News and Insights

Leading Through Chaos

August 19, 2025

How leaders can balance profit and purpose to build organizations that endure

The notion that responsible businesses must choose between profit and purpose is outdated. This false choice is not new. It has been front and center for decades.

Purpose is not a counterweight to profit; it is its foundation. Companies that sustain and build trusted partnerships embrace two side-by-side balance sheets, for profits and people.

A pioneering figure in modern public relations and corporate communications, David Finn emphasized that business leaders must balance profitability with accountability to employees, communities and the broader public good. He secured his legacy by guiding C-Suite clients along that path. In his prophetic 1969 book, The Corporate Oligarch, Finn asked:

“How can the corporate oligarch introduce a sense of purpose into his (their) business life, where profit must, after all, play a central role, and where there are often conflicts between profit and the higher values of society?  How can he (they) broaden what is basically an economic function so that it can be simultaneously aimed at making a better world?”

His challenge to leaders, posed more than 50 years ago, remains the central test of the C-Suite today, during much more challenging times. Finn’s vision expands what has long been assumed to be an economic function into a broader mandate fusing profit with purpose. This reframing of corporate responsibility has reshaped our expectations of modern leaders.

The New C-Suite Mindset

To thrive amid chaos, leaders must reimagine their remit. The traditional playbook can no longer focus solely on quarterly earnings and cost-cutting efficiency. Today’s forward-thinking executive integrates purpose into their role and operations with some key transformations.

• CEO as Chief Purpose Officer: Purpose cannot be outsourced; it must be stewarded from the top. It is not a “feel-good” endeavor. It is essential, an example of doing well by doing right.
• CFO as Chief Sustainability Officer: Financial strategy must account for climate disruption, workforce wellbeing, and supply-chain resilience.
• CCO as Chief Communications and Social Impact Officer: Beyond shepherding reputation and serving as positioning architect, the role entails serving as the “outside-in” ambassador to the C-Suite.
• CHRO as Chief Culture Architect: In a climate of anxiety and polarization, cultivating psychological safety and inclusivity is essential to improving performance and fostering innovation.
• CIO/CTO as Chief Trust Officer: Digital transformation only serves a company, its employees and the people whom it serves when it is built on ethical, secure, and human-centered systems.
• Board as Guardians of Stakeholder Value: Governance must look beyond the quarter to the long term by safeguarding the interests of employees, communities, and shareholders, now and for future generations.

These time-tested titles will not change, but expectations for those in these C-Suite roles have expanded. Leadership now carries a broader social impact mandate that David Finn defined almost a half-century ago.

Business as Communities

Companies are more than engines of commerce. People spend more of their lives in the workplace than anywhere else; these communities serve as islands of calm amidst an increasing storm of unfolding global and domestic events. In short, work is a place where we hope for some continuity, where we can feel safe.

Employees looking to build careers often wonder if their leaders’ attention is fixed on the business’s mission or distracted by their next job or the “big exit?” Are they steering the corporate ship with conviction or drifting until calmer waters appear? Responsible leaders of organizations rooted in purpose and guided by values act like mariners who skillfully tack through rough seas. They may adjust course in the short term but remain on a true course toward their ultimate destination.

Steadiness at the helm and transparency of purpose offer employees a critical benefit: the confidence that they are part of something meaningful. Especially for those early in their careers, the assurance that their workplace is values-driven, purposeful and resilient provides motivation and loyalty that compensation alone cannot match.

Fast Company noted, “Companies and leaders can model grace under pressure and become anchors for their teams.” Calm leadership is not cosmetic but a stabilizing force that shapes an organization’s culture.

Strategy Aligned with Values

Decades after David Finn challenged leaders to blend profit with community social impact, his influence finds a familiar home in Peter Finn’s leadership as Founding Managing Partner at FINN Partners. Peter says, “At FINN, our mantra is ‘work hard and play nice.’ … Driven by purpose, we have built a caring community…”

This served the business mission well. Peter’s adherence to lessons learned sitting across his father’s desk has taken FINN Partners from $24 million at the agency’s launch to $200 million in less than 15 years, a feat few have achieved.

A broader leadership mindset demands a bold strategy built on values, not just KPIs. Organizations that make values their compass measure more than financial results. They evaluate progress in inclusion, sustainability, and their people’s emotional health. They lead with transparency when challenges arise, reinforcing trust. They design incentives for long-term resilience rather than short-term gain.

The Boston Consulting Group reinforces this point, emphasizing that companies making strategic investments in uncertain times consistently outperform those that hesitate. Even in turbulence, conviction creates long-term advantage. A purpose-driven strategy provides that conviction.

Leadership with Humanity

At the heart of effective leadership lies authentic empathy. Employees arrive at work carrying anxieties about conflict, politics and identity. Customers increasingly demand that brands reflect their values. Communities expect businesses to serve as stabilizing forces. Leaders who acknowledge these realities and act with openness and care build trust that transcends their communication strategies.

The American Psychological Association’s annual Stress in America report shows we are experiencing stress levels not seen since the height of the pandemic: “More than 7 in 10 adults reported the future of our nation (77%) as a significant source of stress in their lives… the economy followed closely at 73%.”

Meanwhile, Harvard Business Review warns that burnout has become normalized and advises that coaching and empathetic leadership are essential to employee resilience. In this context, Amy Terpeluk, Global Purpose & Social Impact Practice Lead at FINN, offers perspective: “In this socially and politically charged environment, the great need for counsel on sound direction is never an afterthought.”

Her point captures the essence of purpose-driven leadership, which creates clarity and calm when the external world feels unsettled. In this sense, purpose-driven leadership becomes as critical as financial acumen in sustaining performance.

Building to Last

While investors and C-suite executives may reap financial gains, service industry mega-mergers, often accompanied by sweeping layoffs in the name of efficiency, rarely serve the people at the heart of the enterprise. Employees are left uncertain about their futures, and clients, the core reason these businesses exist, experience disruption as trusted teams are dismantled or distracted.

When companies prioritize financial engineering over the well-being of their people and the continuity of client service, they undermine both their culture and long-term value. In an era of upheaval, businesses cannot afford to treat employees as expendable or client satisfaction as collateral damage.

The enterprises most likely to endure are those that reconcile short-term performance with long-term purpose. They fuse profit with resilience, embed values into daily operations, and invest in people as assets rather than costs.

In the current HBR issue, the cover story is “Now is the Time for Courage.” Harvard Business Professor and author Ranjay Gulati offers a reflection for all business leaders to consider:

“In the face of political, economic and technological uncertainty, business leaders are often reluctant to take bold action.  Some freeze, too overwhelmed to make decisions. Many hunker down, hoping to wait out the chaos. Others retrench, trying to protect their organization’s future and their careers. However, research shows that the old adage is true: Fortune favors the brave, not the cautious.”

From David Finn’s visionary call for businesses to align profit with society’s higher values to Peter Finn’s persistence that purpose remain inseparable from growth, the message to clients is the same: enduring success comes when purpose and performance advance together.

These moments demand clear strategic objectives, but they also require courage and smart risks. Employees, shareholders and communities are watching closely. They want more from business leaders than quarterly results. They expect them to safeguard value by advancing sustainability and charting a path for meaningful careers.

The imperative is clear: businesses must be built not simply to last, but also to matter.