Article

Kanina Blanchard

Kanina Blanchard coaches leaders on how to recognize, resist, and redirect deviance from purpose. Her article reminds us that asking questions that matter is more an art than a science. It takes us behind the scenes, where vulnerability often makes otherwise brave leaders shy away (and sometimes stay away) from probing their everyday. Blanchard meets them there, offering the empathy and humility required to get at some of those important, if often unasked, questions: “Why not?”; “What if?”; “Where else?”; “How otherwise?”

Article

Lara Liboni, Luciana Cezarino, Alessandro Goulart, Vera Goulart, Rafael Petry

How far forward can hardship take purpose-driven leaders? Lara Liboni, Luciana O. Cezarino, Alessandro Goulart, Vera Goulart, and Rafael Petry offer a real-life case of success created from adversity. Before there was a solution, they tell us, there was a problem. This problem was so big, they insist, that it instigated purpose, which then inspired many stakeholders to partner for “Symbiotic Impact.” Unlike serendipity, where chance encounters enabled previously unimagined opportunities, the Symbiosis Project carefully crafted first-of-their-kind collaborations to systematically undo barriers keeping marginalized youth from accessing higher education and being employed in competitive sectors.

Article

Vanessa Patrick, Murali Kuppuswamy

Vanessa M. Patrick, author of The Power of Saying No: The New Science of How to Say No That Puts You in Charge of Your Life, and Murali Kuppuswamy explain how saying no can be an essential antidote to purpose washing. Leveraging insights on empowered refusal, the authors suggest that by exemplifying no, leaders not only reaffirm their own purpose, they permit everyone else to uphold theirs. Their piece reminds us that at the core of any type of “washing” lies our timidity in spotting and combating deviance from purpose. Purpose can only be washed, it turns out, when leaders like us don’t say no when we ought to.

Article

Oana Branzei, Dusya Vera

In Part I of this two-part Amplify series on scaffolding purpose, we likened purpose (as a noun) to property and explored who has it. In this issue, we focus on how leaders who already have purpose hold onto it when times get tough and examine how purpose can be actively reset in the midst of multiple crises. The seven articles bring to light counterintuitive aspects of purposing (as a verb).

Advisor

Myles Suer

As examples from Southwest Airlines and Delta illustrate, there is a critical need for CIOs to address technical debt within mission-critical systems. Frequent Cutter contributor Myles Suer recently spoke with a group of CIOs about this need and the steps leaders can take to protect these systems. This Advisor shares some of those insights, emphasizing enterprise architecture’s role in eliminating tech debt.

Advisor

Brian Cameron, Whynde Kuehn

Organizations that are highly effective at strategic portfolio management are twice as likely to achieve better business outcomes as those that aren’t. This case study from a Fortune 500 organization reflects strategic portfolio management concepts in action and illustrates the value that a capability perspective can bring to project portfolio decision-making.

Advisor

Curt Hall

Companies are applying AI, computer vision, machine learning, and robotics to develop intelligent recycling platforms that enhance the efficiency and profitability of the recycling process. This Advisor examines some of these emerging technologies.

Article

Philippa White

Philippa White, bestselling author of Return on Humanity: Leadership Lessons from All Corners of the World, challenges today’s leaders to outgrow the past, stating that “companies are working as if it’s still the Industrial Age.” As leaders come to care less about how much money a company makes and more about how they make that money, they discover many returns to purpose, including better relationships with employees and communities.

Article

Anica Zeyen

As one’s invisible purpose yields visible returns, many others may be inspired to follow suit. Anica Zeyen explains how leaders can catch and pass on their purpose by recognizing and revealing their vulnerability. The article describes how the six protagonists showcased in Zeyen’s documentary Invisible experienced purpose contagion in their own lives and looks at how featuring the documentary can facilitate similar ripples in educational institutions, consulting firms, and policy circles. As a disabled academic, activist, and documentary maker, Zeyen’s purpose contagion can reach and serve 1.3 billion people with disabilities worldwide.

Article

Michael Messenger

Michael Messenger explains how faith and calling weaved a purposeful path that took him from a partner at a leading law practice to president and CEO of the charitable organization World Vision Canada. He reminds leaders that a sense of calling is not limited to social justice activists or nonprofit leaders. All leaders follow their calling when they see their jobs as a way to align their values, vocation, and beliefs with a deep, purpose-driven commitment to a mission, a passion for their work, and a desire to positively impact the world. Messenger reminds us that commitment grows when purpose gets deeply personal, stating: “My faith informs my calling and thereby amplifies my sense of purpose.”

