Championing Purpose-Driven Innovation
Key Takeaways
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Meet the Speakers
Leaders Must Make Purpose-driven Innovation an Organisational Rallying Cry
To Make Purpose Actionable, Create Specific KPIs
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Watch the Fireside Chat
Additional Resources
Purpose-driven Innovation = Solving Real-world Problems
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Matthias Laug, CTO & Co-founder, TIER Mobility
Ben Higgin, Head of Technology and Investments, PwC UK
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Businesses Can Be Intentional in Using AI as a Force for Good
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Pursuing Purpose-driven Innovation Requires Long-term Culture Change
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Mette Lykke, CEO, Too Good To Go
Matthias Laug, CTO and co-founder of TIER Mobility—a mobility company focused on clean and sustainable urban transportation—thinks about purpose-driven innovation as solving a real-world problem, with a particular emphasis on solving a problem for a community.
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The goal is innovation with impact
"What purpose-driven innovation means for me is solving a real-world problem . . . for a community."
- Matthias Laug, TIER Mobility
For Mette Lykke, CEO of Too Good To Go—a social impact company dedicated to fighting food waste, purpose-driven innovation is 'the only kind of innovation there really is'. Her organisation is focused on aligning purpose and innovation based on the belief, 'Every time we innovate, it serves a strong purpose.' Lykke believes the ultimate goal of purpose-driven innovation is to have impact. Her organisation has impact by saving 300,000 meals per day from being wasted and is seeking to expand its impact by working on date labelling, regulation, and legislation to drive down food waste.
- Ben Higgin, PwC United Kingdom
"Purpose is really difficult for lots of people to understand. Innovation is really difficult for lots of people to understand. So, when you bring the two together, and you can actually do it, I think it's a massive achievement."
Head of Technology and Investments, PwC United Kingdom
Ben Higgin
Ben Higgin on Purpose-driven Innovation
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Leaders face a constant challenge of maintaining an organisation-wide focus on purpose-driven innovation. In a fast-growing organisation where there is constant change, Laug suggested sustaining the focus on purpose-driven innovation by coining a simple, succinct, memorable mantra that aligns and rallies the entire organisation.
Create a mantra for clarity, alignment, and focus
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"The key element to it is making the purpose tangible by putting a sentence around it."
By having a mantra, regardless of the situation—whether it is good or bad—everyone in the organisation is constantly focused on the exact same purpose. For TIER Mobility, the mantra has been the double entendre of 'Change mobility for good'. Laug said that in ever-changing times, this mantra helps keep everyone 'behind that purpose'.
CTO & Co-founder, TIER Mobility
Matthias Laug
Matthias Laug on Importance of Having a Mantra
Lykke agreed with Laug about the importance of having a clear mission and a North Star. For Too Good To Go, this mission is about fighting food waste together. But for a purpose-driven organisation to grow and scale, it requires more than just a clear mission. Lykke emphasised the importance of having one key performance indicator (KPI) that focuses and aligns the entire organisation. For Too Good To Go, the best KPI is meals saved, which shows the organisation's impact and is linked to revenue.
One specific metric drives alignment
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"For us, the KPI that we all look at every day is meals saved . . . We can all align behind that"
- Mette Lykke, CEO, Too Good To Go
meals saved per day by Too Good To Go
300,000
Impact
Too Good To Go's
#1 KPI = Meals Saved
CEO, Too Good To Go
Mette Lykke
Mette Lykke on Specific KPIs
The presenters were in strong agreement: Purpose-driven innovation is not a one-time project. Or, as Lykke said, 'It's not a CSR department or an ESG team that's working on this on the side.' Instead, Lykke said, 'It's really embedded in everything we do.'
Think about an ongoing program, not a short-term project
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"As a leader, you have to keep talking about that cultural journey."
Ben Higgin on Ongoing Culture as a Program
Based on his experience working with multiple companies, Ben Higgin observed that those companies that are successful in consistently and repeatedly achieving purpose-driven innovation thoroughly understand their existing corporate culture and undertake an intentional, ongoing culture change program.
"The ones that work are the ones that really understand the existing culture of the organisation and they treat this as an ongoing culture change program, rather than a project . . . One piece of advice in achieving purpose-led innovation is don’t treat it as a project. This is a culture, it’s a way of working, where you need to embrace it and do things differently."
- Ben Higgin, PwC UK
The world has woken up to generative AI much faster than anyone expected. As the AI groundswell has taken hold in recent months, some people are wary of generative AI, are worried that jobs will be eliminated, and are concerned that generative AI will result in more harm than good. The presenters understand these concerns but based on their lens of purpose-driven innovation, have a more positive view of the potential of generative AI. Key comments about generative AI include:
AI can create value when carefully embedded in targeted functions and workflows
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Mette Lykke on Embedding AI into Company Culture
To fully leverage generative AI, it can be embedded into functions and workflows across organisations. This includes product development, supply chain, marketing, sales, finance, legal, and more.
It will greatly enhance the power of small teams and small companies, decreasing the importance of size and scale and unleashing entrepreneurial activity.
It can decrease/eliminate inefficient, repetitive, manual work, resulting in greater productivity and efficiency for individuals and organisations.
It has tremendous potential to accelerate the pace and impact of innovation.
To effectively manage the use of generative AI, leaders must understand and identify the risks and take these risks into account in how AI is used.
The belief is that when business leaders understand the risks and the potential of generative AI, and then use AI as another tool to help enable purpose-driven innovation, it can be a force for good.
Head of Technology and Investments, PwC
PwC UK Executive Board member and UK Head of Technology & Investments. Leading technology transformation and development for PwC UK.
Co-Founder, TIER Mobility
Matthias Laug is the co-founder and former CTO of TIER Mobility, the world’s leading shared micro-mobility provider.
CEO, TooGoodToGo
Speakers
Mette Lykke is the CEO of Too Good To Go, the world’s largest B2C marketplace for surplus food.
Fireside Chat
Watch the WEbinar
Industry leaders and purpose-driven founders discuss the need to harness tech innovation and data to fuel ideation, advance emerging technologies and encourage disruptive thinking to solve some of the world’s biggest challenges. From soaring food prices and the threat of widespread famine to the health care crisis, hear how leaders in business and government are tackling challenges by applying purpose-driven innovation strategies. Hear from founders and business leaders on how they built purpose into the essential fabric of their companies and learn how to turn intention into action.
Championing Purpose-driven Innovation
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