Putting Purpose Into Practice

The Economics of Mutuality

Edited by Colin Mayer and Bruno Roche

A novel and timely insight into how corporate purpose can address major global challenges and deliver enhanced business performance
Based on ground-breaking research, it provides both an academically rigorous and practically relevant account of corporate purpose
Features fourteen detailed case studies that illustrate the practical experience of implementing the ideas and methods discussed
Open Access publication, available online under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license

Putting Purpose Into Practice

The Economics of Mutuality

Edited by Colin Mayer and Bruno Roche

Description

In the face of constant change, the nature of business must evolve rapidly if it is to remain relevant to society at large. How then should business change to meet the requirements of the 21st century, in which unbridled globalization and technological advancements are having profound affects on the wellbeing and prosperity of both the people and the planet? The achievement of purpose is the key to successful transformation - not just having a purpose, but making that purpose real at every level of the organization.

This is the first book to provide a precise description of how companies can put purpose into practice. Based on a groundbreaking research project undertaken jointly between the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford and Mars Catalyst, the think tank of Mars Inc., it provides a highly accessible account of how companies should determine and implement their corporate purposes. It outlines why corporate purpose is so important and how it can both address the major challenges the world faces today and deliver enhanced performance for business.

Fourteen detailed case studies illustrate how companies of different sizes, sectors, and geographies have put purpose into practice and their experiences of doing so. These cases give deep insights into the way in which companies can build purposeful businesses, map and shape their ecosystems, identify failures and problems, align management, and create partnerships to deliver their purposes against which they can measure their performance.

The achievement of purpose is a very real issue that every responsible leader in business, finance, and business academia must now face. This book will equip executives, managers, investors, and policymakers with the tools that they require to understand how the notion of corporate purpose should become a corporate reality.

Putting Purpose Into Practice

The Economics of Mutuality

Edited by Colin Mayer and Bruno Roche

Part I
1:Introduction, Colin Mayer and Bruno Roche
2:Overview, Colin Mayer and Bruno Roche
Part II
3:Bread And Honey: Social Flourishing, Mutuality, and Economics, Martyn Percy
4:Roots of the Economics Of Mutuality, Jay Jakub
5:The Meaning of Mutuality, Catherine Dolan, Bojan Angelov, and Paul Gilbert
6:Mutuality and Concepts of Responsible Business, Alastair Colin-Jones and Sudhir Rama Murthy
7:Purposeful Ecosystem Orchestration, Sylvain Remy, Julie Kolokotsa, Jan Ondrus, Yassine El Ouarzazi, and Nicolas Glady
8:Ecosystem Orchestration in Practice, Yassine El Ouarzazi
9:Creating Cross-Sector Partnerships, Sudhir Rama Murthy and Alastair Colin-Jones
10:Measuring Non-Financial Forms of Capital, Francesco Cordaro, Alain Desdoigts, Justus von Geibler, and Claudia Senik
11:Building Social Capital, Marcel Fafchamps
12:Wellbeing at Work as Human Capital, Claudia Senik
13:Accounting for Natural Capital, Richard Barker
14:Implementing a Mutual Profit-And-Loss, Robert Eccles and François Laurent
15:The Impact of Mutual Profit on Business Behaviour, Robert Eccles and Judith Stroehle
16:Mutuality and The Potential of Microequity, Muhammad Meki, Kate Roll, and Simon Quinn
17:The Impact of Mutuality on Ownership, Jonathan Michie
18:The Influence of Large Investment Funds, Helen Campbell Pickford
19:The Impact of NGO Activism, Andreas G. F. Hoepner and Qian Li
Part III
20:Bel Group: Harnessing the Power of an Informal Distribution Network, Alastair Colin-Jones, Alexandra Berreby, Caroline Sorlin, Hannah Radvan, and Justine Esta Ellis
21:Marks and Spencer: A Food Sustainability Scorecard for Suppliers, Sudhir Rama Murthy, Mike Barry, and Justine Esta Ellis
22:Sabka Dentist: Taking Accessible Dental Care to Scale, Yassine El Ouarzazi, Lionel Khalil, Aida Hadzic, Kate Roll, Judith Stroehle, and Vikram Vora
23:Timberland and the Smallholder Farmers Alliance: Creating a Data-Driven Smallholder Cotton Supply Chain in Haiti, Hugh Locke, Atlanta McIlwraith, Lionel Khalil, and Kate Roll
24:Dell: The Business Case for a Sustainable Supply Chain, Louise Koch, Stephen Roberts, and Justine Esta Ellis
25:Interface Inc.: Turning an Environmental Problem Into a Business Opportunity, John Khoo, Miriam Turner, and Justine Esta Ellis
26:Solvay Chemical: A Tool For Identifying And Planning Sustainable Business Strategies, Justine Esta Ellis, Alastair Colin-Jones, Jean-Marie Solvay, and Michel Washer
27:Z Zurich Foundation: Building the Case for Effective Insurance in Flood Prone Areas, Helen Campbell Pickford, David Nash, and Justine Esta Ellis
28:Divine Chocolate: Creating Sustainable Value in the Cocoa Sector Through Mutual Ownership, Justine Esta Ellis, Alastair Colin-Jones, and Jamie Hartzell
29:Mondragon: Maintaining Resilience Through Cooperative Strategies, Justine Esta Ellis, Alastair Colin-Jones, and Ibon Zugasti
30:JD.com: Using E-Commerce to Alleviate Rural Poverty in China, Lydia J. Price, Liu Xiaowen, and Ni Jing Hua
31:Kate Spade New York: Integrating Social Purpose Into Core Business Operations, Taryn Bird, Aida Hadzic, Kate Roll, and Judith Stroehle
32:Mahindra Firstchoice: Orchestrating the Used Cars Ecosystem, Ben Jackson and Genevieve Joy
33:Novo Nordisk: An Ecosystem Approach to Preventing Diabetes, Ben Jackson and Yassine El Ouarzazi
Part IV
34:Conclusion, Colin Mayer and Bruno Roche

