The Opportunity
As Salesforce expanded globally, maintaining a strong values-led culture became a leadership priority. For a company built on strong values and the concept of Ohana, senior executives (VP+) needed space to reconnect with purpose, senior leaders needed time and space to reconnect with purpose, reflect on how they were leading and ensure growth did not dilute organizational identity.
The question was how to create a transformational experience that would both deepen personal purpose and strengthen enterprise leadership at scale.
The Journey
Emerging World partnered with Salesforce to design and deliver Leading Ohana, later evolved into Leading for Purpose—a 4.5-day immersive leadership experience delivered six times across Detroit, Vietnam, Kenya and India. Leaders stepped away from daily responsibilities and engaged with unfamiliar social and economic contexts through site visits and community conversations.
Working in small teams, participants collaborated with purpose-driven partner organizations on real challenges. They applied their professional expertise while reflecting on leadership responsibility and impact. Structured reflection helped leaders examine how their values shaped decisions, relationships and influence.
The Transformation
Leaders returned ready to model culture as deliberately as they drive performance. Across six cohorts, participants described the experience as one of the most influential of their careers. Leaders reported stronger connection to personal and organizational purpose, greater commitment to service-oriented leadership and clearer alignment between values and strategy.
Overall programme quality scores ranged from 9.0 to 9.8 across locations.
Partner organizations reported meaningful progress on strategic priorities.
The experience demonstrated that disciplined diagnosis paired with experimentation can unlock progress — even in complex, high-stakes contexts.
Designed for Leadership Transformation
Powering Purpose shows how immersive, challenge-based design can:
- Re-anchor senior leaders in organizational values
- Strengthen authentic, purpose-led leadership
- Sustain culture during rapid growth
- Align leadership identity with enterprise ambition
It stands as a flagship example of leadership transformation — where experience, reflection and integration combine to power purpose at scale.
