Hi, and welcome to my lunch table. This is the space where conscious leaders, trailblazing entrepreneurs, and curious professionals come together to rethink the future of leadership. My name's Simon Hague, and if you are someone who believes business should be the force for good, you are in the right place. So let me hit you with this. To start with, companies with strong purpose, integrated strategies grow faster and engage employees more fully than profit only counterparts. Now, that's quite a claim, but it begs a huge question. Are we finally seeing the end of the profit at all costs era? So today's topic is one, I believe mark's turning point in how we lead and how we run new organizations and is something that's really close to my heart as we start thinking about conscious decisions, making good in organization and personal growth. I. It is shift one in our series Exploring Conscious Leadership Transformations, and it's all about moving from profit First, thinking to purpose integrated strategy. I'll walk you through what this shift really means, why it matters more this year than ever before, and have start embedding purpose into your business without it feeling like a fluffy branding exercise. So let's start with the big why. So many of the challenges we're up against. Think about climate change inequality, mental health polarization can't be solved by squeezing one more percentage point out of coursely returns. And leaders are waking up to that. They're recognizing that businesses don't operate in a vacuum. We're active participants in society. We're part of the system. And there's a growing shift in expectations. Employees want meaning in their work. Consumers want to buy from brands that stand for something. Investors care about long-term sustainability, not just this quarter's performance. In short, if you're running a business like its 1999, you're gonna struggle in 2025. Take an example. Recently I re-contracted my broadband service, and one of the things that jumped out to me with the provider that I've decided to go with, which is Zen Internet ZN Internet, is that. They really care about their customers. In the sales call, we only spent about two or three minutes out of 45 minutes exploring what the commercials were for the deal, but we spent a lot of time talking about what my business was, what my ethics were, how potentially ours aligned to what Zen stand for as a B Corp organization. So that's an example why the most forward thinking CEOs are moving beyond just short term profit maxing, and instead get this, they're using purpose as their strategic north star. Now I'm not just talking about sticking a feel good slogan on your website that's not cutting it anymore. That greenwashing does not work. These leaders are defining real grounded purposes that address societal needs while still generating economic value. Because let's get it right. Yeah. We still need to make money. We still need to make profits. So we're not gonna throw the baby out with a balance sheet. As one recent report put it, purpose-driven CEOs aren't just creating better companies, they're shaping a better world. And trust me. That's not hyperbole. It's backed by data and visible in practice. So let's just pause for a second. What does a purpose integrated company actually look like? First, purpose shows up in how you hire. You're not just looking at skills on paper, you're asking for candidate shares, your values, and your mission. Second, it's reflected in your performance. Performance metrics. Yeah, revenue still counts, but you're also tracking impact. For example, are you reducing carbon emissions, supporting diverse leadership pipelines or improving community outcomes? In the case of Zen Internet, who I spoke to before, the salespeople are not actually targeted on sales. However, they do have a revenue put against their figure put against their name. So one of my favorite examples is Patagonia, and I know you've probably heard of them, but there's a reason they come up in every purposeful leadership discussion at Patagonia. Their mission we're in business to save our home planet drives everything from their product design to how these source materials to who they partner with. That's purpose. Not just painted on the walls. It's in their decisions. So another quote that I like is one from John Mackey, who's the co-founder of Whole Foods. He said, A conscious business is not a company that has. A corporate social responsibility department, tactile, true conscious business is an ethos that permeates the entire organization. There you go. Nailed it. So why does this shift to purpose pay off? Let's break it down. First is a hiring magnet. Top talent, especially young generations, wanna work somewhere meaningful. They'll choose a purposeful company over a paycheck almost every time. Second. Your customers get emotionally invested. When people love what you stand for, they stick around. Loyalty becomes a two-way street. And third, innovation flourishes. When teams are aligned around the mission, they're not just solving problems, they're solving the right problems. So yeah, purpose turns out to be wildly practical. It's not. A concept which isn't gonna get delivered. It's strategic, it's measurable, and this year it is becoming non-negotiable. So what's the takeaway? If you're leading a business today, integrating purpose into your strategy, it's not just about doing the right thing, it's about doing the smart thing. So let go of the idea that profit and purpose are opposites. They're not. In fact, when done. Purpose becomes the engine and profit. Well, that's the outcome. So remember, strategy without purpose is just tactics in disguise. But when purposely strategy, you move from transaction to transformation in your culture, in your customers, in, in your line. I hope you found this useful and I hope you consider that the content of Shared may just spur you on for a moment. This is episode one of a five-part series. Just to explore a bit more about why purposeful leadership is really important in our modern business world. It's why I've set up conscious coaching. It's why I want people to start really engaging with what the bigger purpose is out there, rather than just thinking about the bottom line, which obviously is still important, but we can act slightly differently if we've got the purpose in mind. So if you found this valuable, consider subscribing, leaving a review or sharing this episode with a colleague who really needs to hear it. So until next time, stay curious. Keep the leadership with purpose and keep shaping the future of your business. Believe it or not, it can be real fun when you engage that purpose and that mission that's deep inside you. Till next time