When CEO Peter Koh stepped out of retirement in 2015 to take the reins at Oceanus, people told him it was a pointless endeavour. At the time, Oceanus was floundering on the brink of insolvency. Creditors were planning to break the company down and sell it for parts. The general consensus was that since there was no more money to be made, what was the point of keeping the company afloat?
Peter saw things differently.
In Oceanus, he saw a company that represented the life savings of tens of thousands of retail shareholders, most of them retirees. “I saw elderly folks crying at the AGM when the company was potentially going under,” recounted Peter, who was himself a shareholder. “I couldn’t bring myself to just stand by and let them lose their life savings.”
This purpose sustained Peter and his new management team through the difficult journey of turning the company fundamentals around. Over many sleepless nights, they worked to correct all mismanaged accounts, obtain a “Clean” audit opinion and exit the Singapore Exchange Watchlist, ensuring that the company could be fully accountable towards its stakeholders.
Fast forward 9 years on. At the 2024 Annual General Meeting, Oceanus unveiled the next stage of purpose: to create Food Without Borders, a food-secure world with an efficient and resilient global food marketplace, where the trade of food flows without friction.
Its new mission? To become the Asian leader in food security, powered by technology.
With this, Oceanus joins the ranks of companies defined by the impact they hope to make on the world’s biggest challenges – the purpose-driven business.
Forbes observed the rise of corporate “purpose” in the 2020s – goals beyond profit maximisation; making decisions that equally consider the well-being of people and planet.
Much of this was prompted by a growing realisation that companies have responsibilities towards their customers, communities and environment. Studies done in recent years unequivocally show that both customers and employees are gravitating towards companies who have a well-defined purpose. The World Economic Forum noted that from 2013 to 2021, the link between consumer and brand values has grown stronger, with around 60% of consumers stating that they would buy from companies whose environmental and social credentials aligned with their values. Similarly, a study by McKinsey found that the pandemic had prompted employees to seriously rethink their purpose in life – and 70% of employees surveyed said that their sense of purpose was defined by their work.
There is compelling data around the results of companies that have pivoted towards being purpose-driven: the Lynexye 2024 Purpose Index, which covered 550 companies in eight markets and 17,000 respondents showed that:
It’s undeniable – purpose is a key differentiator. Businesses that develop purpose to create deeper connections with consumers, contribute more towards communities they work with, and attract and retain talent, are achieving greater results and impact.
But with so much hype around “purpose” these days, it’s almost inevitable that this goal is at risk of being diluted, if companies simply update their vision and mission statements without enacting meaningful change.
That is a fatal error, easily detected by customers and employees. “Authenticity is paramount,” cautioned Deloitte. Deloitte’s report identified three core aspects to being genuinely purpose-driven:
Oceanus set out to put Food Without Borders as a guiding principle for all actions. This meant embedding purpose into business strategies and building a set of shared values, co-created with management and staff through an inclusive process of open dialogues.
During a leadership gathering, all the Group’s subsidiaries CEOs collectively identified key pain-points in global food trade, and how these can be addressed for SME food traders all around the world. The issues identified were the 3Cs – Capital, Cash Flow and Connections. The leadership rallied around ODIN, a platform designed to facilitate cross-border payments and processes, and meeting the challenges that traditional financing methods have posed to many SMEs doing cross-border trade.In July 2024, Oceanus embarked building purpose with employees. At a co-creative Townhall, employees were invited to bring their own voices to the company’s Food Without Borders vision, by imagining what food security would look like to them.
Read more about how ODIN works to help SMEs overcome the challenges of global trade financing.
Teams from the company’s diverse departments from food production, distribution, services and technology got together to craft their own visions for food security in 2050. They generated new ideas around AI, logistics, robotics for products and services. Ideas ranged from practical incremental improvements to wildly innovative aspirations. Collectively, the Food Without Borders vision for global food trade was further defined and articulated by the staff who work directly in it every day.
Being purpose-driven is not a destination, but an ongoing journey underpinned by corporate culture, consistently reinforcing behaviour and upholding values. At Oceanus, it is clearer than ever to us that people are asking deep questions about their purpose as part of the larger human story, including work and life.