Seeking a new way of doing business in the UK

Over 200 people from the UK’s leading businesses met in London this morning to search for a new blueprint for doing better business in Great Britain. They were seeking to unite corporate purpose with personal values so that businesses better serve society. The conference explored the themes of the business need for change, the inevitability of a conflict between profit maximisation and developing common good, and the distinctive practical contribution of a faith based ethical framework to personal and corporate responsibility.

The conference was facilitated by the Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols.

“I think one of the most vivid images that we had this morning was that a duty of business is to contribute to the adhesiveness of a society – to its ‘glue’ is the phrase that we used – because if a society doesn’t have some glue, then it’s bad for business,” Archbishop Nichols said. “Because it’s difficult to understand that society. It’s difficult to get to appreciate what its needs are and what therefore what business can creatively respond to.”

He told Vatican Radio a business thrives when it provides a good working place for its employees.

“A good business which recognizes that people are working best when they can take a pride in their work… actually contributes to the social fabric of a society,” the Archbishop said.

Commenting on the key issues the conference is addressing, Dominic Barton, Global Managing Director of McKinsey & Company, said: “The implicit contract between a capitalist system and society is in danger of breaking down if the fundamental issues revealed by the crisis are not addressed. This is not a failure of capitalism itself, rather, of a particular brand of capitalism. We must urgently re-define the way we govern, manage and lead corporations; to focus on long-term objectives rather than quarterly results, to infuse throughout businesses the value of serving society as well as shareholders, and to govern our corporations as if it were our own money at stake.

“To do so is a moral imperative. It is also good business. For the prize at stake is not only renewed public faith in business, but also shared prosperity and the capability to tackle the world’s grand challenges.”

Listen to the full interview by Charles Collins with Archbishop Nichols: