EP 27 - Coro Strandberg (Canadian Purpose Economy Project)

Summary Coro Strandberg, President of Strandberg Consulting and co-founder and Chair of the Canadian Purpose Economy Project, traces her path from social work and the Vancity board to more than two decades advising businesses on social purpose. She explains how CSR evolved into sustainability and ESG, why metrics and executive incentives decide whether purpose ever leaves the boardroom, and how the Canadian Purpose Economy Project is working with boards, investors, business schools and disclosure standards to make social purpose the norm. She closes with practical first steps for companies ready to define their purpose and bring it to life.Keywords social purpose, CSR, sustainability, purpose economy, purpose governance, corporate governance, social impact, ESG, purpose disclosure, business transformation, social innovationKey topics The origins of social purpose and CSR Transformational company guidelines and leadership The importance of metrics and disclosure in purpose The Canadian Purpose Economy Project and global efforts Practical steps for companies to define and implement purposeSound bites "Aligning those incentives was what drove subsequent innovation and really moved it from a boardroom agenda to, if you will, a management agenda." "Boards of directors don't know the purpose of the companies that they're stewarding." "A lot of businesses have an implicit purpose and they need to make it explicit."Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Coro Strandberg and her background 01:28 The start of Coro's journey in social responsibility 02:49 Early moves in community development and credit unions 03:15 The shift from philanthropy to strategic CSR in 1992 04:17 Communicating and embedding social responsibility in organisations 05:34 Incentivising management for social and environmental goals 07:27 The significance of metrics and sustainability reporting 09:16 The frontier ideas of purpose-driven business models 10:58 Transformational company guidelines and leadership qualities 12:54 The evolution from CSR to sustainability to ESG 15:01 The discovery of social purpose within organisations 16:46 The Canadian Purpose Economy Project and its vision 18:15 Gaps in purpose understanding and disclosure 19:27 Purpose governance guidelines and global outreach 23:20 First steps for companies to define purpose 24:41 The motivation behind purpose-driven work 26:07 Mobilising business for societal impact 27:01 Transforming business models to embed purpose 28:09 Operational shifts needed for purpose integration 29:32 Final thoughts and the importance of explicit purposeGuest links Coro Strandberg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/corostrandberg Strandberg Consulting: https://corostrandberg.com Canadian Purpose Economy Project: https://purposeeconomy.ca