When the Institute of Directors (IoD) was established in 1903,
Queen Victoria had only been dead a couple of years and attitudes
towards commerce were very different from those today. Half a decade shy
of its centenary, the IoD which was set up to represent and further the
interests of business, is confronted by a public that is more informed
about, and more critical of, large companies’ actions than would have
been conceivable in the Edwardian era.
Scandals such as Robert Maxwell’s pension plundering and the collapse of
BCCI, together with a seemingly endless litany of ’fat cat’ stories have
done much to tarnish the reputation of business. Suspicion and cynicism
about corporate profits and directors’ remuneration has set in to such a
degree across a huge swathe of the UK population that there is genuine
concern that, if the matter is not addressed, there may be serious
long-term repercussions for the business community.
Consequently, the IoD has launched a pounds 300,000 campaign known as
the ’Hub Initiative’, which, says the organisation’s director general
Tim Melville-Ross, aims to ’explain why business does matter’ and to
facilitate ’a dialogue with the wider community to get a view of why
people sometimes take a slightly hostile view of business.’
More than once during our interview in his spacious office at the IoD’s
Pall Mall headquarters Melville-Ross uses the word ’evangelise’. The
longer we talk the clearer it becomes that the Hub Initiative is a
project close to his heart. ’This is my initiative as well as the
IoD’s,’ he says. ’It would not have happened at all were it not for my
feeling that it needed to be addressed. I’m absolutely determined to see
this one through because it is what the IoD is all about. It does matter
what people think. Business is much more likely to be able to operate
productively and effectively in a more positive societal
environment.’
Passionate though he is about the cause, Melville-Ross is under no
illusions about the scale of the task ahead. He concedes that research
shows that the reputation of business has taken a hammering in the
1990s. For instance, when MORI asked whether company profits were too
high in September 1990, 55 per cent of the sample agreed. When the
question was posed again last April, that number had risen to 67 per
cent. And while in 1990, 46 per cent felt that the profits of large
companies help to make things better for everyone who buys their
products and services, by 1998 the proportion was down to 28 per
cent.
The first stage of the Hub Initiative has seen the IoD try to understand
attitudes by running a pilot scheme in Manchester. Several hundred local
business people were invited to an event at Old Trafford, at which about
60 were signed up to become ’ambassadors’ who would present business in
a positive light to publics such as schools, community groups and
employees of other companies. In addition, 200 members of the public
attended a discussion at Granada Studios, where they were divided into
groups of ten and talked about issues such as profits and corporate
responsibility for the environment with some of the business
ambassadors.
’The grand strategy, subject to resources, is to do the same thing in
lots and lots of different places,’ says Melville-Ross. There are also
plans to launch a National Forum on the Purpose and Values of
Business.
This will comprise 150 business people from across the country and 50
people from other walks of life who will examine the key issues and
produce a report. It is hoped that the document will be ready in time
for the IoD’s next annual convention, on 28 April 1999.
Melville-Ross describes the National Forum as the ’intellectual
underpinning of the process we are going through’. Hand-in-hand with
this are efforts to improve the way business is portrayed in the media.
Meville-Ross and IoD director of communications, Steve Reardon, who was
until recently director of information at the Department of Social
Security, have met with BBC editors and senior executives to explore
what can be done to help journalists. The main problems that came to
light at the meeting were a ’lack of access’ to business people and a
widespread unwillingness from them to ’tell it like it is’. In response,
the IoD has created a database of 700 members who have indicated that
they are happy to talk to the media. Journalists will be given the
contact details of members with expertise and insight relevant to the
stories they are researching.
Finally, there is an educational dimension to the programme. ’Clearly
part of the problem is that our schools don’t put across the right sort
of positive message,’ says Melville-Ross. ’So much so that many young
people come out of school with no understanding of why business
matters.’ The IoD hopes to change this through its ambassadors and 33
education liaison officers.
But Melville-Ross would also like to see business studies given a
greater role in the national curriculum. He fears that many youngsters
are being discouraged from pursuing careers in business because they
perceive it to lack creativity, so he would like to see more initiatives
to foster entrepreneurial and other business skills. He applauds, for
example, the efforts of businessman Ram Gidoomal who several years ago,
with the support of Midland Bank, arranged for 400 groups of young
people to be given pounds 1 with the objective of using it to create a
business. Each business had to generate as much money as possible for
charity in just 48 hours. Between them, the businesses raised pounds
100,000 - leaving charities better off and the kids with an appreciation
of commerce.
