Corporate goals – a change of pace
Combining profit and purpose is feasible, but requires a different production culture
Goals that do not just entail profit, but wider objectives, too, without the former conflicting with the latter. The future of an increasingly large number of enterprises is precisely this: keeping a good balance, in both financial and social terms, and being mindful to one’s territory. This requires some skill, however, and these aims are not always easy to attain, but need to be nurtured with care and good sense, as well as adequate analytical tools and knowledge. This is also what the recently published book by George Serafeim Purpose + Profitto. Come le aziende possono migliorare il mondo e veder crescere gli utili (Purpose + profit. How business can lift up the world) wants to achieve.
The work takes its cue from the notion of an absence of conflict from profit and purpose, i.e. a company’s goals, as the author explores the forces at play that are reframing the relationship between these two objectives, and what could be tangibly done to set up the right conditions for businesses to achieve both.
Serafeim goes on to help readers understand various key points. How and why, for example, environmental and social issues are becoming increasingly more relevant for organisations on a global scale, or the different ways in which enterprises could devise and implement strategies able to generate a bigger positive impact on society and territory. Successively, Serafeim points out six archetypes of value creation that can be triggered in line with these new trends. The book then goes on to analyse the role of investors in promoting greater acknowledgement of ESG issues and while tackling ESG principles Serafeim takes the opportunity to develop his own argument. As a matter of fact, the book addresses ESG issues with great skill: “Material investment in sustainability entails costs and investments that actually reduce long-term profits. Indeed, sustainability is not a walk in the park: systems need to be replaced, in order to reduce emissions; new protocols focusing on rules we are not used to need to be written; new skills required to work in new ways need to be learned.” In other words, we need a change in cultural pace, one that needs to be explored and implemented – and this book helps us achieve just that.
Purpose + Profitto. Come le aziende possono migliorare il mondo e veder crescere gli utili (Purpose + profit. How business can lift up the world)
George Serafeim
EGEA, 2022
Combining profit and purpose is feasible, but requires a different production culture
Goals that do not just entail profit, but wider objectives, too, without the former conflicting with the latter. The future of an increasingly large number of enterprises is precisely this: keeping a good balance, in both financial and social terms, and being mindful to one’s territory. This requires some skill, however, and these aims are not always easy to attain, but need to be nurtured with care and good sense, as well as adequate analytical tools and knowledge. This is also what the recently published book by George Serafeim Purpose + Profitto. Come le aziende possono migliorare il mondo e veder crescere gli utili (Purpose + profit. How business can lift up the world) wants to achieve.
The work takes its cue from the notion of an absence of conflict from profit and purpose, i.e. a company’s goals, as the author explores the forces at play that are reframing the relationship between these two objectives, and what could be tangibly done to set up the right conditions for businesses to achieve both.
Serafeim goes on to help readers understand various key points. How and why, for example, environmental and social issues are becoming increasingly more relevant for organisations on a global scale, or the different ways in which enterprises could devise and implement strategies able to generate a bigger positive impact on society and territory. Successively, Serafeim points out six archetypes of value creation that can be triggered in line with these new trends. The book then goes on to analyse the role of investors in promoting greater acknowledgement of ESG issues and while tackling ESG principles Serafeim takes the opportunity to develop his own argument. As a matter of fact, the book addresses ESG issues with great skill: “Material investment in sustainability entails costs and investments that actually reduce long-term profits. Indeed, sustainability is not a walk in the park: systems need to be replaced, in order to reduce emissions; new protocols focusing on rules we are not used to need to be written; new skills required to work in new ways need to be learned.” In other words, we need a change in cultural pace, one that needs to be explored and implemented – and this book helps us achieve just that.
Purpose + Profitto. Come le aziende possono migliorare il mondo e veder crescere gli utili (Purpose + profit. How business can lift up the world)
George Serafeim
EGEA, 2022