkedin.com/in/paulcampbell4
https://amazing.media/
In this episode, I’ll be joined by Richard Corderoy, Managing Director of The Oakland Group, a data and analytics business that helps organisations find the true value in their data. He shares with us the steps they are taking to protect the essence of who they are as they grow at 40% to 50% a year. He also discusses the challenges and joys of balancing the organisation’s vision and his own and the way they are using external standards to cement change around their purpose.
In this episode, I’ll be joined by Richard Corderoy, Managing Director of The Oakland Group, a data and analytics business that helps organisations find the true value in their data. He shares with us the steps they are taking to protect the essence of who they are as they grow at 40% to 50% a year. He also discusses the challenges and joys of balancing the organisation’s vision and his own and the way they are using external standards to cement change around their purpose.
In this episode, I’ll be joined by Arun Chauhan, founder of Tenet, a specialist Compliance & Litigation law firm. Arun talks about why his organisation has two purposes and the separate ways he discovered each of them. He also discusses the importance of paying attention to emotion in developing your purpose and shares his advice on key things to avoid when developing your strategy.
In this episode, I’ll be joined by Arun Chauhan, founder of Tenet, a specialist Compliance & Litigation law firm. Arun talks about why his organisation has two purposes and the separate ways he discovered each of them. He also discusses the importance of paying attention to emotion in developing your purpose and shares his advice on key things to avoid when developing your strategy.
My guest is Asad Dhunna, Founder and CEO of The Unmistakables, a consultancy that works with organisations to create ‘inside out’ inclusion. Asad discusses the difference between a strategic journey and a quest, as well as sharing frameworks he has used to clarify their purpose and hone their strategy. He also talks about how he deals with the constant changes that can invalidate a strategy soon after it’s created.
CEO Simon Mitchell describes how Covid forced them to re-examine who they were and what they were doing in order to save their business, and how this put them on a path to realise their purpose in a new and more fundamental way – leading to faster growth, and some stunning commercial wins.
In this episode, I’ll be joined by Heidi Mottram, CEO of Northumbrian Water. Heidi describes what happened when they started over with a clean sheet of paper and co-created their purpose with their stakeholders. She also shares how their desire to be the industry leader resulted in the development of an industry-wide set of performance measures, so everyone can see how well they are doing – which in turn has reinforced Northumbrian Water’s ability to work across the business as a team.
Do listen to the end, as Heidi has an interesting offer for other CEOs who are looking at similar issues.
CEO Mike Carragher describes how VHB has unlocked a sustainable future for their organisation, in part by weaving their purpose through all their communications and key events. He also discusses how they made clear choices in creating their long-term vision, choices which have helped their people understand what VHB is going to do and what they aren’t going to do – so all their people can self-navigate more.
Alex Vaughan, CEO of Costain describes how it became clear during the development of their strategy that the first implementation step was to make sure everyone in the organisation understood the narrative for the business. He also shares how a more inclusive approach to strategy development has allowed him as CEO to shift from personally driving the strategy to setting the conditions for success.
CEO Sue Percy describes how CIHT created a strategy and purpose that gave them greater confidence and the ability to say no to things. She also shares how she was able to be ambitious, yet take her members with her.
CEO Michael Power shares the impact a clear purpose made during his 26-year journey building and then selling his business – and how he’s taken the lessons from that into working with new tech startups. He also describes how to pivot to a new business model while maintaining your overall purpose.
CEO Emma Clancy shares how she prioritises the multiple demands on a small, passionate organisation that is addressing urgent, pressing issues like water affordability as well as longer term challenges like future water scarcity. She also describes how CCW creates transparency in how they develop their strategy.
you’re heading in the right direction than knowing exactly what your destination is. He talks about his biggest challenges as a new CEO in a sector he didn’t know and how kindness and empathy have been key to his success.
Award-winning CEO Dean Proctor of 7IM shares how they engaged their customers, clients, and employees in building a shared purpose and the impact that has had on the organisation, particularly on employee willingness to take on leadership roles at all levels. He also describes some of the frameworks and processes they have put in place to reinforce and maintain this shared purpose.
Chief Executive and Chief Ombudsman Matt Vickers of Ombudsman Services describes the role that front line execution plays in purpose, what it takes to build trust in the system, and why that is important to us all. He shares what an ombudsman really does and how he came to be one. He also describes how they are going beyond resolving consumer conflicts to helping companies avoid them in the first place.
ProGlobal CEO Steve Lewis describes how they created strategic agility through focus, enabling them to pivot to a different level of sustainable growth. He also shares how he balances rigorous analysis with a ‘test and learn’ approach to build out their portfolio of offerings.
Hear CEO Pete Hempsall describe how his personal purpose relates to his organisation’s purpose and how they both are delivered through supporting their clients. He also talks about the he benefits as a CEO of being an introvert and how they changed the way they think about annual goals to support their overall purpose.
CEO Lee Davies of CIPA outlines how they found the four words that describe their purpose and are the framework for their strategy. He discusses what they did to be able to operate to a wider social purpose and shares how he prepared to lead their organisational transformation.
