Finding and agreeing your Purpose

Before deciding and communicating what your university or innovation hub does, ask yourself why it exists.

The answer should not be to increase access to funding. That is a by-product of doing something more important that’s going to create value by positively impacting the world.

For some, Purpose is about how you deliver benefits. This has been beautifully encapsulated by Professor Colin Mayer (Saïd Business School & The British Academy) as ... “to profitably solve problems for people and planet, and avoid profiting from creating problems for people and planet”

For some, Purpose is understood as positioning – why your organisation exists and the audience requirements it’s here to address. And for others, the main value of Purpose lies in
shaping a positive internal culture, a purposefulness that boosts talent, motivation and productivity.

REF’s definition of Purpose is most closely aligned with Professor Colin Mayer’s.

But the real power of Purpose lies in bringing all three of these together – each playing a distinct role in driving organisational success.  Your organisation may have a specialism that lends itself to a focussed and authentic ‘reason for being’. For instance, overwhelming expertise in healthcare, engineering or art and design.

But for most, it’s likely that you’ll want to combine the expertise of many schools or departments.

If your university has already articulated a clear Purpose, it’ll make a useful starting point. This familiar ground will create a common mindset among colleagues and stakeholders, aligning your innovation brand to the overall organisation.

Whatever you decide your Purpose is, it will underpin your Mission and Vision.

These are powerful forces for innovators, both internally and externally. So let’s establish exactly what they are.

Purpose

Sets out the reasons why your organisation conducts its various activities, articulating what societal challenge, need or benefit you seek to address. 

Mission

Sets out specifically and practically what you aim to do in pursuit of your stated Purpose. It captures the day-to-day activities of the brand

Vision

Describes the outcome that you want to achieve from the successful delivery of your Purpose. Vision statements are usually aspirational, large scale and long-term.

It’s invaluable to build a cross-disciplinary team to work on this. Baking diversity and inclusion into the process will not only produce better inputs but also have longer-term benefits.

We’ve experienced the positive impact created by articulating a Purpose, Mission and Vision in one large university school. After a simple 60 minute on-boarding process, over 120 academics were actively engaged in developing new ideas for how they’d bring their fledgling new brand to life – with some truly innovative results!

It will, of course, include additional elements such as competitor research, stakeholder research, positioning, naming, MVP communications and content production. Ultimately, the process, as well as the outcomes, should be empowering, galvanising and even liberating.

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Igniting your university or innovation hub identity can catalyse commercial opportunities. It can harness a sense of purpose, shared mission and energy that leads to greater entrepreneurialism, new sources of funding, new corporate partnerships new IP income, and an improved reputation – even fame.

To help a greater range of stakeholders to embrace this opportunity a simple change of language can help focus minds. Less corporate identity – more Impact Identity. It could increase the likelihood of maintaining a culture of innovation and ...

>   intensify the clarity and focus of your purpose, mission and vision
>   inspire emotional engagement
>   invigorate internal stakeholders