What is purpose, and why does it matter?
Purpose is the reason your business exists. The North Star that guides your way. It sounds simple, and yet it's something I see many purpose-led businesses get almost right, and then stall on.
Here's why it matters so much... You're under pressure to hit your numbers, especially in a tough economy, and impact can slip down the to-do list behind the targets that feel more urgent. It can start to feel as though doing good and growing the business are pulling in different directions. They don't have to, but only when your impact is strategic rather than scattered.
Because if you want to make a meaningful difference at scale, it's not enough to just "do good." A set of scattered, disconnected activities won't add up to make a meaningful difference on any particular problem. Yet this is where the majority of businesses are stuck. It's what I call a tactical approach to impact. You're busy doing lots of good things (e.g. charity donations, volunteering, wellbeing initiatives), but without a clear focus, the overall impact is limited.
Design purpose into your strategy, business model, governance and culture, and that changes. But first, let's be clear on what purpose actually is.
What is purpose?
A business's purpose statement explains why it exists. You might find it helpful to start with the words "we exist to..." It's the reason for being in business and ideally what motivates you to go to work in the morning.
Your purpose should determine how you create value, for the business and your wider stakeholders. It should be timeless – it's your North Star, always there in the distance, motivating you to move forwards, overcome obstacles and innovate. It helps shape your goals and strategy – how you progress on your journey and deliver your purpose. These will evolve over time, but the purpose is constant.
Why purpose matters: moving from tactical to strategic
When you're crystal clear on the difference you want to make, you can be intentional. Your activities become strategic, focused on delivering your purpose. This results in a strategic, purpose-led approach to impact – and a far more meaningful difference given your limited resources.
You’re using the same resources. The difference is whether they're all pointing at the same star.
A clear purpose is good for business, not just good for the world
A clearly articulated purpose makes your priorities clear. It helps you make decisions. It engages and inspires your team. And (this might surprise you), it often unlocks new commercial opportunities, because when you're clear on the problem you solve, you spot partnerships, clients, and revenue streams you'd been missing.
This is why I describe purpose as a key ingredient of growth, loyalty and legacy, rather than a side project, bolted onto the "core" business.
The data backs this up:
13 B Corps made the 2026 Sunday Times 100 list of Britain’s fastest-growing private companies (Ancient + Brave, Bold Bean Co, Nala's Baby, St Ewe Free Range Eggs, Bramling Workshops, Bio&Me, Hunter & Gather, Nobody's Child, The Housing Network, Kid-A, Serious Pig, Zenzero, Coat Paints)
Between 2024 and 2025, UK SME B Corps saw:
20% turnover growth, almost 7 times higher than all UK SMEs (source: B Corp 10 year impact report).
11% employee headcount growth compared to 2% for all UK SMEs (source: B Corp 10 year impact report).
What makes a strong purpose: specific, meaningful and relevant
Plenty of businesses describe themselves as purpose-led. But when you look closely, the purpose is often too broad, too vague, or sitting on a wall (or website) with, if you’re honest, no real bearing on how the business runs. A purpose only earns its keep if it meets three tests.
It has to be specific. It can be tempting to keep your purpose very broad. But if you want to maximise your impact, you need to be focused. By being focused, all your activities and investment can add up to make a much greater impact. Not "climate change." Not "inequality." But something narrow enough that you can actually move the needle on it. For example, Tony's Chocolonely doesn't address "global poverty", they address exploitation in the cocoa supply chain.
It has to be meaningful: a problem that matters in the world, not just to your clients. A good way of checking is to refer to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the sub-targets beneath these. If it's not there, it's probably not a meaningful problem.
And it has to be relevant to your business and its context. This helps to avoid purpose-washing, where your business states a purpose but doesn't operate or make decisions in a way that aligns with that statement. The purpose becomes words on a wall (or website) that don't affect the culture of your business or its priorities and plans. When your purpose is commercially relevant and contributes to long-term value creation, then it's authentic.
The real test: is your purpose designed into the business?
This last point is where the transformational value lies, and it’s where I spend most time with the leaders I work with. A purpose written down is not the same as a purpose embedded.
Your purpose can't be a bolt-on that's disconnected from your core business model. It must determine how your company positions itself, your strategy, the way you make decisions and the targets you set. When your purpose informs your business strategy, it helps guide decisions (especially the more difficult ones) about what you will or won't do, or what you will or won't invest in. When your purpose is genuinely integrated into strategy and governance, then you should see examples of where you've said "no" or stopped doing something because of the purpose.
This is the direction the wider standards are moving in too. The new B Corp Standards now expect a business's purpose to be specific and genuinely integrated into strategy and governance. PAS808 Purpose-Driven Organisations is now being translated into an International Standard (ISO37011).
I call this “impact by design” – impact happens by design and by default rather than by chance.
Where to start
If you recognise your business in that scattered picture (i.e. lots of activity but you’re not sure it all adds up) then that's a good place to begin – it's where many businesses are.
Our Amplify approach is built for exactly this: helping you move from scattered activities to a clear, focused purpose that means your commercial success goes hand-in-hand with scaling your impact. When I worked with Sally Pritchett, CEO of Something Big she said:
"What I love about these sessions is that whilst we come at them from an impact perspective, they invariably feed my thinking on how we can be a better business generally at the same time."
And if you'd like to explore the thinking first, my free Separate to Strategic masterclass walks through how to shift from a tactical to a strategic approach to impact, and why a clear purpose is the foundation of both.