Publications

April 2021 (Revised December 2023)
Case

The Mahindra Group: Leading with Purpose

By: Ranjay Gulati and Rachna Tahilyani

India headquartered Mahindra Group is a multibillion-dollar federation of companies operating across the globe. It is ahead of its time in articulating its purpose and mapping its values, something it had first done at inception and then refreshed yet again as ‘Rise’... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture; Change Management; Communication Strategy; Family Ownership; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Revenue; Auto Industry; Financial Services Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Technology Industry; Asia; India; Mumbai; South Korea; Italy; United States

20 Sep 2022
Cold Call Podcast

Larry Fink at BlackRock: Linking Purpose to Profit

Keywords: Re: George Serafeim; Financial Services

November 15, 2021
Article

Putting Your Corporate Purpose to Work

By: Hubert Joly

Making a company purpose come to life is an arduous journey that requires a multi-pronged and sustained approach. Yet as hard as it is, the journey is well worth it and will yield positive transformation not only for the company, but also for the people who work there.... View Details

Keywords: Organizations; Mission and Purpose; Corporate Strategy; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Culture; Business and Stakeholder Relations

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June 2023
Article

Can Purpose Foster Stakeholder Trust in Corporations

By: Ranjay Gulati and Franz Wohlgezogen

As part of institutional changes toward more responsible capitalism, firms increasingly articulate a purpose beyond simply profit as a central tenet of their governance. Management scholarship has noted the potential advantages of such purpose-focus for stakeholder... View Details

Keywords: Stakeholder Management; Moral Identity; Mission and Purpose; Trust; Corporate Governance; Business and Stakeholder Relations

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Research Summary

Social Entrepreneurship

By: James L. Heskett

This project is centered around an analysis of data and experiences of 31 executive directors of not-for-profit organizations who completed the Denali Initiative on social entrepreneurship, of which I was volunteer faculty chairperson, between 1999 and 2002. The... View Details

January 1994 (Revised May 1996)
Background Note

Leading for Integrity: Corporate Purpose and Responsibility

By: Lynn S. Paine

Outlines several differing conceptions of corporate purpose and responsibility that emerged in the 1970s and 1980s. View Details

Keywords: Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance Evaluation; Corporate Strategy

24 Apr 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Corporate Social Entrepreneurship

Keywords: by James E. Austin & Ezequiel Reficco

2022
Book

Purpose + Profit: How Business Can Lift Up the World

By: George Serafeim

The roadmap and best practices to reap the enormous value that can emerge when your business prioritizes social and environmental goals—such as climate change, diversity and inclusion, and sustainability—right alongside the pursuit of profit.

We not only... View Details

Keywords: ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; Profitability; Business And Society; Organizations; Mission and Purpose; Goals and Objectives; Social Issues; Environmental Sustainability; Value Creation; Organizational Change and Adaptation

April 2024
Case

Michelin in Motion: Putting Purpose to Work

By: Hubert Joly, Nitin Nohria and Emilie Billaud

When he became CEO, facing limited growth prospects, a low valuation, and therefore a stagnating share price, Menegaux and his team launched a set of initiatives to reposition Michelin. These included (1) articulating a clear purpose (“We care about giving people a... View Details

January 2024
Technical Note

The ICARUS Principles: What It Takes to Tackle the World

By: Debora L. Spar and Julia M. Comeau

Over the course of the 20th century, most of the world’s major multinational corporations framed their mission around Milton Friedman’s famous mantra: that the sole purpose of the firm is to maximize its shareholders’ profits. Recently, however, growing numbers of... View Details

Keywords: Purpose; Mission; Social Business; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Social Enterprise; For-Profit Firms

September 2021 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Bühler: Mobilizing Industry around a Common Purpose

By: Ranjay Gulati, Franz Wohlgezogen and Malini Sen

Bühler Group, a Swiss multinational processing technology provider, started by selling machines for processing grains and later transitioned into selling food processing solutions. A family-owned business in the fifth generation, Bühler’s high-end milling, grinding,... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Customer Focus and Relationships; Machinery and Machining; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Innovation Leadership; Switzerland

2017
Chapter

Corporate Moral Agency, Positive Duties, and Purpose

By: Nien-hê Hsieh

A long-standing question in business ethics is whether business enterprises are themselves moral agents with distinct moral responsibilities. To date, the debate about corporate moral agency has focused on responsibility for past wrongdoing that involves violating... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Moral Sensibility; Mission and Purpose

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November 2021
Article

The Effects of Retirement on Sense of Purpose in Life: Crisis or Opportunity?

By: Ayse Yemiscigil, Nattavudh Powdthavee and Ashley V. Whillans

Does retirement lead to an existential crisis or present an opportunity to experience a renewed sense of purpose in life? Prior research has documented a negative association between retirement and sense of purpose in life, suggesting that retirement could lead people... View Details

Keywords: Aging; Meaning; Socioeconomic Status; Life Experiences; Retirement; Well-being

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28 Jun 2022
Book

The Moral Enterprise: How Two Companies Profit with Purpose

How can government and business work together in this fractious political moment, when finding solutions to pressing problems like inequality and climate change are more urgent than ever? Rebecca Henderson, Harvard University’s John and Natty McArthur University... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

Editorial

How Laws and Culture Hold Back Socially Minded Companies

By: George Serafeim, Daniela Saltzman and Bronagh Ward

Keywords: Corporate Purpose; Benefit Corporation; Short-termism; Culture; Corporate Law; Shareholder Activism

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17 Mar 2022
Research & Ideas

Navigating Tradeoffs: How Purpose Becomes a Company's ‘Lighthouse in the Storm’

CEO Corie Barry, who says that making money is the company’s business imperative, not its purpose. Barry explains how the company manages to balance pursuing its mission of enriching people’s lives through technology while also focusing on its View Details

Keywords: by Ranjay Gulati

22 Mar 2022
Cold Call Podcast

How Etsy Found Its Purpose and Crafted a Turnaround

Keywords: Re: Ranjay Gulati; Technology; Retail

September 2019 (Revised June 2021)
Case

Dove and Real Beauty: Building a Brand with Purpose

By: Mark R. Kramer, Myriam Sidibe and Gunjan Veda

Unilever subsidiary Dove soap became a "brand with a purpose" and created shared value when the company decided to launch a Campaign for Real Beauty to combat the artificial media-driven stereotype of female beauty that causes appearance anxiety in women and girls... View Details

Keywords: Stereotype; Body Image; Female; Self-Esteem; Brands and Branding; Mission and Purpose; Advertising Campaigns; Gender; Resource Allocation