How entrepreneurs are helping to unlock long-term value

Among its impacts, the global COVID-19 crisis has intensified pressure on companies to rethink how they define and measure the value they create. Even before the pandemic hit, business leaders around the world were facing growing calls to demonstrate how their companies are positively impacting their customers, employees and society — not just their bottom line. Leaders increasingly recognize that to survive and thrive in a post-pandemic economy, they need to focus on creating long-term value for a much broader group of stakeholders than in the past.

This is new territory for many businesses, and it requires fresh thinking that goes beyond short-term performance and shareholder returns.

One source of that fresh thinking? Entrepreneurs, such as the ones featured in the EY documentary “The Unstoppables.” Produced in collaboration with CNBC Catalyst, this feature reveals how seven of the world’s most ambitious and successful founders are shaping a brighter future. Many of them have embedded a commitment to building long-term value into the DNA of their businesses.

For example, with his company RocketLab, New Zealand’s Peter Beck is reimagining a more sustainable approach to launching satellites into space — including those that help monitor our planet’s changing climate. Seeing an opportunity to convert waste into energy, Loretta Lee founded Canvest to help address an environmental issue of managing waste while generating electricity supply in China. Ireland-born serial entrepreneur Rosaleen Blair transformed the way that blue-chip multinationals attract and retain top talent and now helps organizations unlock the business advantages of diversity and inclusion.

These founders are doing more than simply building financially successful companies; they are helping to build a better working world through their companies and generating long-term value for all of their stakeholders. They understand that business opportunities are enhanced by a definition of value that’s broader than just short-term profits. And they recognize that their customers, employees, investors and government stakeholders — to name just a few — expect it of them.

What can we learn from these innovators? 

First, even though their businesses range from aerospace to agriculture to AI, each of these leaders is able to clearly articulate their purpose, or the reason why their business exists. This is something we see with entrepreneurs around the world — purpose is at the center of their personal priorities and business models. And the most successful entrepreneurs are the ones who seed this purpose through every level of their organization and align their business strategies to fulfilling it at every stage.

This alignment is not easy to maintain, particularly as companies grow and evolve. It’s not uncommon for organizations to lose sight of their purpose as they expand and mature, particularly if they go public. It takes concerted, sustained and intentional effort to define and articulate purpose; align leadership around it; engage your stakeholders in the journey; and anchor your strategy to your purpose.

In “The Unstoppables,” the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™ 2020 and founder of India-based biopharmaceutical giant Biocon Ltd., Dr. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, talks about the role purpose has played in driving some of the most exciting advances of her career and her company’s growth.

Second, many of the entrepreneurs featured in “The Unstoppables” talk about the importance of taking a long view of the impact they hope to achieve. Kenya’s groundbreaking microfinancier Dr. Jennifer Riria reveals how she is purposefully cultivating systems, institutions and a set of values designed to outlive her own tenure, so that her vision to fund economic and social progress through microloans across Africa will be a legacy that continues to uplift the communities her organization serves for years to come. In the US, serial entrepreneur Brad Keywell emphasizes that leaders can unlock long-term opportunity by reimagining a future where making society better and making business more effective are part of the same goal.