CEO Colin Walsh describes how Varo Bank, a US consumer fintech, was founded to make a powerful impact on systemic financial inequality. Learn how they created a platform that would allow them to overcome inequality and give millions of Americans the tools to improve their financial health, while creating an economically viable business.
Chief Executive Matt Meyer describes how Taylor Vinters has used an identity-led approach to to clarify and strengthen their purpose. We discuss changes in the legal market that led to them fundamentally reinventing the way they work with clients. And he describes “disorganisation” as a practical alternative to the slow and inflexible top-down model of cascading a strategy through roles and objectives.
CEO Mark Inskip describes the potential risk around purpose when a strong founder moves on. Learn what he did about it – and how you might address a similar major change in top leadership. Mark also shares his views on how to choose a consultant to work with on strategy and purpose.
Hear why CEO Adam Boddison thinks that project management could be the future of leadership. He also shares how APM’s purpose has been a call to action beyond the organisation, as well as redefining and expanding their playing field.
Simply having a clear purpose can help increase strategic focus, drive innovation, and accelerate growth – even without making it the centre of your communications. Learn how Severfield, the UK’s largest structural steel fabricator serving the construction industry, led by CEO Alan Dunsmore, did just that.
The current model of capitalism is under pressure and a new model seems to be needed. Learn how CEO David Smollan crystallised their purpose and brought it alive across their business, preparing them to be sustainable through the possible changes ahead.
https://smollan.com/path-to-purpose/
Sustainability and growth can seem like they are in conflict. In this episode, Dyan Crowther, CEO at Highspeed One, describes how their purposeful strategy has allowed them to have both.
You don’t have to use a structured process to define your purpose. Learn how a more instinct-based approach allowed CEO Helen Rippon to rediscover Worldwide Cancer Research’s purpose and use that to sharpen their strategy, in this episode of The Purposeful Strategist
How can a purposeful strategy drive new growth in a 40 year-old business? Learn how new CEO David Hall does it at Totalkare, in this episode of The Purposeful Strategist.
Managing Director Andy Shaffer shares a simple way to know if your organisation’s purpose is compelling. He also discusses how changing their approach to strategy resulted in a more commercial leadership team. Finally, he describes how they help their people cope with the pressures of a demanding purpose.
Chief Executive Officer Noel Butwell, describes how they are achieving client-led growth and the way their growth is addressing a nation-wide capacity gap. He discusses why it’s important to keep strategy simple and how they use a few simple rules to decentralise strategy implementation. He also shares what he found to be the hardest part of developing and implementing their strategy.
CEOElisabetta Castiglioni shares with us the key interaction in developing their strategy and the two big strategic challenges they always need to manage. She also describes what they are doing to retain employment in the face of digital disruption.
Jenny Higham, Principal at St George’s University of London addresses the tensions top leaders face as they navigate authenticity, confidentiality, financial pressures, and an ever-expanding set of aspirations for the organisation. She also describes how she balances the need for leadership from the top with an open, inclusive approach for strategy development. And, she shares a simple tip for what to do when something major makes big parts of your strategy no longer relevant.
Managing Director Susan Cooklin shares with us her manifesto for Route Services and how they are driving carbon reduction while becoming more resilient to extreme weather conditions. She describes how they help staff across all of Route Services have a clear line of sight to its purpose. She also outlines what she sees ahead for Network Rail and how she is preparing Route Services to support that.
CEO Daksh Gupta shares with us the vision and purpose that have been instrumental in driving 10 times revenue growth over the last 14 years. He discusses the practical implications of having a strong moral compass, as well as some of the little things that make a big difference. He also talks about how they created transparency for their staff during Covid and his own view of how one becomes a successful CEO.
CEO Mike Lord describes how, as they have grown, they’ve changed the way they define, communicate, and cascade their strategy. He also shares with us how they started with a purpose that was just about the owners’ desires, but since then have been weaving this purpose into how they operate. He also describes changes to his management style that will allow the business to continue to grow. Finally, he has some unexpected advice for owners of privately held businesses.
In this episode, we’ll be hearing from Dan Faust, a CEO at Aecom with oversight of their businesses in the Eastern United States and Latin America. Aecom is a global architectural, engineering and construction company.
Dan shares what “sustainable” means to him and how asking “why” drives everything they do. He describes the three groups he has to balance for successful projects – and how they make decisions about who they work with. He also shares what he has been reading and how that has shaped his own approach to leadership.
In this episode, we’ll be hearing from Scott Wardrop, CEO of Eurovia UK and VINCI Construction UK.
Eurovia UK is part of VINCI, a world leader in concessions, construction and energy, present in nearly 120 countries.
Scott shares with us how they think about the sustainability of their UK business and how that links with their vision of local partnership. He talks about the tensions between top down and bottom-up strategies that come with being part of a global group and describes how they harness internal ideas to allow them to play a pathfinder role for the whole sector.
Mark describes how Northern Gas Networks moved to industry leading performance by focusing on their customers, the communities they operate in, and their own employees and partners. He also shares how a big setback in his career changed his approach to leadership. And, he highlights why he thinks it’s critical that private companies don’t wait for government action on net zero – and gives practical examples of what can be done to accelerate needed private sector investment.
