Purpose-led organization: ‘Saint Antony’ reflects on the idea of organizational purpose, in principle and practice

Antony Jenkins, whose tenure as CEO/Chairman at Barclays makes his name synonymous with ‘purpose-led leadership’, speaks in this interview about a working conception of purpose to inform key decisions for large organizations and about the internal and external challenges these organizations face while implementing purpose. We interviewed him at Oxford in February 2016. He draws our attention to (a) how purpose and performance go hand-in-hand, (b) the importance of recognizing purpose at the individual level and how that gets integrated into the organization’s purpose, and (c) the steps in becoming a purposeful organization that involve challenging the fear of short-term loss and aspiring to employ performance measures that stretch beyond our sense of control. He offers pieces of hard-won advice for an organization attempting a purpose-led transformation and shares his philosophy on how to do so starting with individuals.