Released on: March 6, 2008, 7:55 am

Press Release Author: Pob

Industry: Marketing

Press Release Summary: It was a claim that felt at the time to be a bit rich for the
palate of the UK boardroom brought up on a diet of shareholder value. Although I was
convinced by the sentiment, I knew that the hard-headed directors I had known in my
working life would find the idea on the fringe of business common sense.

Press Release Body: The purpose of business
My view changed considerably when the RSA invited me to take on the deputy editor of
The Economist in a debate about the purpose of business at their historic venue in
London. The Economist had just run a special supplement ridiculing CSR and
re-affirming the idea that business was about money and only money.

Interestingly, as we waited for the battle of ideas to begin, I was told by the
opposition that their readers had already decided the debate - the posse of chief
executives and finance directors who subscribe to The Economist had already written
to the paper to disagree with its stance.

Now, an army of leading companies have revisited the purpose of their businesses.
Microsoft describes itself as helping people achieve their potential through
technology. GSK is committed to helping people live longer, healthier lives. Phone
companies help connect people to each other.

In fact, what we are talking about here is classic marketing. If companies deliver
products and services that improve people's lives they will be successful.
Shareholder value will follow.

While this is a dramatic change from a once dominant mentality that used customers
as a vehicle to deliver for shareholders, it is only the beginning of the story.

A common cause
In 2001 I found myself in Dublin listening to Eric Friedenwald-Fishman who runs the
successful Metropolitan Group in the US. Eric was sharing the theory and practice of
Public Will Building - how to get huge swathes of people behind a common cause. The
theory was based on the idea that you cannot impose your set of values on someone
else. All you can do is seek to understand their values and then show how you can
help them live their values. The theory had terrific resonance with me.

Around that time I had also noticed a big increase in marketing bucks being spent on
earning customer trust. Marketing directors had begun to hear a tune their customers
were playing and they saw opportunities to build emotional loyalty by singing along.

"In my view, the big change is yet to come. Currently we imagine these social issues
as an ethical imperative or a risk to be managed. Real change will only come when
there is universal understanding that these social issues have an economic
imperative - and collaborating to fix them will create richer, stronger markets."

My instinct told me that their interest was tactical and that they had probably not
invested in significant research to get under the skin of customer trust - to learn
from Eric and discover the priorities and the beliefs that influenced people's
buying decisions.

Building customer trust
Then, last year, six leading edge companies supported a piece of independent
research commissioned by Corporate Culture. This was the first Customer Trust Index.
Its results confirmed my conviction that we buy products and services that help us
live the lifestyles we seek.

On its own that is not altogether surprising. Perhaps more revealing is that the
research revealed that what we believe influences what we buy.

Two thousand customers agreed with Eric's theory.

So far then, my journey had led me to two personal revelations. First, that the
purpose of business is to create products and services that improve people's lives.
Second, that successfully selling products and services depends on an in-depth
understanding of the lifestyles, values and belief systems of customers.

But behind this is a tsunami of change - hinted at by Ricardo Semler in his book
Maverick. Ricardo is a successful Brazilian businessman who recognised the power of
setting a direction and then gifting control over delivery to employees. He has
taken this so far that his employees set their own salary and recruit their own
managers.

Gifting control
Today, technology is allowing this idea of gifting control to be taken to customers.
At Proctor & Gamble, customers are involved in creating new products. At the BBC,
people are invited to tell their own stories and create their own news. Everywhere,
people are claiming more control or being invited to take it.

So let's take this a little further. Let's imagine each organisation has a clear
direction to improve people's lives. Let's imagine delivery is informed by the
beliefs and lifestyles of customers. Let's imagine they are involved in creating new
products.

But there's a potential problem. How can we secure long term success? External
issues increasingly seem to be getting in the way. The success of business is being
affected by shortages of skills, climate change, an aging population and many other
factors. The social issues that were fringe to economic success ten years ago now
dominate the business pages.

A new imperative
In my view, the big change is yet to come. Currently we imagine these social issues
as an ethical imperative or a risk to be managed. Real change will only come when
there is universal understanding that these social issues have an economic
imperative - and collaborating to fix the issues will create richer, stronger
markets.

In the UK, the Stern report said it was probable that global warming could bite
between five and twenty per cent off the UK's Gross Domestic Product. For the first
time, the inconvenient truth was an economic imperative.

And that economic imperative applies to other issues. It is an economic imperative
for action if 50 per cent of children start school functionally unable to
communicate, if one in six pupils leave school without the basic numeracy or
literacy skills business needs and if 20 per cent of children in Europe are living
in poverty.

In practice, this means that these social issues are no longer the stuff of well
meaning community investment programmes. It means they are the domain of marketing
directors, whose focus should include the creation of sustainable market
environments.

A clear choice
And that is where we are now. Around the world companies are gradually realising the
opportunity. They have a choice. They can be bit part players, where they trigger
activities to be seen to "do their bit" and generate limited PR. Or they can provide
active leadership, involving customers in creating products and services that
improve their lives, and collaborating with others to achieve real social change to
create richer, stronger markets.

There has never been a more exciting time to begin a career in communications. The
worlds of reputation and reality are now unified, and the required skills are
changing. This new breed of communicators enable dialogue, they are strategists and
change agents, with experience across audiences and sectors. They have passion and
they have purpose. They are, genuinely, children of a revolution.

John Drummond is Chief Executive of Corporate Culture, a communications and
campaigning business based in Liverpool and London. For more information on building
customer trust or delivering change for good, contact John at:
john.drummond@corporateculture.co.uk Tel: 0845 607 0000

Web Site: http://www.corporateculture.co.uk/

Contact Details: 7 De Havilland Drive,
Estuary Commerce Park,
Liverpool L24 8RN.
Tel 0845 607 0000 Fax 0845 607 0057