The CEO Forum Group Magazine Business 2023 (1) - Flipbook - Page 51
Generosity
Thrivent was founded in 1902 with the purpose of helping
families achieve financial clarity and lead lives of service and
faith by making the most of all that they’ve been given. CEO
Terry Rasmussen explains how both Thrivent’s workforce
and clients participate in the organization’s service-oriented,
purpose-driven generosity programs. “Last year alone,
Thrivent and our clients raised and donated $283M through
our generosity programs and volunteered 12.8 million hours of
community service,” Rasmussen says.
“We also just celebrated our one millionth Thrivent Action
Team—a program that provides resources and funding for
community-driven events—and since the end of 2014 our
clients and workforce have raised a billion dollars to support
their community in ways that are most meaningful to them.”
United Vision
Cognizant (with its roots in D&B, founded in 1841) is a
technology services firm. Meera Krishnamurthy, who leads
Cognizant’s Americas Banking, Financial Services and
Insurance group and is supported by 92,000 associates,
explains how her globally dispersed team rallies behind a
service vision. “Despite our scale and geographic spread,
we all share a single goal: engineering intuitive experiences
for our clients and their clients, powered by AI, data, and
modern technology,” Krishnamurthy says. “A recent survey
of insurance execs showed that only 48 percent feel like
their companies are leveraging data to improve customer
experience,” she says. “Our team is driving that number
higher every day.”
Elevating Communities
Insurers provide financial security to millions of customers.
But elevating communities via corporate citizenship can
also produce amazing and unexpected results, for both
the communities and the insurer’s workforce. Principal
Financial Group, founded in 1879, provides an example from
its work in South America. CEO Dan Houston shared the
details. “Principal recently put together an initiative where
representatives from our offices in Chile, Brazil and Mexico
spent their time overseeing a project with an organization
dedicated to improving the educational success of children
and young adults with disabilities. The school we helped
revitalize received $70,000 in infrastructure improvements
that will stand for years,” Houston says. “The numbers are
one thing, but interacting directly with the students that
day was truly inspirational. We saw firsthand how they’re
developing skills and nurturing talents that will set them up
for greater success in life. This drives home the importance of
weaving purpose throughout your organization, which unites
employees around the globe.”
Loss Prevention
FM Global, founded in 1835, insures over $10 trillion of
commercial property against fire, flood, and other disasters,
including climate risks. But unlike most insurers, the company
leverages its engineering heritage (almost a third of its staff
are loss prevention engineers) to help clients prevent losses
from happening in the first place. CEO Malcolm Roberts
discusses the mutual insurer’s unique business model and
purpose. “We engineer progress for a protected world. And
that resonates with the marketplace and our employees. For
example, when a hurricane makes landfall, a hospital that has
followed our risk improvement advice, is much more likely
to be open the next day to serve patients. Or if a fire hits a
manufacturing plant protected to FM Global standards, it will
be able to continue producing life-saving medicine or critical
equipment, with minimal downtime. That’s the purpose that
inspires our growth. The world needs resilience, and helping
protect the world energizes our whole team.”
The Insurance Promise
National Life Group, founded in 1848, is a company that exists
“to do good in our communities and with the individual
families we serve.” To make good on that vision, the
organization created a charitable foundation in 2006 which
provides millions in funding annually to nonprofits with a
particular focus on programs that end childhood hunger
and address children’s mental health. At the company’s core,
delivering on the inherent promise behind life insurance and
annuities is fundamental.
As CEO Mehran Assadi notes, “This business is about promises.
Our growth has been totally tied to being a mission-driven
and purposeful company.” When I asked Mehran about how
he identifies the next generation of employees, he said finding
people whose motivation aligns to the company’s values is
critical. “When you think about Gen Zs, it’s about helping young
people find their ‘why’. And that why leads to what is most
important…to do good, be good and make good.”
It is no accident that these five companies—in very different
spaces, and each with a unique brand promise—have built
lasting businesses with purpose at the core.
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