Purpose, Inc.

On today’s episode, Meg Parker Young of Thomson Reuters talks about trusted information as the core idea of UN SDG 16; why trusted information is critical to every aspect of a free society. Meg talks about how SDG 16 informs corporate responsibly, ESG, CSR through transparency across supply chains, eliminating human trafficking, corruption, and ensuring compliance and reporting.

William LaBar, Vice President of CGI joins the podcast to talk about CGI’s network of Delivery Centers that employ over 1,800 IT professionals in small cities in the U.S. Will shares how CGI recruits and trains staff through programs that develop talent through its STEM@CGI training programs in K-12/community colleges and universities. Will talks about the impact CGI is having on economic development, jobs, and education in local communities.

Melissa Anderson, the Co-founder and President of Public Good Software, joins the podcast to discuss the consumer-brand-media-social action dynamic. Public Good is America's leading AI for good technology which makes news and content actionable; working with the nation’s leading publishers including CNN, Tribune Media, HuffPost, Vice, and brands such as Microsoft, Unilever and Danone.

Brandon Peele, VP People Science at ion Learning joins the podcast to talk about the corporate purpose journey; the steps and changes an organization must take toward defining its purpose; and how to create a purpose-led culture. We talk a lot about where purpose manifests in the organizations. Not in signs, symbols and slogans, but in actions and outcomes. We spend a lot of time talking about the risks of shallow purpose, elitism and lack of commitment.

Each year $270BN worth of clothes are thrown away.Today on the podcast Geri Cupi, CEO and co-founder of MonoChain, joins the podcast to discuss MonoChain's blockchain re-commerce platform that gives brands and retailers access to circular economy practices. Geri lays out the case for why re-commerce is the key to transforming fashion and retail through sustainability, waste reduction while reducing counterfeiting, and forging deeper connections to GenZ consumers.

Chris Coulter the CEO of GlobeScan joins the podcast to discuss why ambitious and authentic leadership is the key to the sustainability agenda and vital to improving stakeholder engagement across – customers, investors, regulators, non-governmental organizations, communities, suppliers and employees. Chris unpacks a global research study GlobeScan conducted with Oxford University on risks, opportunities and priorities in corporate affairs around sustainability, ESG and corporate purpose.

Today on the podcast, Michael welcomes Erik Wohlgemuth, Chief Operating Officer of Future 500. Erik talks about the Future500 Force For Good Forecast which is an authoritative and compelling body of research and analysis on the top issues, trends, topics and potential flashpoints in ESG that will shape engagement between corporations and their stakeholders for the coming years. Erik talks about how employees and activists are joining forces (especially during COVID); the implications in the rise of GenZ; why passive investors are the “new regulators”; how companies are calling customers to action; and much more.

Today on the podcast, Michael welcomes Alison Taylor, Executive Director of Ethical Systems, a research collaboration housed at NY University’s Stern School of Business. Alison talks about companies making claims to be responsible citizens while committing abuses of corporate power, such as the pervasive non-accounting for negative externalities, creative tax avoidance, systemic racism and gender inequality, and regulatory capture. We discuss how COVID and Black Lives Matter have forced a reckoning between espoused corporate values and values in action. 

What does it mean for a company to have values as its guiding light? For more 80 years HP has stood atop the industry as a leader based on its foundational commitment to values and integrity. Today on the podcast, I welcome Lesley Slaton Brown the Chief Diversity Officer of HP to talk about her role in leading HP’s global diversity and inclusion efforts. We talk about systemic racism, Black Lives Matter, and why none no person or corporation is a bystander in the fight to end racial injustice. Leslie's vision, her passion and her faultless clarity on creating a values-based workplace lights the path for all of us to follow.

In 2020 the intersection between corporations and society has never been more sharply defined. First with COVID and workers’ health and safety, and now with the long overdue reckoning our society is having about racial inequity and injustice in the immediate aftermath of the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Amhad Aubry. Grady Crosby, Vice President of Public Affairs and Chief Diversity Officer at Johnson Controls comes on the podcast to talk about the role of corporate citizens in racial justice, equality, diversity and inclusion. Grady talks about the many commitments Johnson Controls undertakes toward building a more inclusive and equitable society and in particular its role as a large employer and corporate citizen in the City of Milwaukee.