Beyond business: Why purpose’s moment is still ahead of us

When Beyond Business was published back in 2010, it landed as a serious intervention in the debate about the role of business in society. Written by the former CEO of BP, John Browne, it argued that companies could no longer afford to see profit and responsibility as separate conversations. For Browne, sustainability, integrity and long-term value creation were no longer optional extras, they were becoming the central features of future business success.

I read the book through a particular lens. I worked at Enterprise IG, the global branding agency where BP’s infamous Beyond Petroleum ‘brand promise’ was coined at the turn of the century. That proximity made Browne’s arguments feel less theoretical, more immediate and I wrote about his ideas and challenges quite extensively in my first book, CORE. This was a brand promise not as a cosmetic idea, but as something new and different. It was a rallying call and a bold attempt to re-orient one of the world’s most powerful companies — and potentially an entire industry — around a shared sense of purpose fit for a future that would be better for all. Better for shareholders, better for employees, better for society and better for the planet.

It remains for me a lesson from history. Its failure was not down to a lack of vision, but ultimately, a lack of courage and leadership in the face of short-termist thinking and the self-centred agendas of those who stand in the way of progress and capitalise through business as usual by maintaining the status quo. A status quo incidentally, that often profits from creating problems for people and planet, rather than profiting from solving them.

Fifteen years later, much has changed. Purpose has moved from the margins to the mainstream. It is part of the corporate vernacular and almost every business claims to have a purpose. And yet, much has stayed stubbornly the same. The gap between intent and execution remains just as wide and purpose is still too often treated as brand narrative rather than operational discipline, positioning rather than governance. There is a big difference between having a purpose and being purpose-driven.

Re-reading Beyond Business today is therefore both instructive and uncomfortable. It reminds us how long these questions have been on the table and how slow and uneven our progress has been in answering them. But the lesson it offers us now is not to look back in anger at lost opportunities, but to look forward with resolve.

As we approach a new year and enter the second quarter of the 21st century, it feels like the right moment to lift our gaze. At the very beginning of the first quarter, Browne’s Beyond Petroleum appeared radical, imperfect, ahead of its time and was ultimately, an opportunity missed. Ensuring purpose is properly understood and implemented by today’s leaders will give the next quarter of the century the opportunity to deliver on the promise the first could only glimpse.

For those interested, my original review of Beyond Business can be found on the NG&A website.

Part Two: Here comes the shift: Why 2026 marks the quiet arrival of purpose as discipline

History rarely announces its turning points. More often, they slip quietly into view, obvious only in hindsight. 2026 will be one of those moments. It is the year when purpose stops being a sentiment and begins to function as a system — when leaders discover that the question they’re being asked is no longer whether purpose matters, but whether they possess the plans and discipline to make it operational.

The forces reshaping 2025 are not dissipating; they are tightening. Markets remain volatile, geopolitical tensions have hardened into structural rivalries, climate impacts are accelerating and public trust in institutions continues to erode. Supply chains are more exposed, conflicts are redrawing alliances and economic conditions are more brittle than many care to admit. Against this backdrop, purpose is no longer a rhetorical accessory; it becomes a stabilising logic. A way for organisations to navigate complexity with coherence and avoid being pulled off course by the growing volatility of external shocks.

A shift in how businesses are governed is underway and purpose is quietly evolving into a proxy for capability. Words alone will no longer suffice. Investors, employees and citizens will increasingly judge leaders not on what they say about the benefits of a purposeful future, but by the consistency with which they align resources and reward decisions and behaviour that deliver it. Put simply, it will test whether leaders can articulate a unifying idea, link decisions to it and maintain that alignment under pressure.

This is why governance now moves to centre stage — because this is where purpose finally hardens into discipline. The arrival of ISO 37011 in late 2026 will provide the first global standard that treats purpose not as a slogan but as an organising principle. Its significance lies in its clarity: It articulates what many leaders have sensed yet struggled to codify — that purpose must shape the rules, incentives and architecture through which decisions are made. It gives boards and executives a shared vocabulary and, more importantly, a shared expectation.

