Conference chats, blogs, articles and newsletters on the biggest social issues have great intentions. But what do they actually achieve?
This was one of many conversations we had with Simon Burckitt, General Insurance Sustainability Lead at Aviva about the need to have real impact. We agreed these things were never going to move anything beyond a point of view, thought process or at the very most an idea. But that could and should change.
So in order to try and create this shift, we started our roundtables for leaders who are transitioning their organisation to be a Force for Good. The objective is to connect peers facing similar challenges, to share ideas and learn from each other.
A previous attendee posted, “This time I got to meet new people from different sectors and I just love how engaged we all were. Everyone was ready and willing to be open about opportunities, achievements and challenges.
If you're a company that wants to build the right strategy, culture and skills to deliver sustainable, scalable impact I can't recommend these sessions and the Good Innovation team enough”
About the next one
Our latest report - 20 Conversations with Businesses Transitioning to be a Force for Good - summarises 4 of the biggest challenges we heard from in-depth interviews with leaders in Sustainability and Social Impact.
Our next roundtable focusses on the first and second challenges - how to define the social problem you are uniquely placed to solve and how to achieve real impact whilst also delivering commercial objectives.
We're excited to be joined by Alison Corfield (Director of Social Impact and Sustainability at the Jamie Oliver Group).
The Group’s bold ambition is to "revolutionize what we eat, one meal at a time— making it healthier, more sustainable, and fairer for all."
But how does Alison and her team turn this vision into reality?
How do they prioritise the work and activities that drive progress toward their goal?
How do they decide what to stop, what to scale, and what to start?
Alison will dive into these questions and more in a conversation with Ryan Bromley. And as always, there will be plenty of time for your questions, lively discussions, and drinks with other leaders committed to driving positive change.
The next roundtable takes place on 27th March, 2-5pm, The Palm Room, 6-14 Underwood Street, 2nd floor, London. N1 7JQ.
To sign up, please email ryan@goodinnovation.co.uk
Who attends?
Each roundtable we have welcomed over 40 leaders in Sustainability, Social Impact, ESG and Purpose from companies such as Natwest, Diageo, Aviva, Balfour Beatty, Legal and General, BP, Currys, LV= and Virgin Money to name just a few. Whilst their job titles may vary, what connects them all is being leaders on the front line of helping their business transition to be a force for good.
About previous sessions
We kicked off in London in March 2023 with a group of purpose leaders in some of the UK’s biggest brands. The theme, ‘Return on Purpose’ resonated with the group.
In June we discussed the challenge of influencing and inspiring people across large organisations and particularly how to motivate leadership teams to invest both time and money to ESG initiatives.
In November '23, with the popularity of the London sessions growing, we welcomed a much bigger group and discussed an area that many of our participants had identified as a real challenge. How do you actually understand customer motivations and expectations on ESG?
Last March, kindly hosted by Legal and General, attendees exchanged challenges, thoughts and ideas on how to connect employees through a simple, consistent and compelling purpose narrative.
Our July session, hosted by Beazley, we doubled our numbers again to talk about how to define the social problems you're uniquely placed to solve and how to find your return on impact.
And in our most recent session in November we were joined by Charlotte Goodman (MD Purpose & Vision/Chief of Staff for Holly Branson) at Virgin and Suzanne Smith, (Senior manager, Purpose and Community) from Virgin Money who talked through the Virgin story on how they embedded purpose into the culture and DNA of their business.
We'd love to welcome you in March. Do get in touch.
ryan@goodinnovation.co.uk