"The idea was if we do the right thing, our staff will be more engaged and our customers will get a better product and will believe in what we are doing, which will lead to more profit," he says. "If we have more profit, we can spend more money on our purpose and staff, so we believe the two can fuel each other."

Many companies are talking about purpose, but Barnes is cynical about the wave of big business creating a purpose statement simply as a "marketing exercise" to convince staff they aren't focused only on profits.

One of Barnes' first big tasks was making the transition to a certified B Corporation, which provides a new optional legal framework to balance purpose and profit. B Corporations are legally required to consider workers, customers, suppliers, community and the environment.

"We regularly audit the financials but we don't look at the other parts of the business, which that process forced us to do."

Business leaders AFR BOSS magazine spoke to think a CPO is a good idea, but warn that it will only work if they have real influence. "It could work if they become the keeper of the [culture and purpose] flame, but they can't be expected to be the flame themselves," Melbourne Business School Dean Ian Harper says.

Simon McKeon is also cautious: "Any genuine attempt to try to do something is a good thing, but the community is pretty good at seeing through things pretty quickly. The old thing was trying to have a CSR [community social responsibility] manager who was down eight and half rungs to the right. The community realised pretty quickly 'they have a CSR manager, whoopee-do'. But does that person have any clout with senior managers or the board? No, so you may as well have not had the person."