Corporate purpose is a fixture of boardrooms, annual reports, executives' talk, and employer branding. Yet the average effect of corporate purpose on financial performance is zero. Some firms turn purpose into concrete practices and stronger performance. Others do not live by purpose standards and create incoherent demands, poor coordination, and weaker performance. How to be part of the former group is a strategic question. The CLARITY framework developed in this book offers an answer grounded in evidence. Purpose statements, however eloquently crafted, remain stagnant without the leadership practices that embed them in employees' daily experiences. CLARITY connects the employees' purpose-based leadership experience to seven levers of performance: Commitment, Legitimacy, Autonomy, Resourcefulness, Innovativeness, Trust, and You. Drawing on extensive survey response data, experiments, simulations, and interviews with leaders in over thirty corporations, Rodolphe Durand and Harrison Munro-Clark explain why purpose succeeds in some organisations and backfires in others. For each lever, a chapter quantifies expected returns, identifies specific blockers, and provides practical do's and don'ts. Through cases including Spotify, Novo Nordisk, Boeing, and BrewDog, Durand and Munro-Clark show the rewards of effective implementation and the costs of failure. Purpose is a strategic choice, yet it pays off only when leaders do the work. Rigorous and practical throughout, CLARITY is a guide for leaders at every level who want to close the gap between purpose on paper and in practice.
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