Make a difference: Make your business purpose-driven

Frank Omare, Senior Director at SAP Ariba, gave a Lighthouse Lecture at Brighton Business School, University of Brighton, March 2019

Frank Omare challenged the assembled body of students, academics and visitors to change our mindset and embrace ‘procurement with purpose’.

Organisations have a duty to ensure their supply chains are ethical and sustainable, the business case is strong and new technologies are rapidly increasing transparency and visibility all along the chain.

‘Procurement with purpose is defined as using your influence to improve the human, economic, and environmental impact of every organisation that your supply chain touches’

Based on a review of top global brands, we have identified three
common purpose pillars that make up the triple bottom line as a concept that broadens the focus of the traditional financial bottom line to include social and environmental responsibilities.

Frank was joined on the podium by SAP colleague and Head of UK CSR, Stephanie Taviner, who played a fun game with us and in so doing confronted us with some uncomfortable facts on environmental impact and modern slavery in the world today.

In a compelling overview of recent research, Frank demonstrated clear links between ethical organisational practices and brand and stock market performance.  Going beyond financial measures is important as listed companies can now be rated based on their environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) using instruments like RepRisk and Sustainalytics.

‘Go check it out!’

Listed companies can be rated based on their environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) performance

This dynamic lecture included many vibrant questions from the audience of undergraduate/postgraduate students on business, marketing and logistics programmes, alumni, academic staff and representatives from local businesses including Cap Gemini and the Graduate Recruitment Bureau.

Thought-provoking discussion on business with purpose and career/placement opportunities continued at a post-talk networking reception.  Thank you to everyone who came along to make this event special and particularly to Frank Omare, Senior Director, Digital Transformation at SAP UK, who helped change some mindsets at Brighton Business School.

By Charles Thompson, BSc Business Management (Final year)