We attended the WorkHuman conference this week and heard from Simon Sinek. He gave a great presentation using concepts from his new book, The Infinite Game (coming out in October 2018). He spoke about courageous leadership as one of several requirements an organization needs to play an infinite game (we’ll all read the book, but spoiler alert: your organization should want to play an infinite game).

Sinek highlighted CVS Health as an example of a company who has courageous leadership. In 2014, CVS Health made the shocking decision to no longer sell tobacco products in any of their stores. This choice resulted in a nearly $2 billion loss in annual revenue.

This move further clarified and demonstrated the purpose of their company: helping people on their path to better health. As Norman de Greve, CVS Health’s Marketing chief noted, “Selling cigarettes and antibiotics in the same store is just wrong.”

The choice to exit tobacco clearly resonated with consumers. Nearly half a million consumers visited the section of CVS’s website devoted entirely to quitting smoking. 260,000 consumers sought personalized help from CVS counselors in stores across the country.

Living true to their name

Beyond resonating with consumers, it was a clear win with the media and employer branding as a whole. Nearly a year after the decision to exit from tobacco sales, influencers saw CVS as more impactful in improving health versus in 2014, before the tobacco choice was made.

WorkHuman attendees are all committed to creating a more human workplace. So, as a practitioner of employee engagement you may ask, how did this decision impact the CVS Health employees? What did it do to impact their sense of purpose and engagement?

Last year we interviewed several members of the merchandising team to understand how this big bold move affected their experience as employees and tied to their employer brand. We heard lots of great perspectives.

The video below features MaryAlyce Saenz, a member of the merchandising team. She shares a story about the day she found out CVS Health was leaving big tobacco behind:

Before making the decision, leadership had no means of knowing the impact exiting tobacco would have, besides a loss of $2 billion in annual revenue. Because the risk was so great, MaryAlyce and others saw it as a “gutsy move,” one that showed her company was living its purpose. It wasn’t a marketing trick.

Fast Company recently reported that “Brands that have seen a significant drop in their “purpose” rankings may have employees who simply don’t feel on board with their company’s purpose, or just see it as another rebrand.” CVS took the risk of exiting tobacco and MaryAlyce proves that it paid off in reinvigorating why she was working for the company and was on board with what it truly stood for.

Using stories to show true company purpose

Right now,  70% of US adults say it’s important to them that their actions make a positive difference in the world. Candidates, as well as employees, want to work for a company that aligns with their set of values and their own sense of purpose. And they want courageous leadership who will make the tough decisions that support this purpose. Which means it’s now one company to not only establish their true purpose, but find the best way to communicate it to the greater public and potential candidates.

Stories, especially employee stories, remain one of the best resources to tap into for creating content. It puts a real face to the employees of a company. And, more often than not, they illustrate how employees live out the purpose of a company on a daily basis.

Employee stories go well beyond putting a well-crafted mission or purpose statement on a website for everyone to see. Instead, it allows people to actually understand what that mission statement means and how they experience it throughout their career. Purpose is a human story more so than anything else