Matt talks about the journey they have been on to identify and realise a clear, distinctive purpose in a complicated environment. He shares lessons for any leader who realises that the pursuit of purpose requires an organisation to embrace innovation and manage new risks. He describes how they ensure that their purpose drives their strategy, rather than the other way round, and how they engage with a broader ecosystem to deliver that purpose.
Matt shares with us how vertical integration and end-to-end control of the business allows Barambah Organics to produce “dairy as it was meant to be”. He discusses managing the tension between purpose and short-term profit, why stakeholder capitalism matters to him, and how his own thinking has changed over time. He also discusses why they used one approach for developing their purpose and a different one for their strategy – even though both ran somewhat in parallel.
Graham will share with us the benefits of taking a more inclusive approach to developing their strategy and how they found the right balance for CPT’s purpose between – on the one hand – being just about what they do and on the other hand focusing only on the social benefits that flow from that.
Charles shares with us how, as a start-up, they used the leverage of challenging widely accepted ideas to develop long-term, high impact relationships with large listed businesses. He discusses the value of joining a movement – rather than trying to create one around your offering, how they use “no money, no legals” social contracts to create the potential for real change, and how they use silence and simple questions and silence to reveal the underlying constraints that keep an organisation from making these changes.
In this episode, we’ll be hearing from Paul Pester, Chair of the Consumer Advisory Board at Fairer Finance. Paul is also currently working with Cardeo, a startup whose purpose is to create more competition and transparency in financial services, beginning with credit cards.
Paul shares with us the fundamental reason why traditional banks find it very difficult to do what is in the best interest of consumers – and walks through an explanation of how that shows up in a product most of us use: the credit card. He also talks about why, if you are a purpose-based organisation, you need to know who your enemy is, who Cardeo’s “enemy” is and, surprisingly, who it isn’t.
In this episode, Tara shares with us the process they used to involve and embolden all their colleagues in defining their purpose, how their private equity owners relate to their purpose, the importance of letting go as a senior executive to get real employee engagement, and how they use their purpose in making investment decisions – particularly the ones that require a leap of faith.
we’ll be hearing from Stephen Haddrill, Director General of the Finance and Leasing Association.
The Finance & Leasing Association is the leading trade body for the asset, consumer and motor finance sectors in the UK.
In addition to describing their purpose, values and strategy, Stephen will share with us how Covid has changed their relationships with other trade bodies, and his provocative point of view on 100 day plans.
David will share with us how they’ve used data and analytics to successfully go against the trend of closing retail branches, instead experiencing explosive growth in their branch numbers. He’ll also describe how they turned typical building society thinking on its head to come up with a new view of who they needed to focus on. He’ll also talk about their partnering approach to remaining relevant in the digital world, preparing them to attract a new cohort of customers they can serve well into the future.
The Port of London Authority are the custodians of the tidal Thames. Their operations cover 95 miles of the River Thames, from Teddington to the North Sea. They work to keep commercial and leisure users safe, protect and enhance the environment, and promote the use of the river for trade and travel. As a trust port, they have no shareholders and operate for the benefit of customers and stakeholders now and in the future.
In this episode, Robin will share with us thoughts about refreshing their enduring organisational purpose to address emerging issues, the impact on CEO time of taking purpose seriously, and the implications of zero carbon on the largest port in the UK.
In this episode, we’ll be hearing from Nicola Shaw, Executive Director UK for National Grid. She will share with us how National Grid came up with a simple clear purpose and how they've embedded it in the organization.
Today, I'm joined by Darren James, CEO of Keltbray Group, an innovative construction engineering specialist company. Darren shares with us how he's gone about developing a purpose and strategy for Keltbray, as well as some tips for getting great staff engagement through the process, especially from junior staff.
Our guest is Gillian Charlesworth, Group Chief Executive Officer of BRE Group, a world leading, multi-disciplinary centre for building science. They provide products, services, standards and qualifications used around the world to bring positive change in the built environment.
Our guest is Peter Burrows, Chief Executive of The Cambridge Building Society. He describes how they have brought to life their purpose of helping people to have a home - beyond providing mortgages. He also discusses how he sees his role as Chief Executive in setting the organisation’s purpose and how that makes him feel.
The first episode of The Purposeful Strategist will be released on the 22nd of June.
I want to shift the discussion about organisational purpose from being about what organisations and leaders should do – to take a practical look at what they are doing – and what we can learn from that.
We’re going to hear from business leaders across a range of industries how they think about purpose in their organisation - and in business more generally. We'll explore how they make purpose a building block of their strategy and get their insider tips on the “how” of bringing purpose alive.
I want to shift the discussion about organisational purpose from being about what organisations and leaders should do – to take a practical look at what they are doing – and what we can learn from that.
We’re going to hear from business leaders across a range of industries how they think about purpose in their organisation - and in business more generally. We'll explore how they make purpose a building block of their strategy and get their insider tips on the “how” of bringing purpose alive.