The Power of Purpose: How Purpose-Driven Companies are Changing the Game

 The Power of Purpose: How Purpose-Driven Companies are Changing the Game

In 2001, two American politicians by the names of Thomas Harkin and Eliot Engel, introduced the Harkin-Engel Protocol. This international agreement was signed by eight of the world’s largest chocolate brands, including Hershey’s and Nestle. The goal: to end child labour and slavery in the industry. In 2003, Dutch journalist Teun van de Keuken, decided to start an investigation to check the progress the chocolate industry had made with his television program “Keuringsdienst van Waarde”. It turned out that the situation in the 8 cocoa farms of Ghana and Ivory Coast remained dire- jeopardizing the lives of over 1.5 million child labourers and 30,000 modern slaves. The astounding findings had little effect on the confectionary giants, who seemed uninterested in making good on their promise. This was how Tony’s Chocolonely was born; the ‘lonely’ in the name signifying their lonely journey to make 100% slave free the norm in chocolate.

As of today, Tony’s has clocked in a staggering $162 million in revenue in fiscal year 2023, while making lives around them a little bit better than before. In 2020-2021, the International Cocoa Initiative detected cases of child labour at just 4.4% of Tony’s co-ops’ member farms, compared to instances at 52.8% of member farms in co-ops not partnering with Tony’s, while the average income for farmers that have been in Tony’s co-ops for three years more than doubled.

 Tony Chocolonely is one of the many companies spearheading the revolution of ‘business as a force of good’ without departing from the fundamental of business: profit-making. The fuel that drives these companies to obtain the twin objectives of revenue and reforms is purpose. Here’s a definition of what I mean by purpose, coined by Peter Field.

“A commitment articulated by a commercial brand or its parent company to goals other than improved profits or products, involving contribution towards one or more positive social impacts in the fields of health, the environment, human development, sustainable business practices, or other similar areas.”

A brand that is driven by purpose rather than the need to pocket a few extra dollars needs no endorsement; it will invariably attract the most passionate employees and the most fiercely loyal customer base, leading to wild successes – all while changing the world. In the words of Simon Squibb, founder of Fluid, “A company with a strong purpose to guide it won’t have to manage people, only the purpose.” 

 For those who still dismiss a strong purpose as inconsequential to business and a marketing gimmick, statistics present the true story:

1. Purpose-oriented companies have higher productivity and growth rates, along with a more satisfied workforce who stay longer with them. Research shows that such companies report 30 percent higher levels of innovation and 40 percent higher levels of workforce retention than their competitors.

 2. The Cone/Porter Novelli survey found that 66% would switch from a product they typically buy, to a new product from a purpose-driven company. This figure goes up to 91% when millennials (born 1980-1994) are polled.

 3. The Cone/Porter Novelli survey also found that 78% of consumers would tell others to buy from a purpose-driven company and that 68%are more willing to share content with their social networks over that of traditional companies. 73% of consumers are also willing to stand up for a purpose-driven brand if it is spoken badly of.

 4. According to Deloitte, purpose-driven companies witness higher market share gains and grow on average three times faster than their competitors, all the while achieving higher employee and customer satisfaction.

Small and mid-sized companies have proven that purpose isn’t solely the purview of large corporations. Following is an example to support my claim.

It is a fact that 1/3rd of the world’s produce goes to waste simply because it doesn’t fit the narrow specifications of supermarkets. Therefore, Oddbox, a small subscription-based food service, delivers these ‘ugly’ fruits and vegetables to eliminate food waste. 

 A recent study suggested that 71% of people think that that the world is getting worse. Although pessimistic, they are not entirely wrong: 

1. Between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths per year, from undernutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress alone.

 2. Global hunger rose to as many as 828 million in 2021.

 3. An estimated 50 million people were living in situations of modern slavery on any given day in 2021, according to the latest global estimates.

 In a world that has, to a large extent, become the breeding ground of torment and despair for the majority of the population, it is a welcome relief to find that businesses, long believed to be soulless and destructive capitalistic machines, are taking active steps to build the utopia that we’ve all dreamt of. As an aspiring entrepreneur myself, it is my strong belief that in this day and age, no one should be starting a business without, in addition to a viable economic value proposition, that business having an equally important proposition to move our society forward