Key objectives

  • Capture the essence of Reckitt in an overarching Purpose that motivates and inspires action 

  • Reflect the priorities of new leadership, setting the stage for a new commitment to purposeful brand growth 

  • Clarity on the meaningful value that the business brings to people, their lives and the wider world 

  • An umbrella idea that can be served by the individual brands in the portfolio 

  • Ensure the new Purpose rings true for the 40,000 people of Reckitt 

 

1 Challenge 

  • Work fast – 30 day timeframe to assemble the right team internally and launch the new Purpose internally

  • Take senior level vision and turn into a Purpose that everyone could buy into and believe

  • Engage with young talent from all parts of the world as representative of the future of the business

  • Ensure the new Purpose is actionable – offers clear guidance for individual and team actions

  • Understand the specific culture of the Reckitt, past, present – and project that into the future

  • Create a new narrative that redefines the business for the future and inspires genuine passion in its people

2 What we did – inputs 

  • Worked with a hand-picked team of Reckitt’s youngest and brightest minds and some of the most influential business leaders 

  • Created a wealth of stimulus to spark new and creative thinking, including the Why of the Why (the purpose of the Purpose), 

  • The Obituary (what if Reckitt ceased to exist) 

  • The Big Fights (what societal, structural issues in the world could Reckitt help tackle) 

  • Archetypes (what kind of company would the new Reckitt be?) 

  • Led and facilitated energetic workshops to drive the thinking and hypothesise alternative futures 

3 What we did – outputs 

  • Achieved consensus around key concepts of Purpose, including introduction of important new Fight element 

  • Clear, simple and action-focused, easily applied to every part of the business 

  • Three key elements underpinned the effectiveness of the core Purpose and Fight 

  • Natural fit across the whole portfolio – captured the essence of the core product actions and benefits these bring to people and the world 

  • The Fight provided a clear action-focused rallying call – ‘access’ as the high-level societal problem that could be addressed in a range of different ways 

  • Incorporated language that celebrated the strong and distinctive Reckitt culture (‘relentless pursuit’) 

  • Purpose statement – fully and thoroughly articulated and explained 

  • Identified the key actions and impacts we’d expect to see 

  • Incorporated CEO and Sustainability vision and goals 

  • Helped to develop the new Reckitt Compass that guides business and individual actions 

  • Synthesised all outputs into a single digestible package 

  • Supported Corporate Affairs team to launch the Purpose to the business within the original time frame 

4 Impact 

  • Post launch, 87% positive reaction in anonymous global employee survey 

  • Established the platform for CEO Laxman Narasimhan and leadership team to engage with the world internally and externally 

  • Positive reception by investor community 

  • Commitment to donate the equivalent of 1% profit to benefit communities globally through the Fight For Access Fund 

  • Helped to pave the way for new name and identity for the business (from rb to Reckitt), including creating alternative design visions for the new identity 

  • Created template and pathway to transform Reckitt brands to become Purpose-driven 

  • Led to establishment of new Marketing Excellence function, charged with leading and shaping all Purpose-related activities internally 

 

  • Purpose Done Right came in and lit an inspiring flame under our Purpose process. We now have 40,000 people rallied behind it across the world.” 

Miguel Vega-Pestana, SVP
Corporate Affairs & Sustainability, Reckitt