Leading a purpose-driven business

By Lynn Madeley, issued by Havas Johannesburg

1 Feb 2019

Sustainable success goes beyond just seeing the bottom line. At Havas Southern Africa, we believe that a strong sense of purpose drives business success. Sustained success is the coming together of a sense of purpose that rings through every bit of the organisation and is an essential part of business acumen today.

Lynn Madeley (centre) with Havas Academy interns

Businesses that emphasise the importance of meaningful connections with their various audiences are proving to be more profitable than those who underestimate its importance. This belief stems from real-life statistics proving that by creating these meaningful connections brands see a nine-fold share increase. Havas’s proprietary research and insight tool, Meaningful Brands® has been invaluable in providing research to back this core belief.

Havas Southern Africa does not only live this in all aspects of its functioning as a business, but it also values the importance of making an impact on its employees and the society within which we operate. Nothing speaks to this more than the establishment of the Havas Academy, a training and development arm within Havas that focuses on empowering black women who want to enter the marketing and communications sector. The initiative is an expression of our purpose within the business and our purpose within our society. We have recognised a skills deficit in our society and we are taking action and addressing it with the Havas Academy. By placing an emphasis on the empowerment of young black women in the industry we are helping meet a socio-economic need for society, and are helping black women interested in marketing and communications live out their purpose.

We recently welcomed John Davenport into the Havas Village to lead our creative. His track record in the advertising industry, and his holistic approach in leading purpose-driven business resonated greatly with us. His addition will prove invaluable in our mission to forge deep connections both within the business as he leads with Havas Academy, and between our clients and their target audiences.

For business, true purpose exists not only in what is achieved on the outside but – in an equally importance sense – internally as well. What it comes down to is being able to make a meaningful difference to the people we work with – whether it is our partner clients, our people or society. I believe that emphasising this as much as the bottom line is the definition of true business success.

About Lynn Madeley

Lynn, CEO Havas Southern Africa, has had two careers, one as an international horse rider and another as an advertising executive. She has worked for the likes of Saatchi & Saatchi in London and Hong Kong, Ogilvy in Botswana, and in South Africa was with Lowe before she joined Havas Worldwide Johannesburg, previously known as Euro RSCG South Africa, to run their South African operation in 2007. Lynn believes in fulfilling potential, everyone's, from people who work at Havas, to the brands, companies and products they work with. She is a member of the Advertising and Communications Association, Remuneration Committee and also sits on the appeals panel of the Advertising Standards Authority.

Havas Worldwide Johannesburg thrives on creative business ideas, proudly flipping the conventional advertising agency on its head. Our specialisation is world first, creative communication, that's designed to build meaningful connections between brand and consumers.