President Brian McBride wants members to decide on its ‘future role’ at EGM, but tainted CBI can’t go ahead, says RUTH SUNDERLAND
- CBI is more like a rickety structure ready to be blown over by the next gust of wind
- It’s hard to understand how the CBI can hope to reinvent itself
- McBride should be asking this: Does the CBI deserve a future?
When the sex and drug scandal broke, my view was that so much damage had been done that the CBI would struggle to survive.
After the latest allegations, high-profile defections and suspended memberships, it looks more than ever like a rickety structure ready to be blown over by the next gust of wind.
Large companies of the type that join the CBI act as a pack. At first they were hesitant to stick their necks out, but it only took one big player to pull out and the rest followed suit.
It doesn’t feel coincidental that Aviva led the exodus. The FTSE 100 company is run by Amanda Blanc, one of the few women at the top of blue chip firms.
Why would a female CEO spend tens of thousands of pounds of her shareholder money on subscriptions to a lobby group where toxic male behavior seems to thrive?
Sign of the times: The CBI looks more than ever like a rickety structure ready to be blown over by the next gust of wind
Just days earlier, Aviva’s chairman warned he would not tolerate sexist remarks at next month’s annual meeting following misogynistic comments from shareholders, most recently directed at Blanc.
Like many other asset managers, the firm is enthusiastic about ESG (environmental, social and governance) investment strategies. The ‘S’ means that the companies it supports embrace diversity and gender equality. Companies also have an eye for their female customers. Unilever’s boast that ‘female empowerment’ is ‘at the heart of everything we do’ with its best-selling Dove brand is clearly against the culture at the CBI and has suspended membership.
It’s hard to understand how the CBI can hope to reinvent itself after this tsunami of abhorrent allegations. The staff goes to the door. No doubt the phone lines to headhunters are already red hot.
As desperately unfair to the many decent people who work there, having the CBI on your resume is no longer a jewel. Even if it somehow manages to limp on, it would be very difficult for it to recruit women in the kind of environment it portrays.
The CBI should be a dignified, statesmanlike operation – not a hotbed of stalking, sexual assault and drug abuse.
American news sites publish serious articles about what it all says about British business culture.
The impression created is not the image of British trade that anyone at home or abroad would like to project. The move to suspend all its activities until an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) in June, when it plans to make proposals for a ‘refocused CBI’, seems too little, too late.
Police investigations into alleged rapes and other crimes may still be ongoing. And more allegations could emerge.
While these uncertainties remain, members may be hesitant to rejoin. The suggestion by Simon Walker, former director general of the Institute of Directors (IOD), to merge five leading corporate bodies, including the CBI, into one group is a sensible one.
As he points out, there is precedent: in 2017, lobbying group UK Finance was formed from six trade associations and has proven quite effective. Business needs a lobbying group to represent it on tax, trade, employee relations and economics, especially at a time like this when we are heading towards elections and aiming for post-Brexit growth.
However, the CBI is not fit for purpose and has little chance of becoming one.
President Brian McBride wants BAV members to decide on “future role and purpose.” The more pertinent question he should be asking is this: does the CBI deserve a future?