Corporate purpose
- How to define the business purpose?
- Does purpose lead leaders to have different ways of thinking, deciding, and creating value?
As a knowledge center, most of the activities carried out by the CRB are developed on this front, including courses for undergraduate and master students, programs for the Executive Education, research notes, different sorts of projects, a weekly newsletter, and the dissertation thesis written by the master students under the guidance of the CRB.
The CRB focuses its research activities on four different areas: Purpose, Sustainable Development Goals, Responsible Leadership, and Impact Accounting, in which it aims to find answers to the following questions.
Research Areas
Responsible Leadership
- What is a Responsible Leader?
- How does Responsible Leadership impact the performance of companies?
Sustainable Development Goals
- How to accelerate the performance of the 2030 Agenda with private sector input in collaboration with the public sector and civil society?
Strategy for Impact
- Does sustainability have a clear economic argument? How to prove it?
- How to define and operationalize a strategy aligned with sustainability?
In its efforts to contribute to the development and promotion of knowledge, the Center has conducted research and studies that lead to the definition of the following concepts, integrated into our DNA. You can read more about it in our research notes.
Responsible Businesses refers to companies that have sustainability, in the holistic sense, at the core of their business strategies, as a source of competitive advantage, always embracing an integrated view of the relevant stakeholders' interests, in order to advance society's well-being, sharing the same broader purpose.
Responsible Leadership is the ability to align stakeholders around a common aspiration that goes beyond their direct interest, by putting people, customers/consumers, and other relevant stakeholders first, all-embracing a shared purpose treating profit as an outcome rather than the goal.
Responsible Leaders drive the agenda of Responsible Businesses and focus their souls and minds on value creation, both for their company and society. Their core skills include values, vision, innovation, trust, and leading from the heart. In the image below you can find a proposed framework that includes all the characteristics of a Responsible Leader.
Purpose is the “reason for being” of a company, one that is able to unify all stakeholders around the same systemic aspiration and, by consequence, be a guiding light for decision making, that is able to bring to the company a sustainable competitive advantage.
In its efforts to promote knowledge, the Center has issued the following Research Notes and Annual Reports:
Publications
Research Note - Responsible Leadership: what does it Mean and the Future for Portugal
Research Note - Mental Health in the Workplace: A State of Art and Guidelines for Action
2022 Annual Report - Observatory of the SDGs in Portuguese companies
Case Study: The Strategic Implementation of the SDGs at Efacec
Observatório ODS nas Empresas Portuguesas
The Observatory of the Sustainable Development (SDGs) Goals in Portuguese companies is a study that aims to understand and accelerate the implementation of the SDG Agenda in Portugal’s private sector by assessing how Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and Large companies are incorporating the SDGs. You can download the first report, launched in October 2022, here.
The study is funded by BPI Fundação "la Caixa" and Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos and aims to:
1. Promote a clear understanding of the involvement of Portuguese companies with the SDGs;
2. Promote and disseminate good practices in the implementation of the SDGs at the core of the corporate strategy;
3. Stimulate knowledge about the SDGs among the business community, and promote their implementation in the private sector.
This project consists of an in-depth analysis that focuses on how and in what measure the SDGs are being implemented by the Portuguese companies and represents a clear opportunity for the private sector to lead the Sustainable Development transformation.
Its methodology consists of a longitudinal analysis that foresees annual cycles of data collection and analysis and preparation of an annual report. Annually, the same sample companies will be assessed, and their progress monitored. Over the years, good practices will be disseminated between the community and the public at large to inspire good practices.
Responsible Leadership
With the support of Fundação Magnum Gaudium and BPI Fundação "la Caixa", the CRB has launched the research "Responsible Leadership: what does it Mean and the Future for Portugal" in November 2022. The study encompasses a systematic literature review, a questionnaire that includes two samples based in Portugal and one in the USA, and a qualitative study that includes 15 interviews with Portuguese leaders from different companies. The study concludes that, despite the barriers identified, responsible leadership is the most correct and viable way to ensure the company's long-term survival. Companies without purpose and values, where the only concern is profitability, risk failing in the long term unless they take the initiative to change how they conduct their business.
This study aims to contribute to a better understanding of what identifies a "responsible leader" from both academic and practical perspectives and to help organizations to reflect on their leadership styles and what should be done to ensure that Responsible Leadership prevails.