The Purpose Factory is launched worldwide today. This fulfills a strong desire and intent of Theo Spierings, former CEO of Fonterra. On his retirement from Fonterra, the world’s largest dairy exporter, he announced his commitment: “Not a bigger job, but a better world.” With The Purpose Factory Theo wants to bring about change that the world needs now more than ever. He believes in creating new opportunities that generate additional value, that is created and distributed in a drastically different way; People, Planet and Profit. The Purpose Factory will leverage business partnership, innovation and philanthropy to shift business strategies, find system-wide solutions and work to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals of ‘no poverty’, ‘zero hunger’, ‘clean water and sanitation’ and ‘climate action’
The necessity to create new and incremental value and distribute it in a drastically different way
The Purpose Factory operates from a deep belief that business cannot thrive sustainably without respecting the environment, giving back to the communities they serve, and engaging the next generation. The Purpose Factory will focus on generating new and additional value and (re-)investing in solutions that deliver positive ecological and social results on a large scale through organizations and businesses. Brands with a strong purpose grow faster than other brands. The organizations that take positive action for the health of people and the planet are the ones that win. This is a time of huge disruption in business, commerce and tech: this disruption has to be harnessed for dramatically different business models that work for future generations. The Purpose Factory beliefs that change must occur at scale and that their three pillars of activity are needed to address these challenges.
The Purpose Factory has three pillars of change: Disrupt, Transform and Foundation
These three pillars of The Purpose Factory are designed to complement each other to achieve its ambition of systemic change.
The Disrupt pillar will focus on guiding and coaching current and next generation entrepreneurs to unleash the power of new technologies and help tackle the most pressing global challenges with disruptive business models.
The Transformation pillar will partner with large scale companies to help them transform into having purpose-led, sustainable operations. It will leverage the proven expertise from The Purpose Factory team and founders in operations and delivery, deploying that expertise for business transformation. The partnerships in the Disrupt and Transform pillars will drive new business models that create new and additional commercial value intertwined with social value and ecological sustainability.
The Foundation, funded from revenue driven through philanthropic sources and the Transform pillar, will support initiatives that progress the Sustainable Development Goals with a focus on helping vulnerable groups to harness sustainable changes in the food system, build livelihoods, food security and resilience.
Ambition for scale and depth of change
At the heart of The Purpose Factory’s belief is that change must occur systemically! The partnership with Forum for the Future, a leading international non-profit sustainability organization, aims to support and stretch the ambition of The Purpose Factory to contribute to a better world. Forum for the Future’s expertise in visioning new futures, changing how systems work, and embedding sustainability, will propel the desired systemic impact, guide the direction of the Foundation and ensure synergy across the three pillars.