MBS Inspiration
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The MBS Group
is one of the world’s leading executive search firms operating exclusively in Retail, Consumer and relevant technologies, and the most successful sector-specialist firm in the UK
Corporate Responsibility as the key to future success of community and business
On Monday night, I had the privilege of listening in, along with sixty others, on a conversation between Moira Benigson and Jamie Oliver. As I surveyed the daunting audience littered with CEO’s, Presidents and important-looking business people (Terence Conran amongst them) I felt intimidated merely sitting on the sidelines.
On stage sat this ruddy man with a chequered shirt, sandals, a disarming confidence and a message. For me, a twenty-two year old who has recently left university, he cut an inspiring figure, not because of his clothes or use of bad language because of his message, his values, his determination. Jamie faced the rows of suits and ties like a caped crusader, not lecturing but leading by example. Not just talking about healthcare, obesity, poverty and class but proving himself through action. Not abusing the common cliches of the corporate responsibility lingo but building his business on a determination to do what’s right. He is no politician, gets no extra money or endorsement for his community work, and from what I can tell he’s no messiah… just a local lad from Essex who, in his own words, ‘gives a sh*t’.
Yet, we could argue that much of Jamie’s commercial success is a direct result of his obsession with doing what’s right, and his determination to nag us all to make a better, healthier Britain. This seems strange as I was always led to believe that the most successful businesspeople were the cut-throat, stab-you-in-the-back types, not the tree-hugging social campaigners. What message is he sending to other businesses and corporations? Maybe the fact that you can be both be profitable and give back, that if you base your business on good ethics, community and a consciousness your employees will feel more empowered, your customers more fulfilled, and your business might become, dare I say it, more profitable!
Some would say that Jamie Oliver was already a star before he started giving us grief about what the dinner ladies were feeding children at lunchtime. But if you think about it, it was Fifteen, his non-for-profit restaurant where young people with troubled pasts train to become chefs, what truly catapulted him into the public eye. No good deed goes unpunished – and Jamie now is starting to build a business empire.
Over the last few years, Jamie has learnt a few tricks. He has moved away from corporate bashing and understands that the big boys are the ones who control much of what we think, do and eat. He knows that governments often have their hands tied and need someone like him to ’make them do it’. Most importantly, he believes that the only way to create positive change is through the grassroots of communities and bigger companies actively engaging in supporting the cause, and all working together.
Jamie knows what he wants but is still finding, feeling and trying his way around to define what this platform should and could look like and how it might succeed. How does he get the supermarkets to sit together and agree a common platform to help Ministry of Food? How does he get the unions to see that the training of these dedicated kitchen ladies is paramount and get their buy in? How does he get the big companies to finance the renovation and supply of new kitchens and equipment, all in the face of strong opposition from parents, councils, schools, companies etc – let alone the kids?
There are no straightforward answers, but for Jamie the solution lies in the advocacy of education, knowledge, and a hands on approach, or ‘skin or skin’ as he calls it. It’s about him being able to lead with a clear and manageable vision and a strong support infrastructure. It’s about the Corporate Responsibility Divisions of big companies agreeing to support this vision not only for good PR, but because of the financial gain it will bring to their businesses.
The conversation on Monday night could not have been more relevant. As BP continue to dump oil on the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico, as the bankers pick themselves up from the rubble of the recession to have another crack at lining their pockets, and as The Guardian publishes a tiny story on page twenty-two that 25% of the world’s flowers are soon to be extinct, I wonder what sort of workplace, or more importantly what sort of world faces my generation as we head toward maturity.
And yet, Jamie argued, the key to my generation’s future is in that very relationship- the workplace and the world. Jamie suggested it is not about bashing the corporate world and creating a sense of anarchy that will inspire my peers to topple the government and overthrow the Queen, but more rooted in reality. That reality being that big business and big corporations are the most powerful players on the chess board, that as always money makes the world go round, but more essentially that through big business one can really effect change and one can really make a big difference. Jamie explained that he could never topple a Coca-Cola, a Tesco or a Macdonald’s- it would be like Hull winning the Premier League- but with Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal all on one team maybe one day, one day, with a bit of luck… we could beat Barcelona.
By David Benigson, age 22
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