Last Thursday I had a conversation with my good friend Charles (Charlie) H. Moore, Jr. Charlie is now 91 and has pancreatic cancer but remains in good spirits and is as sharp as ever. I have known him for 17 years and wanted the benefit of his wisdom. Charlie had recently sent me a nice note about a few recent publications of mine. This reminded me of his book “Running on Purpose: Winning Olympic Gold, Advancing Corporate Leadership, and Creating Sustainable Value.” Given all of the talk today about corporate purpose, I decided to re-read his book and then set up a call for us to chat. Anyone who knows Charlie knows that he is a man to be listened to so you can benefit from his experience and wisdom. The last sentence of his book reads, “Every business needs a purpose—and a better way to measure their work against the efforts of others.”

Charlie Moore winning the Gold Medal in the in the 400-meter hurdles on July 21, 1952 at the Helsinki Olympics. He tied the Olympic record which he had set the day before. | CHARLES H. MOORE, JR.

I first met Charlie in 1993 when we were business partners for a few years before he was lured away by his alma mater Cornell University to become its Athletic Director. Charlie was a great choice for the job. At a young 65 he had already had a remarkable career. He won the gold medal in the 400-meter hurdles at the Helsinki Olympics in 1952, tying the Olympic record he set the day before. He set a world record in the 440-yard hurdles in London that same year. Charlie never lost a 400-meter or 440-yard hurdle race. He is a winner.

For the next 42 years he held senior management positions, including as CEO, in a number of companies, as well as serving as a board director of several companies. This made him the natural choice to be the founding Executive Director of the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (rebranded as CECP in 2013) a non-profit organization started by real estate developer Peter Malkin, actor Paul Newman, and Goldman Sachs CEO John Whitehead in 1999.

The mission of CECP is clear from its name and the members are CEOs. Charlie served in that capacity for 13 years and turned this start-up into a very successful organization. In his book, Charlie recalls his early days at CECP where he was constantly phoning CEOs. “I sought personal commitments to not only invest in communities philanthropically but also to prove that giving back to the community was an investment in future business health.” As always, Charlie was very successful in this role, with CECP members contributing $20 billion annually by the time of his retirement in 2013.

Based on a listening tour with leading CECP CEOs and pro bono support from McKinsey & Company, in  2010 CECP published “Shaping the Future: Solving Social Problems through Business Strategy.” This prescient paper painted four visions for business and society in 2020. The preferred one was “Sustainable Value Creation” which emphasized getting away from chasing quarterly earnings targets and taking a longer-term view. It is based on business developing “robust voluntary standards” and building partnerships with “governments, NGOs, and other businesses.” The now popular phrase of “corporate purpose” is not used in the paper but the groundwork was laid for CECP to expand its mission to become Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose. This happened in 2019, the 20^th anniversary of CECP, under the leadership of my good friend Daryl Brewster, Charlie’s successor.