Eoghan O’Lionaird: Why purpose powers thriving businesses
Going behind the hoarding to understand our purpose in action
Since refreshing our purpose in 2024, we’ve had countless conversations across Wates about what it truly means. Those discussions have sometimes been profound especially when they focused on how we actually put our purpose in practice. ‘Reimagining places for people to thrive’ isn’t just a phrase on the wall; it’s how we deliver projects that create meaningful impact for society.
I’ve had the privilege of visiting so many of our people, projects and customers to see this first-hand – and each visit has been nothing short of energising. As much as anything else, that’s why I look forward to visiting our projects – when I’m in need of a boost or a reminder of why we do what we do or what our impact is in the real world, I go walk a job, chat with to my colleagues, listen to our customers. It’s the best part of my job – by far!
Why a purpose-led business?
Our purpose – reimagining places for people to thrive – is Wates’ north star. It guides everything we do, from building schools, prisons, skyscrapers, and gigafactories to creating homes and fitting out and maintaining spaces. It shapes how we do business.
For me, it’s motivational to know we’re creating value that goes beyond the balance sheet.
This principle around doing business that’s a force for good has been embedded in Wates for five generations. But it’s not just fulfilling – there’s a business case for being purpose-led, too: companies that act responsibly become trusted partners to their customers and grow resilient supply chains. Organisations known for inclusivity attract a broader, more diverse talent pool – critical in the built environment as tech-driven industries increasingly attract the next generation.
We are living through a time of increasing uncertainty and in a world of geopolitical, economic and rapid technological change, purpose matters more than ever. As some political and business voices retreat from sustainability and DEI commitments – the cornerstones of purpose – I feel strongly that now is the time to double down on ours.
By doing business with purpose, we create more enduring value for our customers, our communities, and our colleagues – and this value is measured in ways that stretch well beyond the confines of profit and loss.
Businesses that operate with purpose can unlock innovation, collaboration, and new ideas and this enables us all to drive new ways of thinking about how we create value and what value is – not just financial value, but societal value and human value. And this becomes a virtuous circle because by creating and delivering value across multiple dimensions, we create stronger, more resilient businesses, better able to adapt to change.
In a way, this shouldn’t be surprising: as human beings, none of us is one dimensional. We don’t think about life as having only one dimension by which to measure value – because value is a broad compendium of things. We naturally engage with our family, with our community, with people whom we meet on the journey, and those with whom we work – and with everything that we all do and create – so it should feel quite natural that businesses, too, should think along multiple dimensions about how we create value and the impact of that, right down to the individual level.
A blueprint for change
‘Reimagining places for people to thrive’ resonates because it’s not just about doing things well – it’s about challenging the status quo and striving for something better and leaving an enduring positive impact.
I recently sat down with Blueprint for Business – an organisation we consulted when we were in the process of refreshing our purpose. We discussed why being a purpose-led business is so important for the legacy of our company and a huge opportunity to futureproof operations and grow. Watch the video below.
I feel immensely privileged and proud to lead an organisation of people who want to make a difference – who want to leave a legacy of a stronger, safer, sustainable, more resilient world than we inherited. And to echo the Wates family mantra, my message to other companies – no matter what industry – is this: business done well should be a force for good.