From the CBI's Extraordinary General Meeting

Introduction

Good afternoon, everyone. And thank you for joining us – whether in person or online. We really appreciate it. 

We’re here today to make the case for why this organisation, which has served you and been at the centre of UK politics for nearly 60 years, should continue to exist. 

We’ve laid that case out in full in our prospectus, explaining the work we’ve already done, and the commitments we’re making to you.  

And let me remind you of the resolution we’re asking you to vote on: Do the changes we’ve made − and the commitments that we’ve laid out − to reform our governance, culture, and purpose, give you, our members, the confidence you need to support the CBI? 

So, before that, what Rain, Elizabeth and I are going to do is emphasise the most important points – and why we think you should vote yes. 

We’re going to tell you the concrete steps we’ve taken to reform our culture and processes. We’re going to show we’ve listened hard to you, to our colleagues, and to our stakeholders, and to understood what you want to see. 

And we’re going to give you a vision of how we’ll reflect that and rebuild the CBI as a transparent, responsive organisation – 100 per cent dedicated to delivering results and value, to each one of you. 

What happened and how did we respond?

The CBI has always worked hard to represent and support our members. That’s helped make us, I think, an essential part of the fabric of UK politics and economics. And in our listening exercises with over 1,000 members – you’ve told us you think the same. 

But what’s clear now is that while we focused on that, and as we expanded, we underestimated the daily effort required to maintain robust processes and a strong, good culture. 

And I'm grateful that, in the early days of our crisis, a number of you reached out to me to offer help – and share the journey your own organisations had been on. The manifestations may be different, but these issues transcend regions, sectors and all sizes of company. In fact, sadly, they are global.  

Therefore now, as we work hard to set things right in our own organisation, I hope many of you will walk with us on our journey, so we can share what we do and learn – and help drive real, positive change across the corporate world. 

When we were made aware of the allegations recently by the Guardian, we took action immediately. Within 24 hours we brought in Fox Williams, the independent and highly respected law firm, to establish the facts – and any broader lessons for the CBI.

And we are taking swift, substantive action to reinforce our no-tolerance approach to sexual harassment and bullying. Wherever an allegation of misconduct is made, it will continue to be taken seriously and properly investigated. But where a finding of misconduct is made, it will be met with more immediate and decisive disciplinary action.

We’ve already hired an Interim Chief People Officer, Elizabeth Wallace. Sitting on our Executive Committee and reporting directly to Rain and the Board, she’ll make certain our people have the clear and accessible escalation channels they need – and feel comfortable and empowered to use them.

Culture changes

Then to enable far-reaching reform, we’ve launched a root-and-branch review of the CBI’s culture. 

We had proposals from several of the top specialists in the field, and chose Principia. They’re experts in building ethical organisations, and they’re being supported by CBI Board member Jill Ader, former Chair at Egon Zehnder Europe. 

While Principia found that the label of, ‘a toxic culture’ did not apply to the CBI, we know that transforming our culture is a huge task. That takes months and years, not days and weeks. So, let me be crystal clear – we are committed for the long haul. 

We have asked Principia to continue to give us quarterly updates on our progress reforming our culture. Within 12 months, we will also have a full external audit of our cultural reforms and our work to reinforce our no-tolerance approach to sexual harassment. 

It will be led by Elizabeth Broderick and her company EB&Co. They are a specialist consultancy focused on gender equality, inclusion and cultural renewal. And Elizabeth is the UN Special Rapporteur and Independent Expert on discrimination against women and girls – and founder of the Champions of Change Coalition. 

So, we’re taking the immediate, concrete actions we need, and we’re laying the groundwork for systematic, lasting change in our culture. In a moment, I’m going to pass over to Elizabeth Wallace, to give you more detail about how we’ll achieve that, and our work with Principia. 

Governance changes

Before that I want to quickly share with you what we’ve been doing to reform our governance. The structure, the accountability, and the checks and balances we need – to safeguard our organisation, and your interests. 

I’ve commissioned a comprehensive review of the CBI’s governance, starting with the Board and its directors, the executive leadership, and our mandate, including committee structures. The full details are in the prospectus, but I want to give you the headlines.

First, Ffion Hague, an expert in Board evaluation and governance reviews, is leading an in-depth external review of the CBI’s governance structures and processes. That starts today – in fact she’s with us at this meeting. And she’ll be delivering the results to the Board by the end of July – which will include a full review of the leadership team, the Board and our committee structures. 