With clearer standards, accountability follows. Organisations will increasingly be assessed on how purpose influences resource allocation, how it alters risk, how it shapes culture and how it governs outcomes. Vague claims and selective reporting will become harder to defend in a world weary of performative language. The distinction between sincere purpose and cosmetic purpose — between leadership and theatre — will sharpen.

The expectations placed on leaders themselves are shifting just as rapidly. People are not demanding perfection; they are demanding coherence. They want leaders who speak plainly about trade-offs, who acknowledge uncertainty without surrendering responsibility and who behave as if their decisions carry consequences beyond their own convenience. These expectations are neither ideological nor sentimental. They are a rational response to a world in which problems are interconnected and leadership conducted in isolation is no longer tenable.

Those who grasp this moment will have the chance to define more than organisational success. They will influence the operating logic of the next decade. Their authority will come not from their rhetoric but from the alignment of their systems. Their credibility will rest on the discipline with which they embed a unifying idea into the everyday machinery of decision-making.

Part One: Here comes the shift: How purpose is bridging the divide

As 2025 comes to a close, I’m noticing something rare in a year marked by noise and division — alignment. Not perfect alignment, the world is far too messy for that, but a quiet, unmistakable coalescence around the idea that unity through shared purpose is no longer fringe, optional or idealistic. It is emerging instead as a realistic antidote to the destruction that division wreaks. Purpose, as a driver of future prosperity and human wellbeing, has crossed a threshold. The innovators have broken down the barriers, the early adopters have done their job and we are now unmistakably in early-majority territory.

And when the early majority moves, markets move.

This shift isn’t ideological. It’s structural and it’s being driven by five converging forces:

• Geopolitics, which have made fragility impossible to ignore.
• Socio-economics, where inequality and insecurity are reshaping beliefs and behaviours.
• Demographics, with younger workers, acutely aware of the world they’re inheriting, increasingly unwilling to collude with business-as-usual.
• The environment, where climate change, biodiversity loss and resource constraints are forcing ever more urgent thinking around risk, resilience and responsibility.=
• Technology, particularly AI, which is forcing organisations to define what makes them meaningfully human.

Together they form an irresistible tide. You can, of course, sit on the shore like King Canute and command the waves to stop rolling in. But, just like the waves, markets will continue to do what markets do and reward those who meet the needs, values and preferences of customers, employees and investors.

This is why the 2025 narrative coming from the business-as-usual ‘Canute Brigade’, that ESG or sustainability has somehow gone away, is so misplaced. ESG hasn’t gone away. The only thing that has changed is the language. And frankly, thank goodness for that, because we are finally talking about how purpose drives performance, catalyses innovation and creates long-term value, rather than being sidelined by deny–delay–distract tacticians with their ‘woke caricatures and ‘dig-baby-dig’ calls to invest in industries in decline, while, the world’s richest and arguably most successful businessman pointed out, “severely damaging industries of the future.”

Mr Musk isn’t wrong to identify the tension. Many nations, including Aotearoa New Zealand, still find themselves caught between two instincts:

• Dig, baby, dig — invest in what we know, even as it declines.
• Bet on the future — back the industries, capabilities and governance models that will define the next 10–20 years.

These are not abstract forces grinding away in the background. They are choices made by people, in rooms, around tables, weighing up risk, reward and reputation. Which is why the question of who sits at those tables and how they think about their role matters now.

In a recent interview, Barack Obama said something that captures the spirit of this moment. He reflected on sitting in rooms with “folks with fancy titles,” only to discover they were not superhuman after all. Some brilliant, some not, some admirable, some deeply questionable. In his words:

“Once you sit at these tables…you talk to them and you go…oh, they ain’t all that.”
That sentiment is at the heart of why purpose is spreading. People are finally realising that the work of building better organisations, and better societies, isn’t reserved for the anointed few. It belongs to all of us.

Qiulae Wong, The Opportunities Party’s recently anointed leader, summed up her CitizenVoice policy in strikingly human terms: Connect as people first rather than hiding behind screens, give those most affected by decisions a genuine role in shaping them and remember that community, not radical individualism, is ultimately what makes societies work.

