This is the C-suite executive summary of the Impact Study, run by IRG with the Future of Marketing Institute at Oxford’s Saïd Business School. It explores a shift in what a company is for, and identifies the drivers of Humanized Growth.
The premise is that companies are no longer defined solely by their capacity to generate profits for shareholders, and are increasingly seen as parts of a larger societal ecosystem responsible for creating value for colleagues, customers, communities, and investors.
Key findings
- Five drivers differentiate overperforming organizations from their counterparts, and the study presents them as a framework rather than a ranking.
- Intangibles are described as the new tangibles. Brand value, customer data, employee loyalty, and reputation are growing in importance, and leaders have to develop ways to measure and manage them.
- Overperformers align leadership incentives with long-term growth strategies, which pushes leaders to weigh factors beyond financial metrics when judging success.
- Collaboration outside the company, with NGOs, governments, and regulators, is called essential rather than optional, and overperformers are said to excel at it.
- Transparency is described as a hallmark of these organizations in good times and bad, with authenticity and a rooted connection to purpose vital to building trust.
Ground and reimagine
Grounding starts with understanding the impact the organization has on all stakeholders and aligning with the reality of the world around it. Overperformers show an aligned understanding of stakeholders, engage them, and include their perspectives in strategic decision-making.
Reimagining means adopting a future-focused vision that includes both utopian and dystopian elements, prioritizing long-term thinking, and articulating a clear corporate purpose.
The leadership job attached to that vision is persuasion. Leaders paint a picture of the future that aligns stakeholders’ minds, heart, and will with the company’s purpose.
Focus and organize
Focus means a holistic strategy. Prioritizing one stakeholder is acceptable as long as the company also spells out how it adds value for the others, and short-term decisions are made in the context of the long-term strategy.
Overperformers separate adaptive change, meaning transformative initiatives, from performative change, meaning day-to-day operations, and manage the two differently. They also stop initiatives that do not fit the strategy.
Organizing means breaking down functional silos and driving systemic change. Employees closer to stakeholders are empowered so decisions come faster and land better, and collaboration extends across industry and to NGOs and governments.
Unleash
The fifth driver is leadership. Da Vinci leadership combines right-brain and left-brain thinking with empathy, and creates an environment where employees feel safe to share ideas and collaborate.
What those leaders prioritize is listed plainly: active listening, vulnerability, servant leadership, and open communication, which fosters an inclusive culture aligned to the company’s purpose.
What the study concludes
The closing argument is that true growth is not measured only in financial terms but in the positive impact an organization has on all its stakeholders, meaning society at large.
Study partners included the NACD, the Page Society, the ACCA, SHRM, the ANA, the UK Marketing Society, Yale, and CKGSB, with a deep dive on the role of the CMO and marketing.
IRG places this study in a line of earlier work: the 2018 Growth Study underpins its program curriculum, Marketing2020 and Insights2020 were published in Harvard Business Review in 2014 and 2017, and its first study led to the Global Brand CEO book in 2010.
Scope and limitations
This document is an executive summary rather than the data. It states the framework and the implications, and points readers elsewhere for study background, the full partner list, quantitative results, and interviews.
Source
This page summarises IRG Oxford Said Impact Study Findings: Driving Sustained More Humanized Growth, by Institute for Real Growth (IRG), Future of Marketing Institute at the Saïd Business School of Oxford University, October 2023.