Tate & Lyle – redefining and operationalising purpose
Published: 25 September 2023
2 minute read
Tate & Lyle is a global supplier of food and beverage ingredients and solutions.
Background
In 2016, Tate & Lyle established its purpose of ‘improving lives for generations’. This new approach took into consideration the company’s long history, but with the intention of being more confident and ambitious, changing the way it operates. The articulation of a clear purpose has seen new products delivered and new partnerships established by the company.
Tate & Lyle identified three pillars of its purpose, and set commitments and targets looking at:
- Supporting healthy living: helping people to make healthier choices about what they eat and drink
- Building thriving communities: being a positive influence in its communities
- Caring for our planet: protecting the planet’s natural resources for the benefit of future generations
Tate & Lyle’s purpose is based on the organisation’s values of safety, integrity and respect, combining focus on workers, customers and cultivating equity, diversity and inclusion throughout the company.
Action
In defining its purpose, Tate & Lyle asked employees, ‘how can we be a successful business and have a positive impact on the world?’.
To answer this question, the company used champions to lead events within the wider organisation. It also worked with external consultants to provide expertise and objectivity, as well as facilitate further conversations with staff, being mindful of not telling the company what to do but enabling conversation. This approach created internal ownership, fostered engagement and helped staff to form a strong connection to the purpose.
Conversations brought together workers from different roles and levels to discuss issues such as diabetes, child obesity, food wastage and climate change. The company was then able to consider how its actions could influence societies and communities.
Purpose was embedded in the organisation because of close connections with people, their experiences and their personal values. By making it relevant to workers and embracing their views, the company was able to bring it to life and implement it, internally and externally, via the champions.
To further endorse the new purpose across the organisation, a leadership development programme was launched to support leaders to be role models. This focused on behaviours including building partnerships, and implementing the purpose and its commitments.
Tate & Lyle recognised the importance of measuring progress to fulfil the purpose, and so in 2020 it announced a set of long-term, purpose-led targets, including:
- Achieving gender parity in leadership roles by 2025
- Removing nine million tonnes of sugar from people’s diets through low- and no-calories sweeteners and fibres, equivalent to 36 trillion calories by 2025
- Delivering a 30% absolute reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030
Impact
As a result of these actions, purpose is now integrated into strategic decision-making and used as the basis to refresh the company’s vision and culture. It is also comprehensively reported on so stakeholders can see the importance of the purpose and how it is integrated in the company’s work.
The company now works to ensure that people feel valued, heard and safe to speak up. It has since seen improvements in attracting talent, partially because this increased focus on purpose translated into new partnerships and programmes which have provided new opportunities and experiences for the employees.
Defining purpose, setting clear targets and embedding it across the business has proved central to company success.