Ethical Leadership and Governance

Values-based businesses — and the backlash against them — can feel very of-the-moment, but the concept has been around for decades.

In turbulent times, companies need a reliable anchor to guide decision-making. When organizations become moral communities, underpinned by purpose, they provide that stability for stakeholders as well as a reassuring sense of hope, solidarity, agency, and meaning. Three strategies can help. First, tell a big story about what your organization believes in and what it is trying to accomplish. Second, treat purpose as an organizing principle that guides company structure, strategy, and culture. Third, model courageous, purpose-driven leadership yourself.

As companies seek to attract and retain employees, they need to focus more on understanding workers’ individual purpose.

Companies must develop the capacity to accurately assess the execution of purpose-driven strategies on ESG goals.

A 5-step framework for putting purpose into practice.

Many purpose-driven companies revert to a profit-first strategy if the going gets tough.

How can companies become purpose driven businesses? Learn how unleashing the power of purpose can drive superior performance and results.

Sadly, purpose statements at all too many organizations are just empty words. The companies that issue them don’t live up to their lofty promises. But research by Bain & Company identified some companies that are the exceptions. They employ four methods to turn their statements into reality.

Done right, ESG can be a powerful positive force for organizations that strive to advance it and for the world in which we live. A well-conceived social transformation prepares a business for long-term growth, engaging the support of management, employees, investors, and customers.

Today’s business school education isn’t suited to the big challenges facing the world — climate change, economic inequality and racial injustice — that the leaders of tomorrow will be expected to solve. So, how can students and young professionals succeed in a system that primarily rewards profit? How can they create real change while working in a corporate world that’s mostly stuck in outdated business models?

Corporate success is no longer just measured in dollars and cents. It's about who you are, what. you support and why you support it.

Your why may not be what you think it is.

The role of corporations in society shifted permanently in 2020.