First have a good purpose

I think one place where a lot of organisations struggle with corporate social responsibility is … well, they fall at the first hurdle, really. You have to have a good purpose.

There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding around what constitutes a corporate mission.  Some have got it taped, but some really quite otherwise mature and substantial organisations prattle on about things like “long term shareholder value” and so on.

Let’s be clear – paying dividends, making profits, growing the top and bottom lines — these are constraints, not objectives. They are ‘must dos’ for many organisations, not the defining reason as to why the world needs that organisation.  That has to be a good purpose – something that engages the soul and returns real value.