Putting Purpose Into Practice

The Economics of Mutuality

Edited by Colin Mayer and Bruno Roche

Author Information

Edited by Colin Mayer, Peter Moores Professor of Management Studies, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, and Bruno Roche, Founder & Executive Director, Economics of Mutuality

Colin Mayer is the Peter Moores Professor of Management Studies at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. He is a Professorial Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford and an Honorary Fellow of Oriel College and St Anne's College, Oxford. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and the European Corporate Governance Institute. He is a member of the UK Government Natural Capital Committee and the Board of Trustees of the Oxford Playhouse. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to business education and the administration of justice in the economic sphere.

Bruno Roche is the founder and leader of the Economics of Mutuality initiative, a new school of thought and disruptive model for economic performance. He is the former Chief Economist of Mars, Incorporated and Managing Director of the Mars internal think tank 'Catalyst,' which has been the laboratory for developing, testing, and incubating the Economics of Mutuality since late-2006. He co-created the Economics of Mutuality Laboratory at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford in 2014 and at the China-Europe International Business School (CEIBS) in 2019. In 2020, with the support of Mars, Incorporated, he co-founded the Economics of Mutuality Foundation, a public interest not-for-profit with the purpose to share and further develop the Economics of Mutuality with like-purposed organizations (in business, finance, and management schools).

Contributors:

Bojan Angelov, Catalyst, Mars, Incorporated.
Richard Barker, University of Oxford
Helen Campbell Pickford, University of Oxford
Alastair Colin-Jones, Catalyst, Mars, Incorporated.
Alain Desdoigts, Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne
Catherine Dolan, SOAS, University of London
Robert G. Eccles, Harvard University
Yassine El Ouarzazi, Catalyst, Mars, Incorporated.
Marcel Fafchamps, Stanford University
Justus von Geibler, Wuppertal Institute
Paul Gilbert, University of Sussex
Nicolas Glady, ESSEC Business School
Andreas Hoepner, University College Dublin
Jay Jakub, Catalyst, Mars, Incorporated.
Julie Kolokotsa, University of Surrey
François Laurent, Catalyst, Mars, Incorporated.
Qian Li, Cardiff University
Colin Mayer, University of Oxford
Muhammad Meki, University of Oxford
Jonathan Michie, University of Oxford
Jan Ondrus, ESSEC Asia Pacific
Simon Quinn, University of Oxford
Sudhir Rama Murthy, University of Oxford
Sylvain Remy, Singapore University of Technology and Design
Bruno Roche, Catalyst, Mars, Incorporated.
Kate Roll, University of Oxford
Claudia Senik, Paris School of Economics
Judith C. Stroehle, University of Oxford

Case Study Contributors

Mike Barry, Marks & Spencer
Alexandra Berreby, Bel Explorer
Taryn Bird, Kate Spade
Justine Esta Ellis, University of Oxford
Aida Hadzic, (formerly) University of Oxford
Jamie Hartzell, Divine Chocolate
Ni Jing Hua, JD.com
Ben Jackson, Freud Communications
Genevieve Joy, University of Oxford
Lionel Khalil, Mars Catalyst
Jon Khoo, Interface Inc.
Louise Koch, Dell
Hugh Locke, Smallholder Farmers Alliance
Atlanta McIlwraith, Timberland
David Nash, Z Zurich Foundation
Lydia J. Price, CEIBS
Hannah Radvan, (formerly) Mars Catalyst
Stephen Roberts, Dell
Jean-Marie Solvay, Solvay Chemical
Caroline Sorlin, Bel Explorer
Miriam Turner, Zoological Society London
Vikram Vora, Sabka Dentist
Michel Washer, Solvay Chemical
Liu Xiaowen, JD.com