Ten years ago, Kogan Page published our book On Purpose; how to deliver a branded customer experience people love. It wasn’t intended to be just another business book filled with theories and charts. Instead, following the success of our previous book, the award-winning BOLD: how to be brave in business and win, we wanted it to be both a manifesto and a blueprint. We wrote if for organisations looking to lead with meaning, not just metrics. A decade on, its message hasn’t just stood the test of time, it’s become more important than ever.
The Big Idea: Purpose-Driven Experience
Our core premise was deceptively simple but, we believed then and still do, profoundly powerful: brands that lead with purpose will outperform those that don’t. For us, purpose isn’t some fluffy marketing bolt-on. It’s the beating heart of a business that drives and unites performance, brand differentiation, employee engagement and customer loyalty.
What readers tell us sets On Purpose apart is its practical, experience-led approach. It isn’t concerned with how to write lofty mission statements, it shares stories of how purpose led companies align their brand promise with their customer and employee experience so tightly that everything the business does genuinely, in that now hackneyed phrase, “lives the brand.”
The Three-Part Manifesto Still Resonates
The book is structured around three imperatives that still guide the best brand and business leaders today:
- Stand Up: Define your brand’s true purpose, one rooted in customer needs, not just commercial goals. Customer-centricity is the most effective route to relevance and resilience. But those roots have to be in your customer’s needs not generic ones. Be crystal clear about what is it that your brand stands for that they most value.
- Stand Out: Bring that purpose to life across every customer and employee touchpoint. Sustainable differentiation isn’t about shouting louder; it’s about acting with more clarity and conviction than your competitors. And that means you have to focus on the fewest things that matter most to your customers and that build your brand. You can’t be great everywhere; you have to choose where you will excel to be remarkable.
- Stand Firm: Build the culture, systems and leadership behaviours that hardwire purpose into the DNA of the business. This is what turns purpose from a poster on the wall into a performance engine. That means being incredibly intentional about the kind of people who will culturally fit your brand and create an experience for them that mirrors the experience you want for your customers
The Problem with Purpose
But here’s the rub. Over the past decade, purpose has been hijacked. It’s been slapped on PowerPoints, painted across office walls, and weaponised for awards submissions. Worst of all, it’s been confused with what should be standard business ethics and decency.
Too many businesses have mistaken important ESG and DEI aspirations for purpose. These shouldn’t be differentiators, they’re hygiene. If your purpose is “to be inclusive” or “to reduce carbon”, you’re not wrong but you’re not remarkable. These are critical responsibilities of good business stewardship. They should be embedded as practices in the business, not elevated as your north star.
In our book we suggested that there are three types of purpose; customer, commercial and social. The best brands focus first and foremost on their customer needs which enables them to fulfil shareholder expectations in a way that is socially responsible. However, there have been some spectacular misses when brands have reversed that order and elevated a social need to be the primary focus over customer needs leading to major commercial problems.
The problem is when purpose becomes a branding buzzword rather than a business filter. The problem, in the words of one of our clients, is when companies go from “brand-led belief to box-ticking virtue”.
True purpose is a customer-driven purpose, one that is about doing good for your customers and the world in which they live. True purpose is authentic because it is credible: your business can actually deliver it. That kind of purpose energises culture, clarifies decisions and fuels distinctiveness. Anything else is just purpose-washing.
Why It Still Matters in 2025
In today’s climate, where trust is low, choice is high, and stakeholders demand more than just profit, purpose is not a nice-to-have. It’s essential and it’s commercial common sense.
We argued in the book that to succeed, brand purpose must directly drive the customer experience and employee experience. If you lead with meaning, the metrics follow. Companies with strong purpose-driven experiences outperform on loyalty, advocacy, profit, even market share.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly in our AI obsessed times, we stressed the vital role of emotion and empathy in business. Delivering a branded customer experience isn’t just about systems and service, it’s about feeling, memory and meaning. And those are as human and as powerful as ever.
The Purpose of On Purpose
On Purpose was never about theory. It was a guide to action. Ten years on, its messages still matter:
- Purpose-led businesses drive stronger performance and loyalty.
- Align brand, customer and employee experience, don’t silo them.
- Differentiation comes from doing, not just saying.
- Purpose is the ultimate strategic filter; it simplifies decisions and clarifies direction.
