The power of purpose with David Boynton, CEO of The Body Shop
Purpose has never been more important
In our podcast series Magpie: Power of Purpose, our host Lauren Strickland has real conversations with leaders and thinkers at the forefront of business transformation. Here’s a section from Lauren’s interview with David Boynton, CEO of The Body Shop, about how purpose has guided his organisation during the pandemic and the role of purpose when it comes to important social issues.
You can listen to the full episode here.
How do you frame purpose now and how does that differ to how you framed purpose pre-pandemic?
David: We haven’t really changed things. Our purpose statement at The Body Shop is that we exist to fight for a more beautiful and fairer world, and we landed that about two years ago. Having done that work meant we had a north star to guide us, so we haven’t really needed to go through a re-framing. It’s more about making sure we stay on track and not allowing the crisis to make us do something that wasn’t aligned with our purpose.
During the pandemic, we’re seeing that a lot of businesses that have a true focus on purpose tend to pivot more successfully. How do you balance having to make these quick decisions that ultimately make a long-term impact on your business?
David: When you make that commitment to be purpose-driven, every decision you make as a leader is seen through that lens. Our purpose is broad enough to encompass lots of situations. There are three parts:
· Fight which is a reminder to be activists and drive change
· Fair which is about social justice and doing the right thing for people
· And the beautiful world which is in part about our commitment to sustainability
Making progress on those things does involve long-term planning. Any decisions you make in the short-term, it’s important to keep linking them back to purpose and explain why you’re making these decisions.
How do you feel about the role of purpose when it comes to weighing in on important social issues?
Talking about social issues generally is in our DNA. We have to weigh in and we’re compelled to do that on subjects that connect with our purpose.
We started back in 1976 and used to be good at pin-pointing injustice in our territory and shining a light on the problem. We believe it’s really important and we’re challenging ourselves to get better at it.
It’s really important that when you do lean in it feels real. The world has this incredibly highly tuned nose for hypocrisy right now so don’t say anything unless you mean it and are prepared to do something about it.
What one piece of advice would you give to a business trying to really live by their own purpose?
Do it if you think it’s authentic, and if you are already doing it then remember that everybody’s watching you all of the time. Keep the dialogue up about progress because that way it’s going to feel a whole lot more authentic.