Before that though, we’re working hard and fast to drive change from the inside. 

The biggest include accelerated changes to Board membership, more frequent Board meetings, and the creation of a new CBI Nominations Committee. We’re also going to ask you, our members, to elect all Board directors annually at our AGM. 

And there are major changes to our committee structure. We’re launching a new People and Culture Committee, which will report back to the Board. You’ll also see Victoria Cochrane has been appointed to the Board, as chair of the revamped Audit and Risk Committee. She is a former Global Managing Partner for Risk Management at EY

To guarantee we’ve got the right oversight, we’re setting up an external expert Culture Advisory Committee chaired by Jill Ader. 

And finally, I’m also immediately starting the search for my successor as President, and I expect to begin the transition not earlier than January 2024. 

New leadership for the future

If that all sounds like a lot, it’s because it is. I and the whole team here have been working hard over the last six weeks to put things right, win back your trust, and forge a better, renewed CBI. 

And I’m 100 per cent confident we can do it. 

In no small part because of the last, decisive change I’ve got to mention. Our new Director General, Rain Newton-Smith. I think for her to come back to the CBI instead of building a new and exciting career in sustainability at Barclays, showed immense courage, and a strong sense of public duty and service. 

Since she took up the post in April, she’s shown determination, resolute leadership, and grit in tough times. 

All our teams know, the only thing that’s going to get us through this is focus on what you, the members, want to see – and the hard graft to make it happen. And since she came back, Rain’s given us all the confidence and inspiration to see that through. 

And it was great to see Rain on Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday, talking about the economic issues that matter to business today. She will also be appearing before a Parliamentary Committee next week. 

So, I know we’re all looking forward to hearing, in a few minutes, her vision for a renewed, refocused and better CBI. One that’s fully dedicated to representing and delivering value to all our members, from the biggest FTSE100 leader to the smallest SME – and our great trade associations network. 

I hope by now you are reassured that we are not the same organisation we were 12 weeks ago. And I hope that we can merit your trust, your confidence and your vote. 

Now, I want to hand over to our new interim Chief People Officer, Elizabeth Wallace, to talk about the early results from our culture review. And give you a detailed look at some of the culture changes you can expect in the coming weeks and months. 

Thank you.

Introduction

Thank you, Brian.  Good afternoon, everyone, I am delighted to be here with you today. I recently joined the CBI as Interim Chief People Officer to design and deliver our people and cultural transformation. We realise that this transformation is critical for the CBI’s future. I will tell you how we have listened, what we learnt, the actions we have taken, and how we will ensure these steps are embedded.

Firstly, I want to share with you how we listened

We spent time listening to feedback from our people individually and in group sessions – from across all our regional, national and international offices. We listened through the independent cultural assessment that Principia, the organisational ethics firm, conducted and the work that legal firm Fox Williams carried out.

They have helped us to identify the root causes of what went wrong, and the long-term changes we need to renew and rebuild our culture. And throughout this work, we’ve had great staff engagement – nearly 90 per cent of our people responded to our culture survey.

And we listened to you, our members. Only then could we thoughtfully address the hard messages and take steps to bring about lasting intentional cultural change.

After listening we considered what we learnt

We discovered that in the past some of our colleagues did not have the confidence that when things go wrong, the right things would happen. Leadership actions were not consistent and did not set the right tone of accountability. We know that we had many HR policies, processes and training programmes. Though the intention was good, they were not all fully working and not embedded consistently into our culture.

We learned that we were too focused on the external aspects of our organisation, and not enough on our own internal organisation.

We know that not everyone at the CBI has had a consistent employee experience and that we need to provide greater clarity. We know that we have not been consistent in developing our leadership skills and capabilities. We also know that we must attend more to our organisational values and consistent expectations for behaviour.

Finally, we know that we as leaders need to positively set the tone from the top and have a greater degree of accountability than ever before.

After learning we acted

Based on what we learnt, we knew we had to answer some important questions. First, how do we know our people will feel safe in speaking up about issues at the CBI? The tone from the top must be consistent with the new value set we are creating, and we have unanimous agreement from our leaders in that. We have introduced a permanent, independent whistleblowing channel for our colleagues to report concerns as we will not tolerate sexual harassment and bullying within the CBI.

