What would it take to make social purpose business the norm in Canada?
That is the question at the heart of the Canadian Purpose Economy Project—and of a keynote I recently delivered at Greater Purpose West in Vancouver.
Our ambition is audacious: by 2030, at least 25% of Canadian businesses will have adopted, disclosed and authentically embedded a social purpose. At that level of adoption, we believe we can begin to reach a tipping point—shifting the underlying drivers of business from profit first to purpose first.
But getting there requires more than persuading companies, one by one, to adopt a social purpose.
We need to change the system around them.
That means boards understanding their responsibility to govern purpose. Investors considering why the companies they finance exist. Business schools preparing future leaders to run social purpose companies. Professional and industry associations embedding purpose into their education, standards and competency models. Chambers of commerce helping businesses in their communities put purpose into practice. And companies transparently disclosing how they are delivering on their purpose.
These are some of the levers the Canadian Purpose Economy Project is working to pull to create an enabling environment in which social purpose businesses can start, transition, thrive and grow.
And there are encouraging signs of momentum.
Our research found that 40% of TSX 60 companies have a social purpose, although there remains a significant gap between adopting a purpose and governing it effectively. Our research with the Financial Resilience Institute also points to considerable latent potential for social purpose among Canadian small and medium-sized businesses. At the same time, purpose governance is beginning to enter mainstream governance education, Canadian purpose thinking is influencing global standards and frameworks, and more businesses and ecosystem organizations are becoming part of this work.
In the keynote, I tell the story of how this work began for me more than a decade ago with a simple realization: business could move from doing good on the outside to putting purpose at its core.
Today, the challenge is much bigger.
It is about rewiring how the economy works so that businesses whose reason for being is to create a better world are not the exception—they are the norm.
I invite you to watch Building the Purpose Economy: Making Social Purpose Business the Norm and consider: What lever can you help us pull?
