The Purpose of BP

Ross and five fellow One Young World Ambassadors left the Summit in Bogotá with an existential question about their company, BP. Why do they exist? They made the decision that establishing and embedding BP’s societal purpose at the core of the business was essential for their own continued careers at BP, the organisation’s future and ultimately the future of the world at large.

The six Ambassadors were given the go-ahead to explore the concept further, with no binding commitment. To start, they researched the topic of purpose and published a paper outlining best practices, and a vision of how it could be applied to BP. Amongst their own internal networks, the team used this paper to build excitement amongst colleagues and educate them on the case for change. Crucially, this was also when the team realised the guiding principle of their project – a purpose is not ‘created’, but instead is unearthed and discovered from within. 

Following this principle, the team piloted a novel surveying technology, asking open-ended questions and analysing the major themes which stood out in the stories that employees provided. This helped the team to draw conclusions from authentic employee experiences and in essence, helped to helped discover what employees believed BP’s purpose should be.. The next stage was to take the initiative to the very top. The team met with then-CEO Bob Dudley and the executive team, including new CEO Bernard Looney, who put their support behind the project. As a result, the Ambassadors started to work in a larger team dedicated to embedding purpose into every strand of the organization. 

In February 2020, BP announced that the organisation was committed to becoming a “net zero company by 2050 or sooner”, supported by a variety of new aims and ambitions. At the core of this announcement, and essential to its implementation, is their new purpose: “Our purpose is reimagining energy for people and our planet. We want to help the world reach net zero and improve people’s lives."

BP is now a purpose-driven company, just as they envisaged after leaving the One Young World Summit in 2017. It has been a truly rewarding experience for Abigail, Alastair, Brenden, Kelly, Maria and Ross who have pushed tirelessly to discover purpose within BP. They have also committed to support the long-term implementation of this purpose to ensure it has a real and measurable impact. The team is reluctant to claim success at this stage and instead prefer to remind those around them: “purposeful companies like ours will be measured over decades – not quarters”.