The second question we asked ourselves; is our HR function fit for purpose? We have refreshed our HR policies, including those relating to harassment and bullying, and have ensured it is clear to all as to how grievances can be reported and how they will be dealt with. We have accepted all 34 recommendations from Fox Williams’ investigation spanning HR, behaviour, culture, policies, processes and structures. We have already implemented almost 80% of the recommendations with the remainder in progress.

We have begun the process of swiftly reviewing and refining all training programmes – with a focus on ethics and integrity as foundational elements to help educate not only our current leaders but also for our leaders of the future.

This includes mandatory training for all Board, Executive Team and colleagues, covering areas, such as bullying and harassment prevention, employee-relations best practice, mental health awareness, and employment law. In fact, a number of senior colleagues – including myself – have already started to receive this training from global experts EB and Co.

The third question we asked relates to organisational design and whether it is appropriate for the CBI going forward? We know our organisation was too siloed, too layered, and too slow to react. To address these issues, we are implementing a simpler management structure with better supported managers. We will create an organisation that is clearer to understand, allows more transparent and faster communication, and provides employees a more consistent and responsive environment to work in. We know that through this work, the CBI will be a much better version of itself.

After acting, we are now embedding

Codifying all of this into a great set of principles and guidance on its own is not enough.  My role as interim Chief People Officer is also to ensure that we build the sort of culture where all our managers and leaders also demonstrate these principles, day in, day out until it becomes second nature for all.

We need a clearer and more consistent approach to our people organisation, with prioritisation and strengthening of the People and Culture function. My roles on the CBI ExCo and the People and Culture Committee on the Board reflects that as a start.

We’ve set a high bar for our cultural transformation, but it is not just about short-term fixes – it is about a long-term commitment to a values-based, ethical culture.

Three words that for us sum up our cultural objectives going forward: Clarity, Consistency and Accountability. Clarity to all our colleagues on our processes and policies. Consistency of employee experience across all parts of the CBI. Accountability starting at the top of the CBI with our Board and ExCo through every level of the organisation. Accountability to each other, to our people, and to you, our members. Accountability means accepting mistakes and fixing them. I believe that our cultural transformation will address legacy issues and make the CBI more efficient so that we can keep full focus on providing the most effective representation for you our members – now and in the future.

In closing, I would like to share with you my personal experience of working at the CBI. I have worked very closely with many of my colleagues since joining and have spoken to almost all the nearly 300 people that work here. I have consistently found true passion and pride amongst all that I have interacted with. Organisations talk a lot about purpose – everyone here embodies the true meaning of that word. I know that will resonate with you all as you also know many of the great people who work here. I am confident that we will continue to be successful on our cultural journey and be better and bolder than ever.

Thank you for listening and I will now hand over to Rain.

Introduction

Thank you, Elizabeth and Brian. 

And thank you ALL for being with us here today and online.

This is the culmination of an incredibly tough three months for the CBI, for our people, for you as our members, and for me personally. 

But I’m confident and determined this will be a turning point for us. 

The start of a new chapter, for a renewed CBI. 

It’s so important to me, and it’s important for those who raised their voices.

To put our people, our culture and our values front and centre. 

I want to start by telling you why, when the phone call came, at a difficult time for me on a windy Welsh hillside, I said yes and I decided to come back to the CBI. A place where I had many fond memories. 

From the moment I joined this organisation just over eight years ago, it’s always been about the people and you our members. I was amazed then – and still am – by the talent and kindness in this place and the creativity and drive in our members.

For almost 60 years, we’ve attracted many of the brightest people, and most energetic business leaders. Great people, who have supported me and each other through difficult times. And I felt, as Principia has since found, that there was no evidence of toxic culture in the CBI. 

That’s why it was so saddening to read that we had let some of them down so badly in the past. And that – as this crisis unfolded − so many of the people who had supported me, were paying the price. 

So, I wanted to put that right. 

Brian and Elizabeth have talked you through how we’re doing that. The changes to our governance and culture we’re making. Informed by global experts – and always listening to our people. This is a difficult but important journey. We’ve made great strides forward, but it will take real dedication. 

And I am resolutely committed to leading that change. 

Purpose and change

Because I know what this organisation can DO when it is at its best. I’ve seen what we can achieve, and how powerful we can be in driving change. 

Like during the pandemic, when we worked alongside the TUC and our trade association network to help the Government design the furlough scheme which saved millions of jobs. 

