URC's ingredients for success: Purpose, Values and Ambition that anchor and fuel business growth

Universal Robina Corporation (URC) sought to develop a purpose, values and ambition that reflects their Filipino heritage while driving responsible growth.

Challenge

Marching orders from the board of Universal Robina Corporation (URC) were clear when they embarked on their journey to develop their purpose, values and ambition (PVA). The leading Philippines branded consumer food and beverage conglomerate’s PVA had to

1. resonate and connect with ALL stakeholders and

2. show the way forward for a responsible business. 

The aim was to launch a PVA that brings all its stakeholders, from the production floor to overseas markets, to a clear and collective understanding of why they exist (purpose), and how they can take concrete action (values) towards a shared success (ambition). The PVA must uphold the founder's legacy and align with the PVA of URC’s parent company, JG Summit, to reflect the Filipino heritage through products and relationships and at the same time drive innovation, scale growth and attract future talent.

Solution

The Purpose Business (TPB), together with our strategic partner Within People, designed a collaborative experience to craft a PVA that is inherent to URC’s DNA as a Filipino food group but also globally competitive to mirror the growth plans. To ensure alignment, we worked closely with URC's PVA Steering Committee, led by the group’s CEO, who kept us on track with their objectives and expectations.

To obtain a holistic view of URC’s unique impact, internal culture and long-term vision, TPB and Within People conducted numerous interviews and focus group discussions with employees and senior executives across many of its business units and operating regions, as well as with select investors, suppliers and distributors. Insights drawn from the engagements fed into a series of four co-creative workshops with a team of URC leaders spanning various business lines and tenure to flesh out the PVA. From high potential management trainees to the longest serving staff, iterations were stress-tested to ensure that we landed on a PVA that was second nature and can easily be brought to life.

We also collaborated with URC to create embedding tools to equip them in activating their PVA:

• A leadership guide for managers and leaders outlining the PVA, how it was created, its business case and practices to bring the PVA to life within their teams

• Facilitation training materials for the PVA cascade including how to incorporate this into the orientation process for new hires

• Trained the HR team to facilitate and lead the PVA cascade and activation workshops across the organisation

• A narrative for corporate communications and employer branding including a film brief to translate the PVA into audio-visual stories

Impact

• Cascaded and trained over 10,000 URC employees (90% of total employees) on the PVA across all business units including branded consumer food, agro-industrial and commodities and international business – with feedback strongly reaffirming that employees feel proud, motivated and confident to face challenges knowing that they are valued and cared for.

• Successfully incorporated the new PVA into URC’s talent retention and recruitment strategy as well as in their new-hire onboarding culture training.

• Defined and developed leadership and commercial competencies anchored on the Values and are being used to evaluate URC employees.

• Launched on-going engaging and motivational employee sessions featuring local and international resource speakers to bring elements of the PVA to life.

*Impact tracked as of November 2021 (last month of cascade schedules)