Brian Gilvary and Justine Greening: Leading the Change
Dark economic clouds may well be looming over the horizon.
But for Britain’s biggest firms now is not the hour to retreat into themselves and hide away until blue skies emerge.
Undoubtedly employers in some sectors are facing a near-impossible challenge in even operating, never mind growing.
Their turbulence is borne out in the numbers, with unemployment benefit claimants rising 69 per cent in March and April. Meanwhile the government has warned of permanent scaring to the economy after the crisis.
The majority of the FTSE 100, however, have the influence, expertise and capacity to shape Britain’s future in these transformative times. Now they need to add intent.
Before COVID-19, Britain was already a nation of inequality of opportunity. Research by the Social Mobility Pledge showed that where a person is born dictates where they end up in life – largely because of the vast opportunity gap.
This gap is evident in education, communities and job markets – with talent spread evenly while opportunities are not.
But the virus could be a change-maker to this long-standing hindrance to productivity, life quality and talent fulfilment in many parts of the country.
Every element of public life, including politics, sport and society in general, has been shaken to the core by the virus. Life on lockdown has prompted a mass rethink on how we do things and how we could make things better.
And as we emerge from lockdown, despite what Chancellor Rishi Sunak believes will be a recession to end all recessions, big business can also drive this improvement; and finally close the opportunity gap.
And with forecasts pointing towards a million young people facing unemployment, the new normal will bring new challenges.
Fortunately 10 per cent of the FTSE 100 are already of this mindset. They have been working with the Social Mobility Pledge to build Opportunity Action Plans, rooted in detailed analysis of groups and communities that need support. The action plans reflect this analysis and mark a step change from corporate reputation marketing to make sure these forward-thinking businesses pinpoint resources in areas where their impact can make the biggest difference to social mobility.
bp is an example of a business that is leading this change. I’d like to see many more FTSE 100 firms rise to the challenge of getting Britain back on its feet economically, by being confident and taking bold decisions.
In doing so they are positioning themselves at the opposite end of the spectrum of those corporations that have made all the wrong moves during the crisis and acted purely with the aim of self-preservation and no recognition of the bigger picture.
We have an opportunity to reshape Britain, with businesses leading from the front, in pursuit of a new normal in which things are better than what went before.
Boris Johnson spoke of levelling up Britain before COVID-19 and now we must make progress, with our eyes wide open to what good really looks like.