BUSINESSMEN and women capable of achieving growth and profits for their organisations are being encouraged to look at the bigger picture and use their skills to benefit society as a whole.

That is the role of Common Purpose in the Tees Valley, a campaigning organisation for leaders, which aims to improve the way society works by increasing the number of people involved in shaping the future of their communities.

Since it was formed 14 years ago, it has helped to develop the skills of more than 650 senior executives in the Tees Valley.

Nationally, more than 60,000 people have been involved in Common Purpose, with about 15,000 leaders having completed one or more of its programmes. In total, more than 70 per cent of FTSE-100 listed companies have used the organisation for professional development.

Established in the UK in 1989, Common Purpose not only has offices across the UK, including four in the North-East, but has operations worldwide in Germany, Ireland, Sweden, the Netherlands and South Africa.

Its graduates in the Tees Valley include Neil Etherington, strategic investment and marketing director at Tees Valley Regeneration, Greggs North-East managing director Graham Randell, Keith Hunter, managing director of TTE Management and Technical Training, Steven Bell, managing director of Bells Stores, and Kate O'Sullivan, human resources director at Huntsman Petrochemicals.

It counts many of the region's largest companies among its past participants, including Northumbrian Water, which also provides a base for its Tees Valley offices in Thornaby, the Northern Rock Foundation, Huntsman Corporation, PD Teesport, regional development agency One NorthEast, and the Tees Valley Development Company.

The organisation's programme director for the Tees Valley is Veronique Raingeval, 40, from Lille, in France. She moved to the UK in 1988 after completing her business degree.

After working for Walt Disney's parent company Buena Vista, in London, and mail order firm Grattan, in Yorkshire, she moved to Newcastle in 2002 to work for Common Purpose, before joining the Tees Valley operation in October last year.

Miss Raingeval, who lives in Northallerton, said: "When I came to the UK I worked in advertising and e-business at Buena Vista.

"About four years ago, I decided to make a downshifting move out of London.

"I trained as a career coach and was interested in developing the skills and competencies of people.

"I identified a few groups and organisations that I wanted to work for, but Common Purpose seemed to offer the biggest challenge."

She said : "Our graduates are our biggest success story. They can be found in strategic positions across the Tees Valley.

"Our graduates often make excellent non-executive directors on the board of companies and charities, because of their motivation and position of influence. Common Purpose is often asked to help local organisations with their board appointments for that reason.

"The organisation and builds a lot of its success on repeat business, particularly from the private sector. Companies that have used our programmes before will come back to us in the future," said Ms Raingeval.

"As a charity, we work on a shoestring budget with the bare bones of staff structure. The recruitment of leaders is essentially a labour of love as it basically involves one-to-one meetings with potential candidates to ascertain their suitability for our programmes.

"One of the problems for Common Purpose in the Tees Valley is that, while we have a large number of private companies in the area, many of them are not empowered at a strategic level.

"I think that is because many of them are owned by companies with their headquarters outside this region, and in many cases outside the UK. That means that major decisions are being taken outside the area and the corresponding key personnel are missing."

One of Ms Raingeval's aims as director of Common Purpose in the Tees Valley is to raise awareness of this issue, and encourage companies to develop staff by giving them the necessary skills.

"We can address this through the award of bursaries and working with private sector organisations like the North-East Chamber of Commerce, Business Link and other networking organisations to identify potential candidates," she said.

"All Common Purpose programmes and activities share the same long-term ambitions. Better decision-making in all sectors, more effective solutions to common problems, more engaged and active citizens and, ultimately, stronger communities.

"Participants in our programmes, and their organisations, consistently report better strategic thinking, better decision-making, dramatically enhanced leadership competencies and a greater ability to apply them in new situations as a result of their experience of Common Purpose."