How purpose drives innovation

How does having a strong business purpose drive innovation?

Like many regions, Atlantic Canada is focused on building our innovation ecosystem. The purpose-led approach to business is a natural fit for our growing focus on clean tech and a sustainable ocean economy. We have some great examples from companies like Spring Loaded Technology, SomaDetect, Stash Energy and TruLeaf who we profiled in our case studies for The Purpose Project last year.

Businesses are more able to innovate and transform when purpose is a core driver of strategy and decision making. In an HBR global survey of executives, 53 percent of companies who prioritized purpose were successful with innovation and transformation efforts, compared to 19 percent of companies that did not have a clear purpose.

And from our conversations with purpose-led businesses in Atlantic Canada, we saw that purpose acts as a motivator and a guide during the often long, arduous research and development stage. For employees, understanding the positive impact they could be making with the products and services they’re developing motivates them to keep going.

During research and development, when there are often many different paths a company can take, having a clear purpose means having a clear idea of what you want to achieve, a guiding North Star to keep you on the right path. The CEOs and executives we spoke to agreed: 100 percent said that purpose helped them innovate or transform.

Want to dive even deeper into this topic? Make sure to download a copy of our report, The Purpose Advantage for more ideas and inspiration.