KoAnn Skrzyniarz, founder and chief executive officer of Sustainable Life Media and Sustainable Brands, said integrating purpose into brands was not conflicting to business success or profitability.

Alan AtKisson, president and CEO of AtKisson, cited Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever, who stopped releasing quarterly financial figures after he took charge of the consumer-goods group in 2009, despite a 10-per-cent sell-off by its shareholders, to shift the firm from short-term distractions to long-term goals.

“We live in a time of tremendous change,” he said.

Her Royal Highness Princess Kesang Choden Wangchuck of Bhutan said businesses had started to think beyond financial success to also how they can create a positive impact on society.

In Thailand, for example, her GNH Centre has been working with B Grimm Group, whose corporate philosophy is “doing business with compassion”, to set up the Gross National Happiness Centre Thailand.

Wander Meijer, Asia-Pacific director of GlobeScan, said a global survey revealed that two-thirds of consumers value purpose and try to support brands that are purposeful.

Most respondents were unable to name companies with a strong purpose. No companies got more than a 6-per-cent mention in any region. This implies there is an opportunity for firms to step up to become a leader in purpose, he said.

“Purpose is more effective for consumer engagement than CSR,” or corporate social responsibility, he said.

Tevin Vongvanich, CEO of PTT Group, said a stakeholder management model was one of the tools that PTT had been using to strike the right balance among many confronting issues – such as green versus growth, competition versus sharing, conservation versus development – which was the key to achieving sustainability.

“We need to understand stakeholders’ expectations and bring the inputs to find a right balance, since on the one hand we are the national oil company that has to ensure energy-supply security, and on the other hand, we are a listed company that has to be responsible to our shareholders,” he said.

“We will make a decent but not maximised profit.”

The energy giant has delegated every employee to perform as its “ambassador” to exhibit PTT’s goal of being the “Pride and Treasure of Thailand”.

“You may notice that energy firms, not only PTT, will encourage energy conservation even though they’re selling energy. This is because they want to display their mindsets in conducting their business,” he said.

As the world is shifting from just doing CSR campaigns to supporting social enterprises, PTT has implemented some schemes such as the cold-energy utility unit that helps farmers in Rayong to grow cold-weather flowers and fruits, its sustainable coffee-sourcing programme and its planned waste-to-energy project that still faces some regulatory hurdles.

Stephen Young, global executive director of Caux Round Table, said firms that aspire to be driven by purpose could look at applying some of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, which include 17 goals and 169 sub-goals, to the core principle of their businesses.

The “Stengel 50” study has revealed that the 50 highest-performing businesses are the ones driven by “brand ideals”, he said.

Simon Robinson, co-founder of Holonomics Education, said people nowadays did not just want to buy something, they wanted to believe in something.

The new business paradigm puts a huge emphasis on corporate culture, in which the whole organisation has to be responsible for delivering customer experiences.

Since consumers now have around-the-clock access to businesses, the border between a firm’s external and internal spaces has become blurred.

Firms have to “live their brands” and look at authenticity in everything they do, he concluded.