Powered by our People. Passionate about our Future.
You will probably have seen our EMEA Purpose by now. But how did we arrive at those eight words?
The story began earlier this year, with a simple ambition from our Regional President, José Antonio Cabrera: to create a Purpose for EMEA that our people could connect with emotionally, wherever they work and whatever their role.
But finding a few words that could resonate across different countries, cultures, languages, businesses and roles was never going to be simple.
The journey began in March when José Antonio and the regional VPs came together for a full-day workshop. Rather than jumping straight into possible slogans, they started by exploring the bigger picture: how people across EMEA were feeling, what makes our region distinctive and what we want our future to look like.
From those discussions came a set of building blocks for our Purpose, including our people, our heritage, excellence, growth and the future. These were developed into a longlist of potential statements before being narrowed down to three options for the most important stage: putting them in front of our people.
Focus groups were held in the UK, Spain and Poland, deliberately bringing together colleagues with different experiences and perspectives. We wanted to hear from people in operational and non-operational roles, from different parts of the business and at different stages in their careers.
And the conversations proved exactly why that mattered.
Words that resonated strongly in one country did not always work in another. Some were difficult to translate. Others created completely different associations depending on people’s experiences. There was plenty of debate around words including people, heritage, stronger, passionate and future.
Most importantly, the feedback changed the outcome. Rather than simply choosing one of the three shortlisted statements, we discovered that the strongest answer was a combination of two:
Powered by our People. Passionate about our Future.
Before anything was launched, the statement was tested further across EMEA, including checking how it translated and allowing appropriate local adaptation while retaining the same meaning.
The result is therefore much more than a line created in a meeting room. It has been shaped by voices from across our region, from senior leaders to colleagues working across our operations and offices – which is exactly how it should be.
We are incredibly grateful to all those who contributed to the process – thank you!
Please do now take the opportunity to share the Purpose and the materials we have created with your teams and colleagues. You can find assets including Teams backgrounds, email signatures and other assets here.