The Business Purpose Before Profit Award
CRITERIA
A shared vision and purpose gives direction to teams and galvanises people to go beyond to achieve a meaningful and ambitious goal. A clear purpose engages a range of stakeholders, from customers and employees to investors, who are reassured by a long-term plan for impact and growth.
This special award recognises organisations who put their purpose before profit and prove that ethics, integrity and a social conscience make commercial sense.
The British Business Excellence Awards and Octopus Energy for Business have partnered to pay tribute to those organisations that have gone above and beyond to make a real impact in their industry or community.
Judges will look for evidence of how purpose before profit has been brought to life in the delivery of products, services or solutions in organisations of all types and sizes across all sectors.
- What ambitious problem are you solving with your product or service or how does your cause align with your business model?
- How does leadership and management support or incentivise purpose before profit?
- How has a purpose led approach differentiated your business and supported success?
- How has it helped you to attract and retain customers and employees?
SCORING AND WEIGHTING
In this category judges will compare the extent to which each candidate has demonstrated excellence in the following areas:
- Employee & Customer Engagement
- Leadership & Innovation
- Organisational Ethics & Policies
- Financial Performance & Growth
PROPORTION OF OVERALL SCORING
25% Employee, 25% Leadership, 30% Organisational, 20% Financial
ENTRY DETAILS
In a summary of no more than 350 words, please describe what your business does, the market in which it operates and what differentiates you from your competitors. Please include your key business achievements that are significant for your market sector or industry. (Please note that should you become a finalist the answer to this question will be used in external PR & Communications to explain who you are)
In no more than 1200 words, explain why you should win this award using the bullet points below as a guide:
- Employee & Customer Engagement 25%
- Explain how you have embedded a culture of purpose before profit in your organisation from recruitment and onboarding to development and career progression.
- What is your company doing to drive environmental or social impact and how are these aligned with company values?
- Provide case study examples and top line data to demonstrate how purpose has helped you to attract or retain customers and employees over the last 18 months.
- Leadership & Innovation 25%
- Demonstrate evidence of how you have innovated with your business model / service or been innovative in putting purpose before profit and how this has contributed to your organisation’s success.
- Show us how the management structure and leadership philosophy of your company has enabled or incentivised purpose before profit to improve community impact, employee performance or customer engagement.
- How have you innovated with new technology, platforms or processes to improve impact, productivity and profitability?
- Organisational Ethics & Policies 30%
- How are ethical, environmental or social impact policies or initiatives aligned with company values and commercial objectives?
- How does your approach to diversity, equity and inclusion align with your overall ambition for the business – and how does it support purpose before profit?
- Explain how your ethical or diversity policy or sustainability strategy has improved employee / client attraction and retention..
- Financial Performance & Growth 20%
- Explain your key growth metrics, including financial targets, KPIs, timescales and overall ambitions plus examples of how they align with or support your purpose and company values.
- Demonstrate evidence of how your organisation has led or achieved a positive social impact within its sector or local communities.
- How do you benchmark against your peers in terms of impact as well as sales, profitability, and market share?
- How has your company performed against your growth plan and purpose?
