Brand purpose encourages innovation: CEO Women's Community Shelters

Communicating an organisation’s purpose allows staff to innovate and provides an element of differentiation to an organisation.

Digital Nation spoke to Annabelle Daniel, CEO of Women’s Community Shelters about the importance of defining and embedding a brand purpose.

“One of the most important things to think about is why are you here? And what need are you meeting? I think it's incredibly important to stay focused on that all of the time, it should be your reason why you get out of bed every day,” she says.

“I go to bed every night, and I know that there are 150 women and kids who are sleeping safer because of the work that we do…It's so important that we be able to scale and to know what we're here for, to be able to address the need that's out there.”

Daniel says that when a brand’s purpose is urgent, known and defined, employees are empowered to advocate on behalf of the organisation.

“Staff are empowered to work within boundaries, and to act entrepreneurially in coming up with solutions. I think that's incredibly important, too, because we also work outside the boundaries of government funding,” she says.

Daniel believes that establishing an organisation where the leader is able to express freely in the space around them what is necessary to solve the problem creates a cascading effect to the staff and the workplace culture.

Kate Phillips, VP global marketing at Criteria Corp believes that this strategy extends to the corporate sphere, adding immense value to organisations.

“It enables people to have a framework of what is acceptable and encouraged behaviour and ways of working right through to the way products are designed or the way sales activities occur. Any of those activities should support the brand, the purpose and the values of the organisation and vice versa,” she said.

Fundamentally, Daniel believes that viewing purpose as a core strategy is key to differentiation and to streamlined success.

“I think there are plenty of opportunities to set yourself apart from other organisations, and I really do think it's about thinking what your point of difference is, and what your offer is that is different to other organisations out there,” she says.

“If I was to think about our brand and how we differentiate, it's the elements of difference, the social franchise, the community involvement, and the funding from lots of different streams that really set us apart and differentiate us.”

Credit: The video was produced by Josh Lundberg, Matthew Ryan and Tejas Bhat.