Aligning purpose + profit
When I started AG Comms over 12 years ago my purpose was driven by first-hand experience of how challenging it was to find flexible opportunities for women in the corporate world. Since then, I’ve created and grown a business with a model that benefits not just women, but everyone who needs and wants flexibility at work to support their life. Watching the team come together to deliver outstanding results for our clients over the last 12 years has been incredible. But getting comfortable doesn’t sit well with me, and I don’t want to stop there. The changes around the world are driving me to want more for people, our planet, and our future.
I took a course at LSE during the first lockdown to learn more about purpose and profit and have spent the last two years rethinking things. I began with my purpose. Deciding what matters to me beyond the profit I then started to think about the role we play as a business too. What’s our purpose at AG now? And how can we make a difference for our people, our clients, and the planet?
We’re already focused on our new vision: to create a better world with equality and climate action at the core of everything we do. In the last 6 months we’ve made commitments to 1% for the Planet (donating a minimum of 1% turnover to the most pressing environmental issues), the Better Business Act (a coalition to make UK businesses contribute to society and environment) and today on World Earth Day we have declared a climate emergency through Business Declares (coalition of business leaders declaring climate and ecological emergency). This is just the start for us, and we have a long way to go. We are aiming to become net carbon zero and B Corps certified by 2025 and we’re pleased with the significant changes and progress we’ve already made. These are big changes for our small business, but ones I am 100% committed to.
We are still committed to delivering brilliant communication and change projects with purpose-led leaders. That won’t ever change. Our purpose journey is about changing how we do things as a business going forward, making better choices for people, our planet, and our future – and helping others to do the same.
*Image shows me in Margate, UK during Nov 2021, standing in front of a large graffiti image of Sir David Attenborough with his quote, “Industrial pollution and the discarding of plastic waste must be tackled for the sake of all life in the ocean”