On Leadership dinner 2009

 

Known as the ‘best pre-Christmas networking party in town', the On Leadership event at the London Intercontinental in Park Lane attracted a host of the UK's top business talent, including Sir Gulam Noon, Dame Gail Rebuck and Lord Philip Gould.
The luminaries, along with more than 250 senior businessmen and women, were given the opportunity to question Lane Fox, Jones and Leighton on the pressing issues of the day. The event was presided over by the BBC's Working Lunch presenter Declan Curry, and over-whelming consensus was, after the toughest year in business in corporate memory, UK PLC is not out of the woods yet.
The panel were united in the view that now, more than ever, is the time for positive and decisive leadership to get business back on its feet and shrinking violets need not apply. "The job ahead is tough," said Leighton. "But now is not the time to stick your head down and just try to survive. Leaders need to adapt to the new environment and get on with the process of turning it around."
Lord Jones urged those at the head of business to take the lead by being positive about the future, instead of talking down their country's prospects in the tough economic climate. This, he declared, involved everyone reshaping their perspectives and moving on from the debate about bank behaviour and bonuses.
"Do I think we should be handing out huge bonuses to people at banks bailed out by the taxpayer? No, I don't," said the former chairman of the CBI. "But would I rather that the wealth generated by the sector remains in our country? Yes... and if we go on with this smack the banker routine, Dubai, Shanghai and Mumbai are going to think it's Christmas Day.
"It is up to the business community to prove that it is great shape to go forward because, after all, it is business which is going to get the economy back on its feet."
Random House chairman and chief executive Gail Rebuck said one of the biggest problems facing business today is the fact that everything is unpredictable and it is almost impossible to plan ahead with any accuracy.
"We actually had an excellent summer in book sales," she said. "Far better than we had expected, but then, in early Autumn sales of business books dropped by 50%. Most people expect sales fluctuations in business, but these sorts of swings are unprecedented."
The panel agreed that the worst was over, but also believed that the repercussions would be felt for many years to come. Many more company closures were predicted.
But, asked Curry, natural economic cycles notwithstanding, was there any way of preventing a crash of this scale happening again?
No, was the consensus, but the trigger for the downturn will inevitably be a completely different set of circumstances than the mistakes that led to the recent crash.
The question led to a keen debate on the prospects of greater regulation of the City and Leighton spoke out passionately against the need for new, tougher rules.
"There are already more regulators than there have ever been, there are more regulations than there ever have been, more governance than there has ever been and yet we are in the worst financial crisis we have ever been in," he said. "What does that tell you? We should have less. That is the absolute irony of where we are.
"Regulation is now a political issue. Nobody is thinking about what are the best things they can do for the country. No, they are all playing politics and it is a vote winner to say we need more regulation.
"The lunatics have taken control of the asylum."
With one eye to the general election in 2010, the panel was asked what they would do to change business if they were in government. Martha Lane Fox said that one of the most effective things to do would be to get more women in power.
She said; "I'd introduce 50:50 quotas in business for women and men because the best don't always rise to the top and there are enough great women out there."
However, she added, it was clear that both the political and the business world still have a long way to go toward fully embracing and understanding the talents of women. The lastminute.com founder recalled an early pitch to a venture capitalist for investment in the internet venture.
"What happens if you have a baby?" asked the financier, ignoring her carefully reasoned business plan.
To finish, Leighton gave his views on the way business should lead the way out of the downturn.
He said: "If ever there was a lesson learned from the past year, it is that those companies that don't exist any more, don't exist for a reason. They may have ticked all the governance boxes, but that wasn't the issue. The issue was what was the business doing? How strong was the business? What are the issues in the business and how close were the boards to the real issues?
"Boards get very carried away with governance and regulations, when their job is to make sure the business functions well, that the people who run the day-to-day business are doing the right thing and they are supporting them.
"Common sense should come from the top of an organisation. The way we manage our people is the way forward. It is the way we can and will move on out of the downturn."
The 2009 On Leadership gala event and charity auction raised £50,000 for Breast Cancer Care.