I guess the day had to come for the Confederation of British Industry (the CBI).
The fact is that there is remarkably little industry left in the UK. Its failure to recognise that was indicative of its inability to recognise its own purpose.
It was also never possible to pretend that one organisation could really represent the interests of 190,000 businesses, large and small, ranging from banks to companies who hated their bankers, as many do.
The organisation was also not helped by the fact that for decades the UK has been run for the benefit of its largest members, who also dominated many of its committees. What does a lobby organisation without anything to oppose actually do but ask for ever more favours?
Historically they have been corrupted. It appears to be the opinion of many of its members that this might now be the CBI's fate. They left in droves yesterday. It has now suspended its operations. The chance that it might survive now seems small.
I am not going to be mourning the passing of the CBI. It has, like the Institute of Directors, seemed to me like an organisation out of touch with the reality of life in general, including for its membership, for decades. When I was in business I would have nothing to do with either. I was never much enamoured by the myth of the glorious entrepreneur whose real quest in life was a secure salary and pension pot which both seemed to exist to champion.
The question that remains though is will there be a new organisation to champion the interests of business?
And what will it champion? Even less tax? Lower still regulation? Delays to the green agenda? Yet more opacity?
I ask because it is not clear what the business lobby can now want.
Alternatively, what about a lobby that demands responsibility, accountability, and sustainability from business and puts forward serious proposals for each? Now that would make a difference. But could a business lobby organisation actually embrace the idea of doing something for the common good? There's a question that needs an answer.
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The Federation of Small Businesses sounds like a nice cuddly organisation, right? You might expect brutal behaviour from the captains of industry but not small businesses, yes?
I attended one of their meetings once, a roundtable consultation in London, with a minister.
They were a bunch of unenlightened cave people. All bitterly hostile to such things as keeping jobs open for pregnant women, even though it was the law for all and there was govt assistance available. They struck me as repellant, selfish, short-sighted and above all, entitled personal exceptionalists of the sort who’d vote GOP in the US. Perhaps the attendance was unrepresentative on the day, but the thought of the Brexity members now enjoying exactly what they voted for and going out of business gives a little schadenfreude to complement the CBI’s embarrassment.
My own experience of the FSB would suggest that your comment is pretty wide of the mark.
I have been a member for over 30 years and have never encountered anything remotely like that.
The vast majority of the membership run micro businesses. They join because the organisation is useful to them. There are plenty of services provided and all from the one handy source. Many join so they can contact other similar businesses to “tic tac” and to possibly sell their services or products to other members. Everyone will have a local group which will run regular meetings. Generally speaking only a small minority will turn up at these. Many of these businesses will have owners who are far removed in outlook from what you describe. Many would indeed look enlightened by comparison. Many would be rather more concerned about their staff than themselves.
I have been to meetings where politicians have been involved. These have always been fairly large gatherings and disparate views aired. Members are regularly consulted in surveys and the results published. The direction taken in lobbying will never please all the members but seems to be the result of a fairly democratic process. There are over 150,000 members. I am sure there must be a fair number right wing, wholly self serving zealots but I do not believe that that characterises the membership as a whole.
Been a member of fsb for more than 20 years, it’s democratic in the way it evolves it’s policies and representative in the way it lobbies, yes on a few occasions members have expressed and will express their personal views at meetings with politicians – however the very small number of office staff the fsb employs will always follow up meetings with written submissions to ensure no ambiguity or uncertainty about where the organisation stands. And yes most of the fsb members are micro business owners desperate to make ends meet after 13 years of anti small business policies. Fsb does it’s best but Unfortunately CBI and IOD have been very successful (perhaps more so than fsb) in lobbying government for policies which favour big business interests.
The CBI has been irrelevant for industry for quite a while.
For me there are two lessons for any organisation.
(1) Reputation matters. Good governance is at the heart of that and it should demand the highest integrity/behaviour from its leaders. Those “political correctness gone mad” folk need to reflect on this.
(2) Just as SVB and CS learnt about the speed of a modern banking run, the CBI is seeing the speed of a “reputation run” and how deadly it is. That speed means it is ever more important to pay regard to (1)… because once the rot starts it only ends one way.
Agreed
A new business organisation that campaigns for a genuinely competitive business environment would be nice.
Margaret Thatcher promised that the Utopia she was enabling would be based on Competition. Her government would ensure that the companies providing the best products and services would thrive and those that did not would not survive.
Instead we have something that closely resembles Adam Smith’s observation that whenever members of the same trade come together their first thought is always to find new ways to cheat the public.
You know, I feel that this should be said.
I remember interviews – I have recordings of interviews – with CBI personnel when Thatcher was in her pomp being absolutely scathing about her monetarist polices in the early 80’s and its negative impact on business. The interest rates hikes practically destroyed the cheap bridging loan system that British business used in their manufacturing and selling processes – it was of course introduced as a ‘big bang’.
I still think today, Thatcher gets away with how much her lurch towards Neo-liberalism really hurt this country although from any train window in this country you could see the destruction she had caused.
The CBI eventually got welcomed into the fold once they changed their tune.
Pathetic.
PSR – well said.
Thatcher came to my notice about the time when I walked away in disgust from the whole pathetic ineffective Left in the UK. Her shrill rapid speaking mode gave me ear ache.
Then she underwent a profound change – a Goebbels clone did a remarkable job on her. Her speech slowed right down, she lowered her voice and spoke slowly – it worked. I always thought she would do anything to please the Public School crowd so that they would ‘accept her’ and I was surprised that no reporter or feature writer on the Left ever exposed her as such. When she had fulfilled all their wet dreams, they discarded her – so it goes.