Purpose is a journey, not a destination. The co-author of Good is the New Cool: The Principles of Purpose, Bobby Jones recently joined Microsoft for a segment of their “The Download” series to explore the power of purpose in building future-ready organizations.
Purpose, Bobby said, is the reason why your company exists. It is the key to appealing to customers/consumers, employees, and investors now and into the future. Today, as the co-founder of Conspiracy of Love, a global social impact marketing agency, Bobby works with Fortune 500 brands, startups, and non-profits that seek to create a better world through their work.
Bobby’s own purpose-driven mission began with the birth of his son. 10 years ago, he felt a hunger to do work that he’s proud of; that would have impact not only for the brands and businesses he works with but within the greater community as well. Work that he could proudly share with his son.
Prior to Conspiracy of Love, Bobby, along with his co-founder Afdhel Aziz, spent decades working as a marketer at award-winning agencies and with world-class brands, but both were looking for more from their work. They joined forces and committed themselves to building a movement that would inspire people to use business and culture as a force for good. This movement launched with the release of their first book Good is the New Cool: Market Like You Give a Damn.
Over time though, they realized that marketers could only be as effective as the organizations they work for. So Afdhel and Bobby expanded their vision to focus on leadership, and how leaders can build purpose-led work cultures top-down.
Today, Bobby and Afdhel work with CEOs and C-suite leaders to help them understand what purpose is, how to define it, and how to discover it within their organizations. They have built a blueprint to building a purpose-led organization, Bobby said, that can take people from a position of leading with purpose to working with purpose to creating with purpose.
It also serves to build organizations that will appeal to today’s and future generations of customers and consumers, employees, and investors.
Customers and consumers want to buy from a brand that aligns with their values and contribute positively to the world, Bobby said. Today’s employees want to align their work with their personal values, and investors want to align their dollars with companies that are contributing to the long-term well-being of people, planet, and society.
The great resignation that we’re living through today is proof of this, Bobby said. People are questioning if their work is contributing to the life that they want to live. For purpose-driven companies, this is an opportunity to start a new story and issue an invitation to current and future employees that is far more dynamic than we’ve ever seen before.
Companies that are brave and courageous enough to take advantage of this opportunity, that develop a clear sense of purpose, empower their employees to contribute their gifts and passions in service of it, and unleash their culture builders are going to be the ones that win.
See more from Bobby in the video below:
Bobby Jones is an expert on engaging people for social change. As a keynote speaker, he help audiences learn how to address environmental, civic, and economic issues in ways that grow their business and brand while giving them a renewed sense of purpose as powerful forces for good.
Interested in learning more about Bobby and what he can bring to your next event? Email us at [email protected].