The Purpose-Driven Company: Optimizing Financial Performance

Ann Barlow, West Coast President/ Head of Employee Engagement at Peppercomm, a strategic communications and marketing firm whose purpose is promote, protect, and connect clients—and "to use its innovation and imagination to inspire people to come to know and trust the organizations it works with." The 23-year-old Peppercomm has its roots in PR, and, although its focus today is on integrated communications, the PR influence persists in the questions it asks: What do clients need? What problems need to be solved? and What is the agency trying to create? Ann participated in a panel, "Prescription for Sexual Harassment," at the March 2019 South by Southwest creativity conference in Austin, TX. She places the onus on companies to create opportunities for people to "actually listen to each other." Solving workplace problems like sexual harassment will require open discussions about things people might think are okay, but actually are not. Clarity about such issues . . . and working toward solving them . . . will improve individual and business performance. People work better in more collaborative, purpose-driven, listening environments, which Ann calls "cultures of innovation." Ann sees a difference in what the younger generation of workers demands as employees from the companies where they work—that their companies take a stand on social issues. She feels that companies that have a "North Star" will have an easier time attracting and retaining talent . . . and that companies that are purpose-driven perform better financially   Ann is researching what needs to change inside organizations . . . and the interrelationship of employee engagement, business structure, how people within organizations listen to each other, and productivity. She intends to publish the results of that study on her company's website at: http://www.peppercomm.com/ Ann can be reached at her company's website or on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ann-barlow-4a42371/