What interests me is what this signals about expectations of governance from the point of view of a relatively young political party entering an arena dominated by traditional organisations, with traditional ideas for a traditionally minded ‘voting constituency’. This is not challenger-brand veneer. It is a pragmatic and thoughtful reaction to the status quo and a model of governance that reflects what society is increasingly demanding from all our organisations — participation, transparency, fairness and long-term thinking.

Part Two will explore what this means for leadership in 2026. The courage to choose the future over the past, the discipline to align governance with purpose and the role of ISO 37011 in separating those who are merely talking about change from those who are prepared to contribute and lead it.

IKEA shows that you can scale globally, serve meatballs and still lead with integrity.

First published in Chapter Zero New Zealand – 18 Nov 2025

In December, IKEA will finally open its first New Zealand store in Auckland. I’m old enough to remember the opening of IKEA’s first UK store in 1987 – but I don’t recall it generating quite this level of excitement. For many, IKEA’s arrival promises affordable Scandinavian design and meatballs. For me, it represents something deeper – the arrival of a company that has demonstrated over decades what can be achieved by challenging the status quo, leading with values and being single-mindedly purpose-driven.

Behind the blue-and-yellow logo stands Ingka Group, the largest IKEA franchisee and the operator of nearly all IKEA stores worldwide. While the IKEA trademark and concept are owned by Inter IKEA Systems B.V., Ingka Group is responsible for global retail operations, investment activities and the company’s world-leading approach to business governance. It’s a governance model that focuses people and sustainability around a widely understood core purpose and combines it with distributed accountability – and it works.

Ingka Group has shown that commercial success and positive societal impact are not opposing forces; its integration lies at the very heart of IKEA’s success. Its stated purpose – to create a better everyday life for the many people – is not a slogan but an organising idea. It shapes everything from how products are designed and priced to how materials are sourced, employees are treated, stores are powered and decisions are made in the boardroom.

Happily, Ingka is prepared to share and foster greater understanding of its success and the potential of being purpose-driven. First published in 2017, Ingka Group released its latest People & Planet Consumer Insights & Trends Report – a global study conducted with Canadian research partner GlobeScan – in October this year. Together their work tracks and captures the pulse of public expectations of business around the world. New Zealand directors should pay attention to the numbers. They might also pause to ask a simple question – why does a company that sells furniture publish such a report?

Despite the divisions fuelled by short-termist populist politicians, the squeeze of rising costs and the chaos of click-bait misinformation, something essential endures: people still care about one another, they fear for the climate, they dislike injustice and they long for a future – and a world – that is fair for everyone.

• 64% worry about climate change and almost half feel personally affected.
• 82% want companies to pay living wages and 36% say they boycott brands that fail to treat workers fairly.
• Seven in 10 consumers want clearer communication from businesses about the environmental and social impact of their products.
• Younger generations are leading, pioneering circular habits such as buying second-hand, renting and repairing.

This is not a consumer-trends report – it’s a governance signal and a wake-up call for boards. New Zealand stands at its own inflection point. Productivity is slipping, inequality is widening and, like elsewhere in the Western world, trust in both business and government is eroding. Yet there is also a deep-seated belief among Kiwis that we can, and should, do better – that values matter and that what unites us is far greater and more powerful than what divides us.

IKEA’s success offers three key lessons in the power of purpose as an organising idea – one that unites an entire enterprise, delivers measurable outcomes and drives long-term sustainable success:

1. Make purpose the organising idea
   Purpose only delivers when it sits at the heart of strategy and operations – not as an add-on or aspiration. From flat-pack logistics to renewable energy and circular design, IKEA has built its entire system around one clear idea. Everything else flows from that core purpose.
2. Align purpose with real-world value
   The Ingka/GlobeScan report shows that saving money remains the top motivator for sustainable behaviour. IKEA’s genius lies in linking purpose with affordability – proving that what’s good for people and planet can also be good for profit. Boards that align purpose with everyday value creation turn ideals into enduring commercial success.
3. Govern for the long term
   IKEA’s purpose endures because its governance model demands it. Ingka Group’s structure – a foundation with a long-term ownership mandate – protects purpose from short-term pressures and political fashion. Boards that design governance around purpose, not quarterly results, create the conditions for consistency, innovation and trust.

