Innovation That Makes an Impact: 4 Key Takeaways on Balancing Profit with Purpose
Last week, Nasdaq and Invesco QQQ hosted a panel discussion exploring how some Nasdaq-100 companies are balancing profit with purpose to make an impact on the world. Moderated by Branden Jones, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Nasdaq, featured panelists include Roxana Shirkhoda, Global Head of Social Impact at Zoom, Anna Pagila, Global Head of ETFs and Indexed Strategy at Invesco, and Laurie Blair, Vice President of Brand Strategy and Product Marketing at Walgreens. Here are four key takeaways, below the video:
1. Companies are zeroing in on purpose and impact
While profitability has always been—and always will be—critical for business success, companies are starting to emphasize the importance of purpose-driven profitability.
Paglia commented on how impact cannot be separated from business strategy and profitability at Invesco: “We have to start thinking about impact and business as one in the same, that you can do good for the business and also the good for the world at the same time.”
“Purpose is not always something that is the first topic at hand when you think about business and profitability, but it's equally as important," said Blair. "All leaders across all brands and all businesses are now having to encourage a new way of thinking and approaching problems by putting purpose-driven work at the forefront. Profitability and the success will follow because we are doing what's necessary.”
Focusing on impact isn't just a feel-good gesture, but essential to a corporation's purpose, said Shirkhoda. “Moving resources, brain capital, and intentionality all towards serving communities to live in a more equitable and prosperous world is a business imperative...Being purpose driven isn't intentionally meant to drive profitability." She also noted, "Our commitment to our communities is not just good for the world, it's also good for business. We see that customers and shoppers choose brands that reflect their values and give back to their local communities.”
2. The pandemic has accelerated impactful innovation
Now more than ever, it’s been key for companies to innovate in response to needs that have arisen from the pandemic, and they’ve had to do so swiftly and efficiently.
Blair, on how Walgreens had to think and act fast in response to COVID-19, said, “When there was so much uncertainty about the virus, we quickly had to innovate just to make sure that people could keep up with their lives and their medication regimen. And now we're at the point where we have vaccines and there has been a rapid scaling to make sure people could get scheduled. Our scheduling tool didn't even exist just a few months ago.”
Shirkhoda also commented on how COVID-19 has changed the way Zoom operates. “Especially during this last year, millions of young people and learners have been set back and have lost over a year of learning opportunities. We were able to leverage our platform and help train more than 35,000 educators to support them going through an incredibly huge transition from teaching in the classroom to teaching remotely. We really looked at our product and saw that there were opportunities for us to continue enhancing the features of the platform to ensure that all the diverse communities that leverage our platform can use it in the way that's most effective and successful for them.”
3. Technology's critical role
Keeping Invesco moving forward during the pandemic required making technology a key pillar, Paglia said. “You always have to look at future crisis and try and stand in front of it. We have been preparing for a pandemic for years now. We need to think about that the next disruption—which could be positive or negative. We also have to think about what innovations can keep the light on if something happens. In the last 15 months, we went from a 100 percent in-person environment to a 100 percent virtual environment from literally one day to the next. That is not something that you can prepare for overnight, and it really has to be part of your company DNA.”
Zoom's prominent role in the pandemic quickly came into sharp relief. While Shirkhoda believed in Zoom's ability to impact businesses and individuals, its seemingly overnight success wasn't quite as sudden as it appeared.
“It’s crucial to acknowledge that innovation doesn't happen overnight," Shirkhoda said. She went on to say that the company had been developing its platform over 10 years before the pandemic hit and was ready to step up when the moment called for it.
4. Diversity is at the forefront of driving real innovation
Diversity is becoming increasingly important to advancing as a business, and companies are putting in effort to ensure inclusion is valued and celebrated.
Zoom has been deliberate about its approach. Shirkhoda highlighted four pillars in their diversity framework: Workforce, workplace, marketplace, and community. She said, "We want our staff to represent the communities in which they live in around the world."
Walgreens also focused on the communities they're in. “We don't just have 9000 plus stores— we like to think of them as we're in 9000 micro communities," Blair said. "Each of those micro communities needs to reflect and serve the people that live in those communities, so we think about everything from making sure that our team members in the stores reflect the diversity of those communities to making sure that our supplier base is diverse. We’re prioritizing and putting Black-owned businesses to the forefront and Walgreens recently appointed a new CEO, Roz Brewer who is the first African American female CEO of a Fortune 500 company.”
Even for a business like Invesco, diversity is essential to its business. “Our industry is kind of unique...because we don't really have too much stuff that is patented or trademarked," Paglia said. "We can create the brightest product tomorrow, and everybody can replicate it the next week. So, for us, being an innovator is really about pushing the envelope, and doing it faster and better than anybody else. And you don't do that in silence. You need to have people from different cultures and different places and different viewpoints that are disagreeing and challenging each other.”
Final Word:
These three companies have little in common, but what unites them all is their focus on purpose and the value they bring to their communities and workforce. They see impact and business as going hand in hand.
Watch the complete Innovation That Makes an Impact discussion, at the top of this article.