From Words to Action: How Purpose Comes to Life at Discovery

A lot of organisations talk about purpose, but fewer build their entire business around it.

For Discovery Limited, a South African-founded financial services organisation operating across healthcare, insurance, savings, banking, and wellness, purpose isn’t a statement on a wall or a slide in a presentation. It’s an operating system. A filter. A constant test.

At its core, their purpose is simple but powerful: to make people healthier, and enhance and protect their lives.

But what makes them different is not the what, it’s how they do it.

Purpose That Drives Every Decision

Discovery Limited is a company that describes itself as obsessed with its purpose, and that obsession shows up everywhere. Part of what makes that obsession so powerful is that they don’t treat purpose as one-dimensional, it’s viewed through three distinct but connected lenses: people, business, and society. And nothing gets built, launched, or implemented unless it passes a very deliberate test:

1. Does it benefit people?

2. Does it benefit the business?

3. Does it benefit society?

If it doesn’t create value across all three, it doesn’t move forward.

“The best decisions are the ones where everyone wins. That’s what we’re constantly designing for.” Steve Teasdale, Chief Employee Experience Officer

Shared Value in Action: Healthier People, Better Outcomes

Take their health model. They actively incentivise their customers to be healthier - rewarding behaviours that improve wellbeing. Customers earn benefits, rewards, and status as they make healthier choices.

On the surface, that’s good for the individual. But look deeper:

• Healthier people mean lower risk for the business

• Individuals enjoy better quality of life and tangible rewards

• Healthcare systems experience less strain

It’s a win for everyone. And that’s purpose aligned with commercial reality.

Beyond Products: Impacting Society

Their purpose doesn’t stop with their customers.

In South Africa, where infrastructure challenges can impact daily life, they’ve taken an unexpected role: fixing potholes and improving roads in key areas.

Why? Because:

• Safer roads mean fewer insurance claims

• People can get to work safely and reliably

• Communities benefit from better infrastructure

Again, shared value. Practical. Measurable. Purpose in action.

Purpose Inside the Workplace

And last but not least, purpose has a starring role when it comes to how they support their people, being used to shape the employee experience too. It’s built into everyday decisions and actions, and here are just three examples:

1. Recognising Values in Action

I first reached out to Steve after seeing his post about their celebration event. It looked incredible - but in speaking with Steve I quickly realised this was just one part of a much bigger, purpose-led approach to recognition at Discovery.

They recognise employees through a values-driven system, where values bring their purpose to life in everyday behaviours - how people support others, make decisions, and create shared value. Recognition starts in the moment, builds into peer-nominated awards, and culminates in annual global experiences for those who consistently live the values.

What makes it powerful is that, like their broader approach to purpose, it’s both values-led and multi-layered - happening in different ways, at different moments, and across the organisation.

2. Subsidising Healthier Choices

To support both wellbeing and affordability, the organisation subsidises meals in the office, but with a deliberate twist: 

• Healthier food = higher subsidy

• Less healthy options = lower subsidy

What makes this particularly powerful is how directly it connects to their purpose of making people healthier. It nudges better choices without forcing them, aligning individual benefit with business intent. In doing so, it reflects their broader philosophy of creating shared value - where what’s good for the individual is also good for the organisation and, ultimately, for society.

3. Responding to Real-World Needs

And most recently, they’ve brought their purpose to life in response to rising fuel costs. Acting quickly, they introduced a targeted fuel allowance for their most vulnerable employees - those most impacted by commuting expenses.

The intent was simple: provide immediate support where it was needed most. And while the initial rollout surfaced some challenges and edge cases (as fast action often does), the organisation’s strength lies in its agility - listening, learning, and quickly adapting to improve the solution.

How They Make Decisions: A Different Lens

My final question to Steve relates to one of the hardest challenges I’ve seen organisations face: how do you balance competing priorities, e.g. customers, employees, and the business?

As he explained, they don’t avoid the tension, they lean into it.

“We don’t pretend the tensions don’t exist. We actively explore them.” said Steve

Their approach is grounded in a clear, consistent process:

• Understand the tensions at play

• Apply a shared value test - who benefits, who loses, and to what extent

• Ask the ultimate question: Are we doing the right thing?

Over time, this way of thinking becomes instinctive - shaping decisions at every level of the organisation.

Final Thought

What stands out at Discovery Limited is that purpose isn’t something they talk about - it’s something they design for, measure, and embed into everything they do.

How can you do this at your company? My suggestion is to rethink how purpose shows up in your own context.

• Are your decisions creating shared value?

• Are your values shaping everyday behaviours?

• And most importantly, are you designing experiences—for customers and employees—that genuinely bring your purpose to life?

Because when purpose is real, it doesn’t sit on a page. It shows up - in decisions, in behaviours, and in the impact you create every single day.