If you want a guarantee, buy a refrigerator!

The concept of purpose has been having quite a moment — from books heralding its importance to claims that it holds the key to the hearts and minds of Gen Z workers to claims from consultants that we can “unleash the power of organizational purpose to transform productivity and profitability.” But how exactly should we be thinking about this?

The Purpose and Values Academic Camp, sponsored by the Yale Program on Stakeholder Innovation and Management

It was really fascinating to join colleagues from different institutions with different perspectives to reflect on the current state of the art of corporate purpose, from initial definitions to empirical results. The cast of characters was impressive:

• Jon Iwata, Practice Leader of the Yale Program on Stakeholder Innovation and Management and a long-time IBM SVP and Chief Brand Officer (“All jokes about IBM are true!”);
• Ted Snyder, Professor of Economics and Management, Yale, Former Dean of Yale School of Management (our fearless timekeeper).
• R. Ed Freeman, Professor and Academic Director, Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics, the Darden School, University of Virginia (says he gets too much credit for inventing stakeholder theory but that he’s now old enough to simply accept it!).