Our work
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:
For more on how we engage with business and on what an intervention and social contract involve see:
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.
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
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 on 28 November 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 please email: soulla@blueprintforbusiness.org
Blueprint Coaches & Consultants Meeting – Introducing PAS808
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 other sessions with some links to further information if you would like to find out more:
- Meeting for coaches and consultants – November 2022
- Meeting for coaches and consultants – April 2022
- Meeting for coaches and consultants – November 2021
- Meeting for coaches and consultants – April 2021
- Workshop exploring purpose, measures and metrics – October 2020
- Reflections on Blueprint’s work – March 2020
- Peer learning session – September 2019
Research and Academics
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.
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:
- In collaboration with The Forward Institute we carried out some research with a number of practioners in large corporates and those working in the ‘purpose ecosystem’ to better understand the needs of practitioners and identify opportunities to collaborate to help better meet these needs. the findings can be seen Report – Purpose Centre of Gravity
- We were part of the steering group chaired by for the Sustainable Purpose British Standard on purpose driven organisations (PAS 808). The draft standard went out for public consultation and was launched in July 2022.
- We have contributed to the work of the Purposeful Company and The British Academy Future of the Corporation project.
- Blueprint formed part of the Advisory panel for the government backed Mission-led Business Review in the UK. Read the final review ‘On a Mission in the UK Economy’ and see Blueprint’s submission to the Call for Evidence.
- We were invited to be part of an external panel for a study by the government Inclusive Economy Unit into the take up of SDG’s by business in the UK.
- Working with the Health Foundation we produced a report on the link between health and work.
- We were invited to collaborate with ReGenerate.
- We are allies of the World Benchmarking Alliance
- We are part of UK21
