The study picks up where the 2019 IRG Growth Study left off. That work identified building blocks of real growth under the heading of humanized growth, and defined growth in terms of colleagues, customers, community and capital markets.
The situation four years on is harder. Stakeholders are described as louder, more demanding and more powerful, pulling in different directions, which forces companies to make difficult choices. New laws mandating ESG reporting sit alongside bills banning ESG policies, and companies caught in the crossfire keep a low profile.
Key findings
- There is a correlation between delivering sustained value for all stakeholders and revenue growth. Average topline revenue growth against direct competitors over three years rises across the bands, from 3.87 at below average to 5.87 at very good, on a base of 651.
- The widest gap in the study is on representing stakeholders in decision making, 83 percent against 8 percent.
- Purpose functions as a strategic filter in only a small minority of organizations. Purpose guiding all strategic decision making shows 71 percent against 8 percent, while pride in the company’s purpose shows 92 percent against 28 percent.
- Corporate social responsibility being aligned with the overall value creation strategy shows the sharpest split on the strategy side, 73 percent against 2 percent.
- Long-term focus shows 80 percent against 25 percent, and willingness to share good and bad news shows 64 percent against 14 percent.
What the study is built on
The method follows a sequence of studies running from 2010 through 2014, 2017, 2019 and 2023. This edition combines more than 450 vision interviews, more than 750 quantitative online survey responses, and a social AI study of 110 thousand items using the Hypertrend tool, spanning 52 markets, six C-suite functions, and nine country deep dives.
A separate strand covers the chief communications officer, with more than 40 global CCO vision interviews. The role is reported as expanding: citing Spencer Stuart 2022, 80 percent report into the CEO and 67 percent are executive committee members.
The study also finds a blind spot in that role. On a combined qualitative and quantitative stakeholder understanding score, the rest of the executive committee scores 4.7 against the CCO at 3.5, which the deck calls a biased stakeholder view.
Ground, reimagine, focus
The first driver is grounding, put human first. Understanding stakeholders shows 75 percent against 17 percent, and the recommendation is to own the stakeholder map and understand all stakeholders rather than the familiar ones. The study names the employee as the number one stakeholder.
Framing matters as much as understanding. Seeing stakeholder value creation as an opportunity rather than a risk shows 90 percent against 50 percent.
The second driver is to reimagine, working future backward from an aspirational role. That means zooming out to a long-term focus and developing a utopian rather than dystopian vision of the emerging future. Purpose here is strategic, rooted in company DNA and connected to deep belief systems, whether competency based, culture based or cause based, and explicitly not a marketing or communications brand tactic.
The third driver is focus: a holistic strategy and adaptive change. It requires prioritizing stakeholders, defining value per stakeholder, and a value creation strategy across all stakeholders, which shows 72 percent against 9 percent. The study warns against a whack-a-mole approach, asks that short-term issues be addressed in the context of the long term, and calls for the courage to define what to stop.
Measurement has to follow. The study points to new and shared KPIs, the shift in business value from 17 percent to 90 percent intangible, the problem of measuring intangibles, integrated reporting, and the resistance it meets.
Organize and unleash
The fourth driver is systemic interdependence. Driving systemic change to create stakeholder value shows 69 percent against 10 percent, and working interdependently across functions and departments shows 66 percent against 8 percent. Connection is measured as 3.5 times more connections with other functions and 5.5 times more with senior leaders.
Interdependence extends outside the company, through collaboration with HR on the employer brand, with investor relations, with industry peers, with NGOs, and with government and public institutions, where the figures are 67 percent against 48 percent. Empowerment matters inside it: colleagues closer to stakeholders being empowered to act for the business shows 71 percent against 25 percent, which the study frames as more than ten thousand mini CEOs.
The fifth driver is to unleash, through role modelling and Da Vinci leadership. That means creating space for all people and ideas, listening differently, and role modelling vulnerability, described through the Da Vinci growth leader profile of behaviors and attitudes with purpose at the center.
What happens next
The plan set out at the preview was partner preview events and discussions in the fourth quarter of 2023, the study launch in New York and Oxford in the first quarter of 2024, a Page Society follow up in the same quarter, an Oxford executive education program in the third quarter, and impact conferences and events across the year.
Scope and limitations
This is a partner preview shown before the study launched, and the figures are presented as paired percentages for over and under performers without confidence intervals. Only the revenue growth correlation carries a stated base, at 651.
Source
This page summarises IRG Impact Study Partner Preview, by Institute for Real Growth, Saïd Business School, Oxford Future of Marketing Initiative, Arthur W. Page Society, Q4 2023.