Article

Hannes Leroy, Johannes Claeys, Mirko Benischke, Daan Stam

In their piece, Hannes Leroy, Johannes Claeys, Mirko Benischke, and Daan Stam feature a powerful component of the leadership development programs at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, the Netherlands: the “I Will” statement, which connects individuals’ personal ambitions with the challenges of today’s society. The authors share three sequential steps of scaffolding purpose, inviting us to move from “I Am” (discover purpose) to “I Will” (commit to purpose) and arrive at “We Will” (engage others with your purpose).

Article

Bill Fox

In this article, Bill Fox shares his journey to purpose. The inner leader’s journey is all about leadership of oneself. Fox shifts our attention from what leaders do to who leaders strive to become in the greater service of humanity. By describing his 13 steps to scaffolding purpose (including principles he extracted from his journey, personal experiences, and pointed questions for the readers), Fox invites us to awaken our own inner leader.

Article

Dee Corrigan, Lauren Elliott, Gethin Hine, James McCarthy

Dee Corrigan, Lauren Elliott, Gethin Hine, and James McCarthy highlight The Purpose-in-Practice Community (hosted by A Blueprint for Better Business, a UK-based charity). Together, more than 200 business leaders are charting a path to putting purpose at the heart of business. Their article coaches leaders on how to drive purpose, how to become a purpose driver, and how to steer clear of purpose traps on their lifelong journey to success. The authors share key practices and set guideposts in the journey toward purpose.

Article

Coro Strandberg

Coro Strandberg urges us to radically reimagine the purpose of business. She calls for “social purpose” and blueprints the purpose economy. The article offers multiple strategies (identifying, consulting, and engaging the social purpose community; deploying purpose economy levers of change; and providing tools and resources for the business community and ecosystem actors) that can help regions and nations begin the process of architecting the purpose economy. Strandberg showcases the Canadian Purpose Economy Project, which aims to accelerate Canada’s transition to the purpose economy and explains how ecosystem builders can help social purpose companies start, transition, thrive, and grow.

Article

Oana Branzei, Dusya Vera

Do most leaders “have” purpose? If so, how do they “hold” it as they traverse various levels (individuals, teams, organizations, partnerships, sectors, regions, countries, continents) in their quest for success? The goal of the seven articles in the first installment of this two-part Amplify series is to demystify leaders’ journey to purpose. The focus of this issue is detecting and connecting purpose at various levels across the lifespan of purpose-driven leadership. The main takeaway is that having and holding purpose helps leaders shift from surviving to thriving in an inequitable world.

Advisor

Trevor Hunter

There are many perspectives on what constitutes “good” nonprofit organization (NPO) governance. Even so, most agree that, given the behavioral expectations faced by NPO board members, strong judgment (informed by the dimensions of leader character) must combine with instrumental skills to underpin all decisions made by the board.

Advisor

Antoine Harfouche

This Advisor takes a closer look at a new concept called “smart farming.” This concept refers to the use of advanced technologies and data-driven approaches to improve agricultural productivity, efficiency, and sustainability. Specifically, it involves integrating modern technologies into traditional farming practices to monitor, automate, and optimize agricultural operations

Advisor

Maria Diaz Campo, Arman Ghafoori, Manjul Gupta

Competing factors come into play to determine our tolerance to AI hallucination. This Advisor stresses that understanding context is crucial to making informed decisions about strategically adopting and implementing emerging technologies and provides key takeaways that can help us balance the potential value of the opportunity with our risk tolerance.

Advisor

Myles Suer

Cutter contributor and data business leader Myles Suer recently spoke to a group of CIOs to discuss lessons learned from last month’s CrowdStrike debacle. This Advisor shares their insights and provides key takeaways for business leaders about crisis management and resilience.

Advisor

Punit Arora

This Advisor examines the relationship between corporate environmental disclosure and environmental innovation (known as “ecovation”). It suggests that firms avoid “greenwashing” and “brownwashing,” as both are associated with lower innovation than “green-highlighting” strategies.