Purpose is one of the corporate buzzwords of 2020, with the politicians, the public, and even investors themselves calling on businesses to serve wider society. But it seems unrealistic to think about purpose in a pandemic when companies are strapped for cash, and companies also have a responsibility to their shareholders. Is there a trade-off between purpose and profit, or is it possible for companies to achieve both?
This webinar critically examined the case for purposeful business, using rigorous evidence and real-life examples to show what works – and, importantly, what doesn’t.
We discussed practical ways for businesses of all sizes to put purpose into practice, and how investors and citizens can play their part.
Professor Alex Edmans joined the event and drew upon his new book, “Grow the Pie: How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit”, which headed the list of the Financial Times Business Books of the Month for March 2020 and was named to the FT’s Summer Reads of 2020.
The full recording of the webinar is available to view below:
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The Brand Finance Institute, as the educational division of Brand Finance, is committed to addressing the theoretical and practical issues surrounding brands. The BFI´s purpose is to create and foster an environment for knowledge-sharing and networking among practitioners and experts in the market. In order to do so, we secured a team of experienced industry professionals and developed a wide range of programmes and certifications in collaboration with the most coveted business schools and universities.
Alex Edmans is Professor of Finance at London Business School. Alex has a PhD from MIT as a Fulbright Scholar, and was previously a tenured professor at Wharton and an investment banker at Morgan Stanley. Alex has spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos, testified in the UK Parliament, and given the TED talk “What to Trust in a Post-Truth World” and the TEDx talk “The Social Responsibility of Business” with a combined 2 million views. He has appeared on Bloomberg, BBC, CNBC, CNN, ITV, Sky News and Sky Sports, and written for the Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, and Wall Street Journal. At Wharton, he won 14 teaching awards in 6 years; at LBS, he won the Excellence in Teaching award for best professor across all programmes. He has been named to Poets and Quants Best 40 Professors Under 40 and Thinkers50 Radar.