Purpose in Action: What Most Companies Get Wrong (and What Maybank Got Right)

In many organisations, purpose has become part of the standard narrative. It appears in strategy decks, on websites and in leadership communication, often expressed in carefully crafted language that reflects ambition and intent.

Yet despite this widespread attention, purpose rarely translates into a meaningful day-to-day experience for employees. It remains abstract, distant or disconnected from how work is actually organised and performed.

The challenge is not that organisations lack purpose. The challenge is that purpose is rarely operationalised in a way that people can recognise in their daily reality.

This is where the distinction between intention and execution becomes critical.

When purpose remains a statement instead of a system

In many cases, purpose is introduced as a message rather than embedded as a mechanism. It is communicated during key moments, reinforced through campaigns, and referenced in leadership narratives, but it does not consistently influence how decisions are made or how priorities are set.

As a result, employees understand what the organisation stands for in theory, but struggle to see how it connects to their own role. Over time, this creates a form of passive disengagement. Not because people disagree with the purpose, but because they do not experience it as relevant to their work.

Purpose, in that sense, becomes symbolic rather than functional.

What Maybank did differently

The Maybank case is often referenced because it moves beyond articulation and focuses on integration. Instead of treating purpose as a separate layer, it becomes a guiding principle that shapes behaviour, decision-making and performance management.

This is visible in the way objectives are defined, in how leadership communicates priorities and in how employees are encouraged to connect their individual contribution to a broader impact.

What makes this approach effective is not the wording of the purpose itself, but the consistency with which it is translated into concrete practices. Purpose is not positioned as an inspiring idea; it is treated as an operating principle.

From inspiration to alignment

One of the key lessons from this approach is that purpose does not need to be more inspiring. It needs to be more actionable.

Employees do not disengage because purpose lacks ambition. They disengage when there is a lack of alignment between what is being said and what is being experienced.

When priorities shift without explanation, when trade-offs are not made explicit, or when short-term pressures override long-term intentions, purpose loses credibility. Not because it is wrong, but because it is not consistently applied.

This is where many organisations underestimate the role of middle management. They are the ones translating strategy into action, yet they are often left to interpret purpose without sufficient clarity or support.

The role of leadership in making purpose visible

For purpose to become meaningful, leadership needs to move beyond articulation and focus on visibility. This means ensuring that purpose is reflected in everyday decisions, not only in formal communication.

It requires leaders to explain not just what is being done, but why it matters in the broader context. It also requires consistency over time, even when circumstances change.

Without this, employees are left to reconcile conflicting signals on their own, which often leads to disengagement or cynicism.

Bridging the gap between intention and experience

Ultimately, the effectiveness of purpose is not determined by how well it is defined, but by how clearly it is experienced.

The Maybank case illustrates that purpose becomes powerful when it is embedded into systems, reinforced through behaviour and consistently reflected in the way the organisation operates.

For most organisations, the question is therefore not whether purpose is important. It is whether purpose is sufficiently translated into daily practice.

That translation is where the real work lies.