When the doors open in December, IKEA will undoubtedly attract large crowds eager to experience its mix of design, efficiency and Scandinavian charm. But the bigger story is what those crowds are recognising and rewarding through spending their hard-earned cash. Simply put, that is an approach to business superbly executed every day at scale, across the world by a company that has embedded purpose into the core of its governance, operations and culture – and prospered as a result.

Why do companies greenwash?

Z Energy’s recent apology for misleading environmental claims poses a question: Why do companies keep greenwashing?

In 2022, Ampol owned Z Energy told New Zealanders it was “in the business of getting out of the petrol business.” It sounded like a radical step for the country’s biggest fuel importer — a bold signal that the company was changing course.

Three years later, after a costly legal dispute with Consumer NZ and environmental groups, Z Energy has admitted the truth: Its much-promoted biofuels plant wasn’t operating, its carbon-reduction claims excluded the emissions from the fuel it sells, and its messaging went “beyond aspirational.”

To its credit, the company has apologised. But the questions remain: Why do smart, well-resourced businesses keep saying one thing and doing another?

Z Energy is not an isolated case. Around the world, major brands have been caught in the same web. In the same sector, a quarter of a century ago, I saw firsthand the results of going “beyond reality” while working for the WPP branding agency that came up with BP’s now-infamous “Beyond Petroleum” rebrand. It’s a landmark example I’ve written and spoken about often over the years — a powerful core purpose and potential single organising idea that could have changed everything at BP and across the entire sector — if only Lord Browne, then CEO, had delivered on it.

Volkswagen’s “Clean Diesel” campaign promised low-emission performance but concealed deliberate manipulation of emissions tests is another case in point. H&M, Nestlé, Shell, HSBC, Kmart and others have all faced scrutiny for sustainability claims that overstated progress or obscured uncomfortable facts.

So why do they do it? Here are some reasons:

• To protect reputation – appearing progressive buys time and goodwill.
• To meet stakeholder pressure – investors, customers and employees expect and are much more vocal about, their expectations of business.
• To retain market relevance – being seen as sustainable, rather than being sustainable, has ironically become a survival strategy.
• To disguise inertia – rhetoric fills the gap where innovation and progress aren’t actually happening.
• To simplify complexity – clever marketing and creative advertising can tell a more compelling and engaging story than reality allows.
• Because of fragmented governance – the left hand (marketing) doesn’t know what the right hand (operations) is doing.
• Because leadership confuses communication with commitment – they believe saying it is the same as doing it.
• Because the system still rewards short-term profit – quarterly earnings trump long-term purpose.
• Because they lack a strategy for the future – senior leaders see change as risky and managing efficiencies as progress, missing out on the innovation that comes from grasping the future and contributing to it in ways that create new ideas, new value and sustained relevance for all stakeholders.
• Because they really don’t understand the power and potential of purpose — as a single organising idea that drives progress from the heart of business.

Most companies don’t set out to deceive. They simply haven’t re-engineered their businesses to deliver what their slogans promise. The result is an obvious credibility gap between what they say and what they do.

The hidden cost of that gap

The Z Energy case highlights the price of that gap.

The company spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and lost months of leadership focus defending its own words. Far more damaging, though, is the erosion of trust.

Z’s chief executive, Lindis Jones, has walked a fine line between contrition and justification. He apologised “to the extent we caused any confusion,” but defended the campaign as “aspirational and provocative,” arguing it reflected the company’s intent to transition over time. It was, in effect, an apology for misunderstanding — not misrepresentation.

That distinction matters. Because when leaders stop short of full accountability, they signal that the problem is perception, not practice. The risk is that it entrenches the very behaviour the apology was meant to resolve.

When customers and communities discover that big environmental statements aren’t backed by real action, cynicism grows. The next time a company makes a genuine commitment, the public shrugs.

