Publication The Purpose of Profit

by Luke Robinson _______4th January 2005
Share

Executive Summary

On the evening of 12 January 2005, Jeff Swart President and CEO of Timberland delivered “The Purpose of Profit” lecture at the RSA. The lecture was full of Jeff Swartz’s conviction that profit and product must be purposeful, and that by connecting profit and product to human beings and human need, he has been able to unleash in his colleagues an unstoppable energy that feeds back into saving and building a great business.

In this lecture Jeff Swartz uncovers a hidden source of energy – the energy that bursts from a business whose people truly believe that “while you earn a living you have to be about creating liberty and justice for all”. While that may be too American for some of us, it resonates for me in seeing the search for an individual and collective purpose within each company – people want a purpose and the companies that can communicate theirs will reap the benefits.