Unipart Group chief executive John Neill agrees that more needs to be
done to educate children about the advantages of a career in
business.
Several years ago, his company commissioned research which found that 75
per cent of youngsters believed that the Japanese were good at
manufacturing, while only three per cent felt the same way about the
British. To help change this perception, Unipart has invited local
schoolchildren to its factories. ’Business has got a job to do to
communicate what it is all about,’ says Neill. ’We have got to attract
talented young people into business because it creates the wealth that
ensures our quality of life. I think the IoD is going about things the
right way to change attitudes. You can spend a lot of money on a TV
campaign and people will remember it for a while and then forget.’
Melville-Ross was himself relatively youthful when, at the age of 39, he
became chief executive of the Nationwide Building Society. After ten
years in the post he resigned - to make way for an older man! He was
attracted to the IoD because of an interest in policy issues,but is
quick to point out that he harbours no party political ambitions.
’I’m not a politician manque. I’m too inclined to see the other person’s
point of view.’ Tall, genial and eloquent, Melville-Ross is every inch
the acceptable face of capitalism. His belief is that business can be a
force for good and that business leaders should set greater store in
communications so that the positive elements of commerce come to be
appreciated by a greater number of people. Says Neill: ’Tim is a good
representative of business. He is very straightforward and believes in
business with a passion. And he has a deep-seated conviction that
business must be ethical and carried out decently.’
Before joining Nationwide, Melville-Ross worked as a stockbroker and at
oil giant BP. Still active in business, inter alia as deputy chairman of
Monument Oil and Gas, he has a can-do approach that may well reap
dividends.
He is adamant that he is prepared to ’slog away for month after month’
to make the Hub Initiative succeed. However, he will need all of that
commitment. In the week after we met TUC president John Edmonds
lambasted company directors who award themselves substantial pay rises
as ’greedy bastards’. Edmonds’ words, which were a gift to the headline
writers, brutally express the enormity of the task facing the IoD. The
reputation of business is repeatedly being battered.
It is to be hoped, therefore, that Melville-Ross succeeds in building a
better understanding of what is, after all, the foundation of the
economic system in which we all live. It is a crusade that deserves the
wholehearted support of business leaders and PR practitioners, because
if more young people develop an antipathy to business, in the long term
it is UK plc that will suffer.
TALKING TURKEY: TIME TO JUNK THE JARGON
One reason why many members of the public feel alienated by and
dislocated from business is the language that business people use when
talking about what they do. Rather than provide explanation, the jargon
and industry abbreviations that all too frequently crop up serve only to
intimidate and obfuscate, making the public distrustful of corporations’
intentions.
Put simply, plain speaking aids understanding and engenders trust.
Quentin Bell, who is acting as a consultant on the Hub Initiative,
believes that business people will do their own cause a power of good if
they devote much more attention to how they express themselves. A
balance needs to be struck between a patronising tone and blinding
people with impenetrable terminology.
’When people use jargon they are actually talking to themselves,’ says
Bell. ’When business does that it distances itself from the people it
wants to communicate with. But people do actually want to be talked to
as equals. There’s a job for the PR industry to do, because we are also
guilty of using our own and our clients’ jargon. PR people have to be
brave and say to clients ’what exactly is it you mean when you say
this?’’
Melville-Ross agrees that there is a need for businesses to use more
plain English in their communications. He does not think that
businesses, by and large, set out to conceal or confuse through their
use of language.
But he concedes that this may on occasion be the outcome.
’When businesses are talking about human resources, why not say people?
And when they say finance, what’s wrong with money?’ he asks.
Melville-Ross does not however advocate drawing up a list of prescribed
and proscribed words, trusting that common sense will prevail as
awareness of the issue grows. The public is more wary of faceless
multinational corporations than the brands they own and the services
they provide. Therefore, when talking about what they do, business
people should try to work in something the public can easily relate to -
such as a famous brand name.
It may also help to draw parallels with businesses that the public
better understands, such as the high street hairdressers or local pub.
This may be far from simple - the similarities between a cut and
blow-dry salon and Glaxo Wellcome may not immediately be obvious - but
understanding what the public already knows is an essential starting
point for fostering deeper understanding of business in general.