The collateral damage is borne by everyone — including the businesses trying to do the right thing.

The alternative: Walking the talk

There is another path, and we can see it in companies that have truly embedded purpose — organisations like Patagonia, Interface, Unilever and IKEA.

These businesses don’t just talk about sustainability; they integrate it into how they’re governed, how they invest and how they measure performance. They demonstrate that when purpose is treated strategically as a governance framework, not a slogan, it produces measurable benefits:

• Stronger stakeholder trust
• Greater innovation and resilience
• Higher employee engagement and retention
• Improved long-term performance
• Positive social and environmental impact

The irony is that if most companies actually did what their marketing departments claim, they would perform better — commercially as well as ethically.

The real issue is a failure of vision

Companies don’t greenwash because they’re evil. They greenwash because they lack a vision of the future.

Fixated on managing the status quo through lobbying politicians to protect short-term results, they are closed-minded to the possibilities of tomorrow — to the power and potential of new ideas to transform their businesses and ensure their long-term success.

Businesses such as Z Energy are emperors without clothes. They have jumped on the purpose bandwagon. They are not driven to make a positive difference to people and planet — but they are comfortable talking about it.

And that’s a great shame — and a lost opportunity. Because given their resources and influence, with a little courage these leading companies could do so much more than peddle purpose statements — they could live by them.

And that would benefit them and all of us as well.

New Zealand stands at an inflection point. Once celebrated globally for its integrity, ingenuity and natural beauty, it now faces a complex set of 21st-century challenges: Productivity decline, widening inequality, talent shortages, environmental degradation and an erosion of trust in business and government alike. Yet within these challenges lies an extraordinary opportunity — to rediscover what makes Aotearoa different and to show the world how a small, values-driven nation can 
lead through purpose.

The power of purpose
Around the world, purpose has moved from rhetoric to results. Future focused companies that embed purpose at the core of governance and strategy consistently outperform their peers in growth, innovation and resilience. Purpose-driven organisations attract and retain talent more effectively, inspire loyalty among customers and earn the trust of investors and communities. When purpose becomes a measurable driver of decision-making — as formalised in the emerging ISO 37011 international standard on purpose-driven governance — it unlocks a flywheel of value creation that benefits both business and society.

In a world defined by disruption — from AI and climate transition to demographic and societal shifts — purpose has emerged as both a moral compass and a rational strategy for long-term success. It offers business leaders a clear alternative to short-termism, helping organisations navigate complexity with confidence, integrity 
and impact.

Why this matters to New Zealand
Few nations are better placed than New Zealand to lead in this space. Purpose resonates deeply with Kiwi values — fairness, community, stewardship, ingenuity 
and manaakitanga — a way of being, grounded in respect, generosity and care. These are not abstract ideals; they are the foundations of a uniquely New Zealand approach to enterprise — one that strengthens our integrity and balances commercial success with collective wellbeing.

It was here, in Aotearoa, that the idea of a Single Organizing Idea (SOI®) — a practical method for embedding purpose at the heart of business strategy — first took root. The framework was conceived and inspired by what New Zealand stood for in my heart and mind: A place where integrity, creativity and care for people and planet could coexist naturally in business. Those same values still make this the ideal place 
to show the world how purpose can be made practical — not as a slogan, but as a system that unites people, drives productivity, generates new ideas, streamlines decision making and strengthens New Zealand’s reputation as a forward-thinking, 
purpose-led economy.

And yet, for all this natural alignment, purpose is very poorly understood by most New Zealand business leaders. The irony is that while our culture instinctively reflects purpose — fairness, ingenuity, community and care — our businesses rarely do. Too often purpose is dismissed as ‘fluff’ by poorly informed champions of the status quo, reduced to marketing language by advertising and brand agencies, or confined to the domain of sustainability teams by misguided leadership. In reality, purpose is a dynamic governance and performance driver that delivers competitive advantage in multiple ways — it is literally the missing link between values and value creation.

The economic case
When purpose is properly understood and implemented, it becomes the most powerful form of value creation there is. It aligns culture with performance, turns trust into capital and converts a Single Organising Idea into measurable results.

