Darren Ashby and Amy Botwright of businessfourzero underline why uniting strategy, culture, and purpose is integral to navigating uncertain economic times

The world is moving faster than ever with volatility seemingly increasing everyday, indeed “business as usual” has never been further from reality. Not only are leaders facing more uncertainty and risk, the nature of those risks has changed, meaning more is at stake. Climate change, artificial intelligence, misinformation, societal polarisation – these are challenges that threaten more than just the success of businesses, they are global issues that face mankind as a whole.

Our recent survey of over 3,000 CEOs and board members highlights how the external volatility caused by such risks is undermining their confidence in delivering 2024 goals. And yet it’s not only their ability to deliver short term goals that keeps leaders up at night – the expectations of businesses are higher than ever.

People are turning to businesses as agents of change, seen as perhaps the only organisations able to act fast enough and innovate with sufficient scale to make a difference. This is not about just negating the damage that business has done historically, mitigating the energy and resources they suck up. This is about business having a net positive impact, actually doing business better for all their stakeholders.

But whilst we all want to see businesses contributing towards a more sustainable and equitable future for the generations to come, investors still want returns, customers still want affordable products, employees still want wealth for their families and governments rely on the taxes and investment businesses contribute to the economy.

The compounding effect of all of these pressures has resulted in a disturbing loss of agency in businesses. This is especially felt by those at management levels and above. Consistently we see the upper levels of leadership coming out as the most disengaged in internal surveys and across both leaders and middle management there is a feeling that no matter how hard we work, our efforts are not sufficient, and the goalposts keep moving.

But it is not only in business where everyone feels the pressure of the global issues we are facing. Bombarded with a constant flow of information, we feel all the roles in our lives (consumer, worker, citizen, parent, friend) are always “on” and many feel they aren’t delivering on any of them well. This is undoubtedly contributing to what the 2022 Munich Security Report identified as “the emergence of a ‘collective helplessness’” in the face of overwhelming global changes, undermining our sense of society and damaging our wellbeing.

Rediscovering mission and agency

To conquer this sense of futility that many people can feel both in and outside of work, we need to help them rediscover that sense of mission and agency. That starts by equipping them with a sense of direction.

But instead, most organisations continue to bombard them with overwhelming and often contradictory messages. Employees hear about a company-wide purpose and strategy from a 200-page deck. Often the purpose is no more than a “feel good” tagline that is completely disconnected from the day-to-day activity of the business. HR share annual goal-setting guidance, which doesn’t seem to correlate with any of the strategies previously spoken about. And absolutely nothing makes the link between employees’ daily efforts and building a more sustainable future. Employees only read about the company’s attempts to do this in the CSR strategy presented in their annual report.

Is it any wonder employees are feeling overwhelmed and helpless? There is not one consistent, clear view on how to drive the short- term success of the business and contribute to a long-term sustainable future for the organisation and wider society.

The golden thread of purpose, strategy, and culture

It’s on the most senior leaders of a business to simplify the messages and direct employees’ efforts in a way that drives progress for both the company and wider society, whilst being practical, guiding better decision making and efficient execution. The key is creating and sustaining a golden thread between purpose, strategy, and culture.

Defining a purpose that is specific about what the business can do that creates unique value for customers and how that can contribute towards a more sustainable society must be the start of the thread. The purpose must feel both stretching and achievable, guiding efforts for decades to come.

Executive teams must pull the golden thread through to strategy, landing 3-4 key outcomes for the whole business to focus their time and effort on to progress their purpose. Anchoring the strategy in outcomes rather than initiatives allows the organisation to pivot if the external environment disrupts the original plan of action, without completely losing the strategic thread and starting again. And finally, to interweave the golden thread into culture, C-suite leaders must get clear on the 3-4 simple actions or behaviours they need their people to perform every day to unlock the execution of the purpose and strategy as one team of teams.

Our method pushes executive teams to capture the “why” (purpose), the “what” (strategy) and the “how” (critical behaviours to raise the bar on the culture) in 35 words or less so that every colleague can remember it under pressure and drive execution. Executive teams landing the golden thread is just the start. The only way that it actually becomes the driving force in the business is if every member of the company – from the board to the frontline – both understands and emotionally commits to this direction.

Fostering such deep commitment is no easy task. But it pays off. Both Harvard Business Review and Gallup have looked at this in their research and found that businesses who truly prioritise the golden thread between purpose, strategy and culture reap the rewards. For instance, they see 270% better rates of success with innovation and transformation efforts, and 21% greater employee engagement, productivity, and discretionary effort. 

The golden thread between purpose, strategy and culture cannot just be a “nice to have” in today’s businesses. It must become the priority, so that businesses can both drive their own commercial success and be the force for change the world needs in uncertain economic times. 

About the authors
Darren Ashby is Chief Impact Officer and Amy Botwright is a Senior Consultant at businessfourzero.