Our work is about stimulating and energising a different way of thinking and behaving in business.

Our work contributes to creating a better society through better business through:

Inspiring

Providing credibility and pushing boundaries

Inspiring and nurturing the will, rationale and courage for change by creating space for continuous dialogue, critical reflection and sense-making of what it means to be a purpose-led business.

Activating

Encouraging action at scale

Creating and being part of spaces to develop the skills and confidence to disrupt ‘status quo’ practices and creating conditions for change to flourish.

Amplifying

Supporting social contagion and momentum

Capturing and sharing stories to build courage, sharing learning, facilitating and collaborating to catalyse change in the early majority and to strengthen the movement.

As well as working directly with a small number of large businesses, we seek to influence the overall conversation about the purpose of business through dialogue with key influencers such as investors, academics, policymakers, NGOs, consultants to businesses and others and through our social media, forums, conferences, events and collaboration with other organisations with similar objectives.

Business

Our engagement with business is centred on using our Five Principles of a Purpose-led Business, and the thinking behind them, to challenge and support leadership teams and other senior practitioners in understanding and exploring the potential of becoming a better business. Our one-to-one engagement with these businesses informs the rest of our work.

Our style of engagement draws on coaching, but we bring a distinct point of view about what it means for a business to be purpose-led. Whilst our thinking and approach applies to all businesses and other types of organisations, our one-to-one engagement is mainly with large companies.

We engage with them in three ways: 

Intervention

An initial 3-6 month engagement with the CEO and Executive team to introduce Blueprint’s Framework and Principles.

Social Contract

A sustained engagement over 24-36 months to challenge and support organisations on their journey to becoming a purpose-led organisation.

CEO Forums

Groups of 4-5 CEOs meet quarterly to explore what it means to be a purpose-led business in practice.

For more on how we engage with business and on what an intervention and social contract involve see:

To find out more contact Dee Corrigan

How Blueprint Engages with Business

The purpose in practice community

We are co-founders of the purpose in practice community. The community brings together senior leaders and changemakers to collectively explore how they can put people and the planet at the heart of business and organisational success.

Making this shift is complex and multi-layered, and there is no rulebook to follow. The process of becoming purpose-led not only involves substantial shifts in strategy and culture, but fundamental changes to the beliefs and assumptions that underpin how an organisation creates value for all its stakeholders – and for society.

This collaborative network hopes to develop the potential and power to contribute to changing the landscape of business to together drive both organisational change and larger systemic shifts that create the conditions for purpose-led businesses to thrive.

If you are a senior leader or changemaker and are interested in being part of the community  contact Dee Corrigan 

The community members collectively identified and agreed key topics of inquiry. The inquiry areas, referred to as Labs, include:

Lab 1 was completed in 2023 and the learnings and insights have been written up and a collated into a Playbook. Click on the images to access an overview of the Insights and an interactive PDF version of the Playbook. Click here to download a version of the Playbook in PPT that you can use to complete the exercises.

 

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Investors

We have been seeking to influence investors and have been collaborating with the Purposeful Company Taskforce to engage with both asset managers and asset owners.

A challenge faced by investors is how they can tell whether a company is genuinely pursuing a purpose beyond profit, through which it seeks to generate its returns to investors.

In 2018, we convened a group of leading investors from a range of asset management companies to consider this and together they came up with a short list of key questions which an investor can ask a Chair, CEO or other senior executives to glean insights into the extent to which a company is being genuinely and effectively purpose-led. 

To get involved contact Sarah Gillard

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Coaches and Consultants

We have an informal network of coaches and consultants who have an affinity with Blueprint. The network is inclusive and open to any coaches or consultants who believe that the purpose of business should benefit society and respect the dignity of people.

There is no formal structure or membership fee. People are welcome to engage at any level they wish. We convene regular meetings to enable members of the network to share and discuss their experiences and to meet other like minded people.

In order to maintain our independence – we will not accredit or endorse any coach or consultant. We are happy for coaches and consultants who are part of our network and who have integrated our thinking into their work to say they have done so, but ask that they do not hold themselves out to be accredited by us.

The purpose of the network 

  • to help grow the movement via coaches and consultants using Blueprint’s thinking and approach in their work with their clients
  • to guide their own businesses
  • to create a community of learning and sharing

If you are interested in attending future meetings  contact Soulla Kyriacou

Workshops

Over the last few years, we have convened coaches and consultants to share learning and to network with other like-minded people. As our work has evolved, we are now looking to have a greater impact through supporting coaches and consultants to bring our thinking and approach alive in the work they do with clients. Even if you are familiar with Blueprint’s thinking and approach you may not have seen how that thinking can be applied to or inform the work that you do with your clients. 

We held an initial workshop in November 2023 where we explicitly shared the thinking behind our work, demonstrated how this thinking informs the approach that we take in the work and gave participants the opportunity to explore how they might use this to inform the work that they do with their clients.

We are proposing to repeat this workshop (building on the feedback we have received from the participants) and to develop a programme of workshops for the next 12-18 months.

To register your interest  contact Soulla Kyriacou 

Summary of recent sessions

Play Video

Blueprint Coaches & Consultants Meeting – Introducing PAS 808

On 10 February 2023 we convened a meeting to socialise PAS 808 – the BSI’s new standard on purpose-driven organisations.  We invited Andy Brown, Head of Sustainability at Anglian Water, who was on the steering group that developed the PAS, to talk about how they seek to use it at Anglian Water and the practitioners group he has set up to test it.

The meeting included discussions on the PAS, and the comments were fed back to the PAS steering group. An executive briefing and the full PAS can be downloaded here: PAS 808 | BSI (bsigroup.com)

Below are links to summaries of other sessions with  links to further information if you would like to find out more:

If you would like to join us please contact Soulla Kyriacou

Research and Academics

We have worked with and sought to influence the thinking of academics and business schools

In conversation: Rebecca Henderson

In September 2020, Harvard Business School Professor, Rebecca Henderson joined Blueprint CEO Charles Wookey to discuss her new work, Blueprint's role and how companies are putting purpose into practice.

Catch up on-demand here

Academic Conference

In September 2016, we hosted an international academic conference with London Business School and the LBS Leadership Institute. The aim of the conference was to explore the impact on business of having a purpose that serves society.
  • A summary of the event can be found here
  • The original call for papers can be downloaded here

Research with the CMI

This report produced by the CMI and authored by, Victoria Hurth, Prof Jaideep Prabhu and Charlie Ebert, aims to help leaders and managers understand what it means to put purpose into practice and includes insights from 18 in-depth interviews with senior practitioners.

You can see the full report here: The what, the why and the how of purpose

Policymakers

Whilst we believe it is possible to be a successful purpose-led business within current laws and capital markets, policymakers have a role to play in helping to create an environment where purpose-led business can thrive. 

In April 2018, we were invited to share a paper ahead of the meeting of the OECD Global Parliamentary Network, hosted by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Inclusive Growth.

It discussed why purpose-led businesses are key to building more inclusive and sustainable societies and what policy makers can do to help. The full text can be downloaded here.

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Collaboration

We try not to duplicate work that others are already doing, and where possible try to collaborate with organisations and individuals with whom we share common goals. For example:

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