Leading With Purpose: Making Mutual Value Real
March 2026
As expectations of business continue to shift — from employees, investors, customers, and communities — leaders are being asked a harder question than ever: how do you deliver performance and contribute meaningfully to long-term well-being for people, place, and planet?
That was the focus of a recent information session for Leading with Purpose, Mutual Value Labs’ nine-week executive education program. The conversation brought together the team behind the course alongside alumni and tutors to share what the program is, who it’s for, and why it’s becoming increasingly relevant for leaders navigating uncertainty and change.
You can watch the full recording of the session below, or keep scrolling for a summary of the key ideas and insights.
A Framework for Mutual Value Creation
Mutual Value Labs exists to help develop the capability of leaders, organisations, and systems to generate mutual value — purpose-centred value that benefits both business and the world.
Ruth Wilkinson, programme director for the upcoming cohort, described the ambition to help build an economy where business delivers profitable and enduring solutions that support long-term well-being. She also reflected on Mutual Value Labs’ origins, which began inside Mars around 15 years ago as leaders started exploring practical questions such as “how much profit is enough?” and how companies might understand and measure impact beyond financial results.
That work helped shape the Economics of Mutuality and an approach that was tested across brands and markets before Mutual Value Labs became an independent organisation in 2020 - with an explicit intention to share what had been learned more widely.
Practical Tools With Strategic Impact
Across the nine modules, participants move from foundational ideas (stakeholder capitalism, mutual value creation) into practical methods and tools — including defining a meaningful challenge, system mapping, stakeholder insights, business storytelling, and impact measurement.
The intent is not inspiration alone, but usable strategy: bridging theory and practice, and building an approach leaders can take back into their organisations.
Alumni Insight: “It wasn’t ideological — it was applicable”
Carly Santer (former Impact Officer at Bayer, now founder of Future Delta) described the distinctive value of the course as the combination of intellectual discipline and commercial realism.
Carly described leaving the program with language that strengthened her ability to communicate and scale her work: “I had been gifted this language so that I could really talk about mutual value in the work that I do.”
Tutor Perspective: Confidence, Curiosity, and Better Questions
Grant Liversage, former CFO and CEO (SABMiller, Asahi) and long-time tutor on the program, spoke about the change he sees in participants over time.
For many senior leaders, success has often been linked to having answers. But the course creates space to lead differently: to stay commercially grounded while becoming more comfortable with uncertainty, experimentation, and adaptive challenges.
As Grant put it:
“The questions are so much more than the answers… the answer might not be knowable until you do some kind of experiment.”
Both Grant and Carly emphasised the power of the tutor groups: a high-trust environment where participants can test assumptions, challenge each other respectfully, and translate course ideas into action inside their own organisations. Carly called it “structured spaciousness” — rare time to think clearly, in community, about what matters most.
Who It’s For — and Why It Matters Now
The program is designed for leaders with the agency to drive change: strategy leads, functional heads, sustainability professionals shifting from compliance to value creation, impact investors, and experienced leaders looking to build new direction in their work.
The common thread isn’t a specific job title — it’s mindset: openness, pragmatism, and the willingness to learn with others.
Applications Now Open
Applications for the upcoming cohort close 20 March, with the program beginning in April.
For leaders who feel there must be a better way — and who want the tools to build it — Leading with Purpose is designed to turn conviction into practice.
If you want to speak to a member of our team about joining the program, please contact Liam Sharkey at Liam.Sharkey@mutualvaluelabs.com
Delivered online over 9-weeks, the course is grounded in the practical Economics of Mutuality operating model, which has been developed with leading companies and universities including Mars and Oxford University’s Saïd Business School.
Since its inception, it has helped over 500 senior business leaders and investors integrate social and environmental impact into their core business strategy.
Applications are open for our 2026 cohort! Find out more via link below.
Program dates: April 20 – June 26
Application deadline: March 20