Global research shows that purpose-driven companies deliver up to 42% higher financial performance and 30% greater innovation output than competitors. A Harvard Business Review meta-analysis found that firms with a clear sense of purpose report stronger employee engagement and outperform the stock market by as much as 5–7% annually over the long term. Likewise, The Financial Times has reported that companies integrating purpose into governance and strategy demonstrate greater resilience during economic downturns and recover faster than peers.

For New Zealand — where small and medium-sized enterprises make up 97% of all businesses — this represents a significant and largely untapped lever for growth.

If we can help Kiwi businesses systematically identify, define and embed their purpose, we can unlock more than productivity gains. We can build stronger brands, attract talent and investment, increase export value and create an economy that competes on both integrity and ingenuity — one that’s genuinely future-fit.

By making purpose central to New Zealand’s business identity, we can help ensure that the next chapter of Aotearoa’s success story is one the world looks to for inspiration — and that, in itself, creates lasting value.

Why purpose-driven business isn’t risky business

If there is one thing business leaders can agree on today, it is that risk is everywhere. Geopolitical shocks, climate disruption, artificial intelligence, shifting social norms — the pace and complexity of change is relentless. In such conditions, the instinct to tighten control and wait for calmer waters is understandable. But it is also perilous. In a world defined by uncertainty, standing still is often the riskiest move of all.

History proves the point. Kodak invented the digital camera but was fixated on protecting its film cash-cow. Blockbuster optimised its stores and late fees while streaming surged. Bookstore chain Borders outsourced online sales to Amazon and lost its customers. Toys ‘R’ Us was too debt-burdened to invest in omnichannel. Nokia clung to legacy software as the smartphone era dawned. Different sectors, same error: These companies didn’t fail because they took bold bets on the future — they failed because they did the opposite. In their inward-looking complacency, they mistook efficiency for strategy and risk aversion for prudence. The result was premature — and entirely avoidable — demise.

The risk of not acting

Here in New Zealand, as economist Cameron Bagrie recently observed in the New Zealand Herald (28 September 2025), too many boards are going/have gone down the same road. Citing the OECD’s 2022 Economic Survey of New Zealand, he pulled no punches in reminding readers that “Management boards in New Zealand’s firms are often more focused on preserving existing value and regulatory compliance than on growth strategies that involve productivity-enhancing investments and international expansion.”

Relying on old-school thinking, New Zealand’s boardrooms remain preoccupied with preservation over progress and efficiency over strategy. They’ve convinced themselves that waiting is wisdom — that the safest move is no move at all. Which, in plain speak, is inertia.

Yet the world outside their boardrooms is anything but inert. It is shifting — technologically, socially, demographically and geopolitically — at speed. Business governance is shifting too. Yesterday’s ‘business-as-usual’ model is being dismantled in real time by future-focused companies that understand risk and opportunity are now two sides of the same coin. Fossil-fuel firms are being overtaken by purpose-driven clean-tech innovators. Artificial intelligence is redrawing industries and redefining value creation. Conscious consumers are demanding transparency and authenticity. Increasing numbers of workers are gravitating towards employers that share their values and have a purpose beyond just making profit. Investors are pricing sustainability and resilience, not just returns.

Purpose as the antidote to risk and uncertainty

In this environment of constant change, evolving, grasping the future and pivoting towards being purpose-driven is anything but risky — it is the opposite. It is a golden opportunity:

• To embed a unifying and future-focused governance framework — a Single Organising Idea (SOI®) — that anchors decision-making and aligns the business behind a shared purpose.
• To shift the focus from protecting the status quo to channelling effort and resources into tangible outcomes that deliver both financial and social value.
• To empower boards and leaders with a north star that reduces ambiguity, sharpens decision-making and builds the confidence to act.
• To attract talent, partners and investors who are increasingly drawn to organisations with clarity of purpose and the courage to lead through change.

Because when a business knows who it is, why it exists and how it creates value for others, risk and uncertainty cease to be threats — they become sources of advantage.