Morally, societally and commercially – having an authentic purpose as a business is critical. Your stakeholders rightly expect much more than just the delivery of your core business services. As a firm, we recognise that and in our current strategic cycle (and your purpose should be front-and-centre in your strategy), we are focusing on ensuring our clients, people and communities flourish.

The keys to 'authenticity' in this space are threefold. Firstly, proactive, consistent and relevant engagement across your business. Your culture is often instrumental in shaping both your strategy and purpose. However, do you really know what your culture is as an organisation? You may talk about your culture shaping your purpose - but until you engage both internally and externally to test how others describe your culture, you run the risk of responding to ill-informed or misjudged assumptions.

Engagement can take many forms: for example, at Burges Salmon, we run regular listening sessions on topics linked to our purpose and our approach as a responsible business. Structurally, we have focused engagement groups that generate dialogues with the firm’s leadership on various topics including sustainability and ESG, E,D & I, Net Zero, and Community Engagement. Every person that is engaged on a topic that they feel passionate about is an ambassador for your purpose both internally and externally.

The second key is to back-up your commitments to purpose with actions over a sustained period. If you get the engagement right - so that you listen to your people and value their ideas - you will be overwhelmed with positive ideas and initiatives. Your role as a leader is to encourage that engagement and then provide the investment and support to deliver those initiatives.

Finally, you should not do this alone. You need to look beyond your internal horizon to work with like-minded clients and stakeholders in your communities. By investing in those long-term relationships, which go beyond the transactional delivery of core services, you will achieve the moral, societal and commercial goals that purpose can bring.