Both members and politicians value the CBI so how can we make it happen?
Over the past few weeks, members have told us how much they value our policy influence. And our track record has proved how much political leaders and policymakers want to hear from us. Because they can rely on us to give them the vital, whole economy, cross-UK perspective.
As we’ve focused our attention on refining and refocusing our purpose, it’s clear our members still want us to be the collective voice of business, driving sustainable growth.
So how do we ensure that voice is heard?
The CBI’s extensive engagement with political stakeholders and officials – across all political parties, in every UK region and nation, and internationally – is vital to shaping the policy and regulatory environment firms operate in.
Throughout the CBI’s pause in policy and membership activity, we have updated political stakeholders on the internal work the CBI has been doing – including the changes we have already made. Whilst change can’t happen overnight, we are building confidence in the steps being taken to transform our culture for the long term.
In order to resume engagement at a senior level, we believe we need to pass three tests:
- Acknowledge the mistakes the CBI has made and make the necessary, wide-ranging – and credible − changes to correct them.
- Build confidence by outlining a long-term plan to reform the CBI’s culture to ensure this never happens again.
- Demonstrate the CBI has gained the confidence and support of members through fundamental reform of our culture and purpose.
This means we have one final bar to clear for senior-level stakeholders to engage: receiving members’ backing at the EGM.
If we have the support of a broad cross-section of the business community, we are confident that political stakeholders will want to hear from us. And you can read in the full prospectus why it matters more than ever for the UK economy and on our immediate priorities should we get back around the table.
