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Studies, playbooks, reports, articles, and practical frameworks from the Institute for Real Growth.

Cover of What Is the Purpose of Your Purpose?
Article

What Is the Purpose of Your Purpose?

Purpose is used in three different senses, and most companies pick the wrong one. A framework for deciding which fits your business.
Interview

One Sentence Changed Overnight, and What It Cost to Live Up To

Patagonia replaced a comfortable four-part mission with a single line about saving the planet. Two of its leaders describe what that did to hiring, to marketing, and to
Interview

Grief, Acceptance, and the Order in Which a Company Gets Happy

Deepak Chopra reads the pandemic year as a passage through the stages of grief, and puts employee well-being first in a chain that ends with investors.
Interview

Four Stakeholders on One Scorecard, and a Letter That Started with Numbers

Diego Scotti describes how Verizon put four stakeholders into a single measured scorecard tied to leadership pay, and how a request for agency diversity data became a forcing
Interview

Four Kinds of Commerce, and What Each One Does to Brand Value

Lucas Perraudin maps how people still shop, how they increasingly shop, and how they are starting to shop. The four modes coexist, and each rewards a different marketing
Interview

Brand Do, Not Brand Say: A Chief Executive on Purpose That Holds Up

Alan Jope explains why a brand only earns the right to campaign on what it has already done, ranks employees first among seven stakeholders, and describes the agility
Interview

Look Backwards Before You Look Forward, and Put the S Back in ESG

Angela Ahrendts describes the method she used at Burberry and Apple, why she thinks short-term reporting is the real blocker, and why she expects the next chief executives
Interview

Sustainability as the Business Model: Arçelik’s CEO on Credibility, Coalitions, and Marketing

Hakan Bulgurlu explains why he treats sustainability as the company's single purpose, why he climbed Everest to earn the right to say so, and what he now expects
Interview

Proving That Purpose Drives Growth, One Small Win at a Time

Debora Koyama traces a career from Sao Paulo to Unilever. The method she describes is consistent: find the cause, build the alliance, make the business case, start small.