Redefining Retail

2Purpose, People, Planet—Therefore Profit

In June 2023, we did a Google search of the word “purpose”—and got more than 10 billion hits—which is astonishing given that the word “sex” produces roughly half of that result. Consider the following from the Harvard Business Review: “[D]espite its sudden elevation in corporate life, purpose remains a confusing subject” in part because “‘purpose’ is used in three senses: competence (‘the function that our product serves’); culture (‘the intent with which we run our business’); and cause (‘the social good to which we aspire’).” “A competence‐based purpose (such as Mercedes's ‘First Move the World’) expresses a clear value proposition to [both] customers and … employees … . A culture‐based purpose (such as Zappos's ‘To Live and Deliver WOW’) can create internal alignment and collaboration with key partners. A cause‐based purpose (such as Patagonia's ‘in business to save our home planet’ or Tesla's ‘to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy’) promotes the idea that it is possible to do well by doing good. All three types can create a meaningful why.”¹

We believe that a consistent and original alchemy of these three approaches is at the core of a meaningful why—a combination of powerful elements such as the very reason a company exists, what it stands for, how it contributes to social good, why employees should be proud to work for it, what would motivate suppliers to favour my company over others, and why customers should ...