Corporate Purpose: What's the Point?

Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

Blueprint for Better Business and Jericho hosted a roundtable dinner in May 2025 to reflect on the increasingly complex environment for businesses seeking to act with purpose, especially in light of regulatory, political and cultural pressures.

Amid the backlash in the United States against environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes, companies operating globally find themselves rethinking language, strategy and communications while trying to preserve underlying commitments. The roundtable brought together leaders from sectors including finance, pharma, utilities and infrastructure to candidly share how they are responding, what’s being lost or gained, and where they see opportunities to regroup and advance the role of responsible business. 

Executive summary:

• US policy changes are forcing multinational companies to alter or reframe DEI and ESG initiatives, even when underlying values remain.

• The politicisation of language means companies are replacing terms like “climate” and “diversity” with softer alternatives such as “nature” and “inclusion” to avoid reputational and legal risk.

• Internal communications teams are under strain, providing guidance and reassurance to staff unsure what language is safe to use. This has created what some called a sense of “cultural unease and sadness.”

• Despite appearances of retreat, many businesses remain committed to their original principles—but with altered narratives and reduced transparency, risking confusion and mistrust among stakeholders.

• Several participants noted that the pendulum may have initially swung too far in one direction—with some businesses adopting moral stances that outpaced public legitimacy or shareholder consensus. But now, it has swung too far back the other way—towards silence, retreat and self-censorship.

• Ownership structure and investor expectations critically shape a company’s ability to maintain long-term purposeful commitments.

• There is a growing recognition that hope and imagination are essential tools for reinvigorating the purposeful business movement.

• There is appetite for cross-sector collaboration that builds shared language, internal confidence and public legitimacy for businesses navigating this new world in responsible and purposeful ways.

• The pressures and threats of climate chaos, social polarisation and cultural fragmentation are unlikely to recede.

Reframing, Not Retreat

Language is changing. Values may not be—but they’re harder to see.

Participants described how legal risk, public backlash and cultural polarisation (particularly in the US) have led many global firms to halt or rename DEI and ESG efforts. In some cases, compliance requirements mean there is no room for ambiguity: programmes have simply stopped – and far quicker than anticipated. In others, initiatives continue under new, less politicised labels.

But the shift in tone is unmistakable. “We’ve changed our external narrative, but not our beliefs,” said one participant. “The risk is that our people don’t see that, so they assume we’ve walked away.” The result is a cultural and emotional dissonance: a purposeful business that appears to be in retreat.

The internal impact is just as significant. Employees across geographies are unsettled by sudden shifts in tone or vocabulary, especially when the logic behind these changes isn’t clearly communicated. Internal comms teams are working intensively to support managers and reassure staff, but there is a shared sense of “cultural unease and sadness” – a fear of saying the wrong thing, and a deeper anxiety about whether the company’s values are still intact.

 The Pendulum Problem

After overstepping, has business overcorrected?

There was a striking sense that business has become trapped between two extremes. Some participants acknowledged that, in recent years, companies may have moved too quickly or boldly into moral territory – adopting activist language or causes without building sufficient consensus. In doing so, they may have alienated stakeholders, raised questions of legitimacy, and created backlash.

But the response to that backlash, participants warned, now risks becoming just as problematic. Over-correction has led to strategic silence, diluted narratives, and the loss of internal and external confidence. As one contributor put it: “The pendulum swung too far in one direction. Now it’s swung too far in the other – and we’re still off balance.”

Value-Led, Not Values-Led

Shareholder primacy returns as the only safe rationale, even for social good. 

For companies with fiduciary obligations to clients and shareholders, the prevailing strategy is to anchor every action to long-term financial value. “It’s not that we don’t believe in equity or climate risk,” said one attendee. “It’s that we can only talk about them if we can model a financial outcome.”

While some see this as a pragmatic shield, others worried that it erases the possibility of speaking to intrinsic values or broader social obligations. Over time, they warned, this narrowing of language could shape strategy itself.

Governance as Anchor

Ownership models and legal structures shape what survives under pressure.

Firms with long-term investors or embedded purpose in their governance structures (such as legally binding articles) reported greater resilience. One spoke of using its articles to anchor decision-making in a “three-part” purpose: people, planet and financial sustainability.

“These things only hold if they’re baked into your institutional design,” they noted. “Otherwise, they get deprioritised the moment the winds shift.”

The Quiet Middle

Most businesses haven’t walked away, but many have gone silent. 

While some companies are pulling back entirely, most find themselves stuck in a nervous middle – still doing the work but increasingly reluctant to say so. This silence, participants warned, risks ceding the narrative to more vocal extremes, allowing anti-ESG voices to set the tone for public discourse.

“There’s a power vacuum,” said one contributor. “If we don’t fill it with principled, measured leadership, someone else will fill it with something far more dangerous.”

Finding Common Language

Shifting to less polarised terms can open up new conversations, but also dilute clarity.

Participants discussed how terms like “climate,” “equity,” or “social justice” are being replaced by softer language like “resilience,” “access,” or “fairness.” While this allows organisations to stay engaged, there is concern that continual euphemism erodes meaning and may confuse or alienate internal audiences who no longer understand what the business stands for.

Still, the group agreed that recalibrating language is necessary. “It’s not about watering things down,” said one leader. “It’s about making sure more people can hear and engage with what you’re saying.”

A Call to Reimagine

Without vision, there can be no meaningful progress.

The conversation turned to the absence of hopeful, compelling visions of the future.

Dystopia dominates cultural and political narratives, making it difficult for organisations to imagine or articulate positive change. “There’s no shared picture of where we’re trying to get to,” said one voice. “And if you can’t name it, you can’t build it.”

This moment, some argued, must be seen not only as a defensive challenge but as a creative one. “We need a new grammar for hope,” said one participant, “and we need to write it together.”

An Invitation to Collaborate

This is not just a challenge for business – it’s an invitation to shape the future.

The dinner concluded with a clear sense that the work ahead cannot be done alone. The pressures businesses face today are not simply operational – they are cultural, political, emotional and moral. Navigating them will require new forms of collaboration that help companies align purpose with legitimacy, reframe their narratives without losing their soul, and rebuild internal confidence in what they stand for.

Blueprint and Jericho are exploring how to convene and support businesses ready to do this work: to clarify values, test language, stress-test strategy and co-create a future-facing vision of business in society. There is a moment here that calls not for quiet retreat, but for thoughtful, collective courage.

For more details on this programme please contact becky.holloway@jerichochambers.com