Balancing Long-Term Purpose with Short-Term Business Needs

Sara Bailey, Senior Partner- Trowers & Hamlins

Belden Menkus

Download

Sara Bailey first appeared on The Purposeful Strategist in 2023, sharing the ambitious changes Trowers & Hamlins was undertaking and her drive to improve social mobility in the legal profession. Now, returning to the podcast, she reflects on the progress of those plans – what’s worked, what’s been challenging, and how she ensures long-term purpose isn’t lost in short-term demands. With over 30 years of experience in complex real estate and regeneration projects, she has played a key role in shaping the firm’s strategy and leadership. As Senior Partner, she continues to embed purpose and values into the firm’s long-term vision, ensuring they remain actionable day-to-day.

Trowers & Hamlins is an international law firm known for providing commercial advice that helps businesses and governments tackle future challenges. Established in 1777, the firm has evolved through multiple identity changes and mergers, now operating globally with offices in Dubai, Malaysia, and Singapore. As a people-driven business, its purpose centres on delivering innovative solutions for clients while maintaining a commitment to collaboration, culture, and responsible business.

In an era where businesses face pressure to cut costs and drive efficiency, true growth requires more than financial targets – it demands space for people to innovate, develop, and lead. But in a fast-paced environment, where immediate priorities often take over, how can leaders ensure that big-picture goals, like embedding purpose, driving innovation, and fostering inclusion, don’t get lost in the urgency of the present?

In this episode, Sara reflects on the progress of the firm’s transformation plans, sharing insights into their 2030 strategy and the steps they’re taking to embed purpose at the heart of their growth. She discusses how she balances long-term ambitions with short-term business realities, fosters an inclusive culture, and leads with empathy while ensuring commercial success. Sara also touches on the role of AI in law, the importance of their equal-sharing model in strengthening collaboration, and why having a trusted advisor outside the firm has been essential to her leadership journey. Alongside her work, she speaks candidly about her personal mission to improve social mobility in the legal profession, why progress has been slow, and how she hopes to drive real impact in the years ahead.

Sara Bailey

Law Firm Finds Its True North

Nik White, Managing Partner- Brabners

Belden Menkus

Download

In business, you get the behaviours you reward, says Nik White, Managing Partner at Brabners, a leading UK independent law firm. That’s why the firm has built its values into the criteria for promotion and reward.

Making the firm’s purpose and values explicit has helped Brabners recruit the right people and manage the dynamics in the partner group. The effort has also helped maintain the unique Brabners culture as the firm grows.

In this episode of The Purposeful Strategist, Nik discusses the firm's commitment to community engagement, the significance of B Corp certification, and the need for authenticity in purpose and strategy.

Listen to the conversation, and let us know what you think in the comments.  

Nik White

Building Trust in Health Research

Matt Westmore, CEO - Health Research Authority

Belden Menkus

Download

The Health Research Authority (HSA) was established in 2011 with the core purpose of protecting and promoting the interests of patients and the public in health and social care research. For the past three years the HSA has focused on accelerating the research approval process, and ensuring the right level of diversity and inclusion in clinical trials. As the authority begins to develop its next three-year strategy, we asked Chief Executive Matt Westmore about progress to date, and what the UK needs to do to maintain its competitive position as a research powerhouse.

Our discussion covers the significant advances in health research during the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of public trust in the research process, and how the National Health Service gives the UK a competitive advantage in attracting research projects from around the world.

Listen to the conversation on the latest episode of The Purposeful Strategist.

Matt Westmore

Engagement Clarifies Purpose

Graham North, CEO - Anstey Horne

Belden Menkus

Download

Between transmission and receipt, a lot can get lost or distorted in a leader’s communications. This can lead to big differences in what employees perceive and what leaders intend. The only way to know is to engage.

That’s why Graham North, Chief Executive Officer at Anstey Horne, has made employee engagement one of the key themes of his leadership, and used it to help articulate the firm’s purpose. Graham is an expert advisor on specialist property issues and a seasoned business leader.  He has been responsible for creating a renewed energy and growth at Anstey Horne, while developing a leadership cadre to drive continued growth. 

Anstey Horne is the leading authority in specialist surveying services including Rights of Light, Party Walls, Neighbourly matters, Building Surveying, Project Management, Cost Consultancy and Fire Consultancy. It traces its London roots back to 1795. The business now employs about 120 people and operates across the UK.

Listen as Graham describes the firm's evolution, purpose, and strategic objectives on this episode of The Purposeful Strategist.

Graham North

Drones Deliver This Company’s Purpose

Simon Thompson, Group CEO - Windracers

Belden Menkus

Download

Windracers, the UK-based manufacturer of self-flying aircraft and avionics, was founded to help humanitarian agencies get essential supplies to remote communities during emergencies and disasters.

The company’s ULTRA MK2 aircraft, a low cost, self-flying, fixed wing cargo plane, will be used by Aviation Sans Frontieres this year to deliver supplies for humanitarian organisations in Africa. With a payload of over 100kg and a range of 1,000 km, ULTRA has flown reconnaissance and resupply in Ukraine, geological and wildlife surveying in Antarctica, parcel delivery off the Scottish and English coasts, wildfire missions, and dropped medical supplies by parachute. 

Windracers believes that the craft is also ideally placed to help achieve its commercial ambition to be “the best value end-to-end cargo drone solution in the market”.

Group Chief Executive Officer Simon Thompson explains how Windracers balances its humanitarian purpose with its commercial objectives, on this episode of The Purposeful Strategist.

As CEO of Windracers Group, Simon focuses on design, product R&D, fundraising, strategic partnerships and global growth of the company. Simon was CEO of Royal Mail and has held senior leadership roles across multiple industries in global companies such as Apple, Honda, HSBC and Motorola.

Windracers was conceived to provide essential logistical support to humanitarian agencies looking to sustain communities through emergencies where transportation links are poor.  Their solution was designed to provide a robust, cost-effective alternative to expensive, crewed aviation for reaching local and remote villages quickly and effectively.

The Windracers system – aircraft, software and operational services - has emerged at the forefront of uncrewed, autonomous aviation and its application and utility for middle-mile logistics is relevant to a wide range of sectors and situations.

Simon Thompson in front of Ultra MK2

Shared Strategy Encourages Employee Autonomy

Mark Cuddigan, CEO - THIS

Belden Menkus

Download

A business strategy that’s shared and owned by everyone enables employees to make autonomous decisions. And that can create a new generation of leaders in the business.

So says Mark Cuddigan, CEO of This, the UK plant-based food company on a mission “to force animals into retirement.”  To date, the recipe has helped This to grow to be the fourth largest brand in the UK's plant-based category, since it was founded in 2020. The company now almost 8 % of the chilled meat-free market.

Mark explains what drives this purpose-drive B-Corp, and discusses how collaboration within the industry could help advance the linked causes of animal welfare and environmental protection, in the latest episode of The Purposeful Strategist.

Prior to joining THIS, Mark was CEO at Ella's Kitchen for over 12 years. A passionate advocate for business being a force for good, Mark was on the board of B Lab that charity that runs the B Corporation movement for 5 years. Mark is also a NED of the smoothie company Mockingbird and the IT provider Klyk.

Mark Cuddigan