Swiss companies are divided on the topic of Purpose
Three out of four Swiss companies consider “purpose” to be important. However, only just under half have explicitly defined a purpose. These are the findings of an online survey conducted by News Aktuell and Faktenkontor. A total of 121 communications professionals from companies and PR agencies participated in the survey.
According to the survey, Swiss companies are not uniform when it comes to purpose. The question of the purpose of their activities is important to a large majority of companies: 75 percent attach a great deal of importance or rather a great deal of importance to the topic. However, only just under one in two companies has clearly formulated its own purpose (46 percent).
Lived yes, checked no
According to the communications professionals surveyed, four out of five companies that have defined a purpose at all actually live up to it (79 percent). But only a minority of companies evaluate the extent to which this is actually the case and the purpose is implemented sustainably: Only one in four companies that has formulated a concrete purpose has ongoing performance measurement (25 percent).
No explicit definition
In turn, 39 percent of the companies do not explicitly define their purpose. However, one in ten communications professionals does not even know whether there is a concrete purpose definition in their company (13 percent).
Two-thirds of respondents from companies that have not defined a purpose would like to see such a definition (64 percent), one in five does not need a specific corporate purpose (21 percent), and one in seven has no opinion on the matter (don't know: 15 percent).
News Aktuell and Faktenkontor conducted an online survey in spring 2021 with 121 communications professionals from companies, organizations and PR agencies in Switzerland.
