The Blueprint Principles – An overview
The Blueprint Principles are a picture of how a purpose-led company might show up – they sketch out the attributes of a purpose-led business, along with illustrative actions that flow from those attributes:
- Honest and Fair
- Responsible and Responsive
- A Good Citizen
- A Guardian for the Future
- A purpose which delivers long term sustainable performance
They are also a ‘relationship map’ representing the relationships on which the long term success of a business depends.
- Customers and suppliers
- Employees
- Communities
- Future Generations
- Investors
The reason the commitment to purpose is in the middle is that the purpose is the animating reason which connects all the relationships.
The reason the commitment to dialogue is also in the middle is that it signals the desired quality of all the relationships – marked by respect for people and a desire for a genuinely mutual relationship.
The outcome of such a business is both long term sustainable performance and a positive contribution to society and to the well-being and development of people. The delivery of fair returns to responsible investors is seen as an outcome rather than itself being the purpose. Purpose and performance go hand in hand.
Understanding how the Principles relate to the Blueprint Framework
The relationships described in the Principles are inspired by the mindset and behaviours set out in the Blueprint Framework.
The Framework describes the mindset (assumptions and beliefs) that underpins these relationships and the behaviours that emerge from this mindset. The crucial point is that the Framework and Principles are about realising the potential of people in relationship with each other. In business terms, this leads to a foundation of trust which can spark collaboration and innovation. There is mutual benefit at the individual, relational and business level.
Business as a series of relationships
The Principles present a business as a series of dynamic and generative relationships between people rather than an inanimate nexus of prescriptive contracts between individual parties. If contract terms are simply observed and fulfilled a business may make a profit as that is what the net sum of the contracts is designed to produce. However, contracts do not inspire innovation, collaboration and commitment to meaning and purpose. Seeing business as a social organisation i.e. a series of relationships between people, can stimulate commitment, collaboration and innovation (beyond contract) if these relationships are based on a foundation of mutual respect.
Nurturing these relationships generates mutual benefits both for the business and wider society. For example, loyal customers can help in improving products and services and also reduce the cost of attracting new customers, collaborative suppliers can help innovate to reduce the cost of new features and contribute to consistent quality, continuity of supply and lower stockholding costs.
This table summarises key differences between businesses that extract profit through transactions and contracts versus companies that create value for all stakeholders through generative relationships.
Business as part of society
Every business is part of and dependant on the communities and societies in which it operates. No business can succeed in societies and environments that fail, and a purpose-led business recognises that these relationships are not only important as sources of goodwill and reputation but, more fundamentally, are vital ways in which the business not only secures its own future but helps promote the wider common good of society.
The twin commitments of being a good citizen and a guardian for future generations reflect commitments which embrace a broader vision of success, celebrating the interdependence between the business and society, and orienting the business to develop and sustain relationships and commitments which both enhance business success and at the same time use the agency of the business to positive effect.
Example: NatWest Group
In their 2020 ESG report NatWest discuss their purpose-led strategy, referencing the Blueprint Principles (page 7):
“At the centre of our approach is the belief that we must have a reciprocal relationship with society, the environment and the communities where we operate. As a large corporation, we benefit from a range of social goods in the form of customer trust, deposits, an educated workforce, licences, protections and infrastructures, all of which enable us to operate. In return, through our purpose, we seek to create enhanced social value, seeing this as a healthy and natural expectation of us to do business.”
Toxic ills
The Principles are designed to illustrate what it means to be in a generative relationship with stakeholders. Implicit in the Principles is a view that purpose-led business cannot be based on extractive or abusive relationships and must avoid the actions and attitudes that consistently erode dignity and trust. These include the following ‘ten toxic ills’. This list was drawn up by the team which originally created the Blueprint Principles, and one explicit aim in the design of the Principles was to ensure they were all addressed.
- Anything illegal
- Mis-selling
- Selling harmful products
- Employing people in unsafe or harmful conditions or child labour
- Aggressively avoiding tax, even if strictly legal
- Taking risks with the environment, even if not strictly illegal
- Shutting factories without regard to the impact on communities
- A pay and bonus culture divorced from performance or proportionality
- Cheating for corporate or personal advantage
- Taking advantage of weak regulation or weak consumer pressure to maximise profits at the expense of consumers
Not exhaustive, and not a checklist or a compliance tool
The bullets under each of the Principles are not intended to be an exhaustive list. There will be other ways too that businesses show up as being purpose-led. They address the toxic ills listed above but there are other ills, and there will be specific ills relevant to specific industries – the intention is to provoke businesses to think about what it means to be in a generative relationship with each of their stakeholders.
They are also not intended as a checklist or a compliance tool – they are examples to help create a ‘picture’ of how a purpose-led business that embraces the foundational mindset and behaviours set out in the Blueprint Framework can show up.