When we held daily webinars to ensure any business whether a CBI member or not, understood what support was available, and how to access it – which created a bridge to recovery for all of us. 

Or when we campaigned for the biggest expansion of childcare support in decades and achieved that at the last Spring Budget – which is expected to help over 75,000 parents back into work. 

We’ve won a consensus across politics, on the need for a UK strategy to drive sustainable, long-term growth. We’ve helped design and secure measures like business rates reform, and changes to capital allowances, which could boost business investment by an average of £6bn a year. 

But most crucially for our future, the CBI has been one of the loudest business voices on how to tackle climate change and decarbonise our economy. From writing Net Zero into law four years ago, to working with you to set science-based targets for many of your companies ahead of COP26 in Glasgow and – to make that the first truly business-friendly COP.

For us, it’s both a moral and economic imperative – to get the UK ahead in the global race for green growth and investment. And there’s still so much more that needs to be done. It’s an issue that, because of its complexity and scale, calls for a whole-economy approach. And it’s not the only issue that needs that by any means.

So for these issues and more, we don’t have a moment to lose. 

A winning formula

We’ve been able to achieve so much together because – as I can tell you, having worked also at the Bank of England, the IMF and across the private sector – the CBI is unique. 

Our depth of expertise, coupled with practical insights from businesses, universities, housing associations and so much more – just can’t be easily replicated. 

Over decades, we’ve established expert policy teams, and award-winning economic forecast performance. Even our competitor groups have admitted they can’t match all that. 

But the thing they truly can’t match – is you.

Each and every one of you. 

From our smallest SMEs to our biggest global companies and our communities of businesses, who cover every aspect of the economy, whether that’s farming, energy, tech or education.

It’s your input – into our councils, our working groups – that allows us to go from regional, to national. And international too – giving UK business a powerful voice on the global stage. 

Listening to you

But the thing that we must remember is that the CBI at its best, starts with humility, curiosity, a practical approach to finding solutions that work – and crucially the ability to listen. That’s why we were so successful during the pandemic. 

So that’s what we’ve done again over the last few weeks. I’ve been talking to so many of you and getting your views. We’ve gathered close to 300 survey responses, and our teams have led over 400 member meetings – and so much more. 

I want to thank everyone who made that happen. It’s given us a clear steer on where you want to see change – in us, our society and our economy. 

So what did you tell us? 

We’re delivering

First, you told us you value our ability to be a collective voice for all business – with strong voices across regions and nations. 

But there was challenge too – we need to prove to you we are transparent, democratic, and evidence-led in ALL we do. 

And our prospectus sets out a clear plan on how we will do this for you. 

I am so proud of how hard our teams across the CBI have worked on putting this together with you – in the toughest of circumstances. So, to them a huge and important thank you from me. 

I want to ensure genuine partnerships that give a clear voice to our trade associations and allow them to take the lead on the issues where they have greater expertise. So we’ll take a more inclusive approach across the board. 

In our survey, around 90 per cent of you said we should focus on ensuring sustainable growth across the economy. So, that’s our mission, our North Star, a passion that I share and will embed across the CBI’s work. 

We need to focus on the policies that ensure the UK is leading on the global stage, setting out a positive vision. 

We will show how business can shape the future of work and skills, provide energy security, and address the cost-of-living crisis. Because with anaemic growth and inflation stubbornly high, we all know there’s an urgent need for a collective voice. 

You need us – and we need your trust

It's a critical time for business, for the economy, and for politics. 

Not just Whitehall and Westminster, but Holyrood, Stormont and the Senedd. There are the Metro Mayor elections just round the corner, ahead of a critical UK General Election next year. 

For which, we’ll co-develop a Business Manifesto with you – to help inform and shape the national debate.

We want – and we’re ready – to raise your voice through all of this. 

We know you prize our ability to open doors to government and opposition parties.

The access we’ve given you for the last 60 years – to shape policy and regulation at the highest level. 

You’ve told us you need to see that we can get back to that.

We can and we will. We just need your support. 

In the last few days, I’ve had great conversations with members across the UK – where they’ve told us… yes. They do have confidence in us. 

But the question now is – do you? 

All of you gathered here today in person and watching online. 

We’re ready to deliver a better CBI. 

We just need one thing now – your vote. 

We have been there for you in the past, now this is a moment when I and our talented teams at the CBI need you. 

Thank you.