Sunak tries to woo businesses
Business Connect event + podcast episode + NFL draft + Cartmel
Today we have got a glimpse of how the government intends to interact with businesses in the future. Rishi Sunak is hosting a new event called Business Connect. The prime minister held a virtual Q&A session with business leaders on LinkedIn Live and then attended a conference with 200 chief executives and directors along with Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, and Kemi Badenoch, the business and trade secretary, in London.
The backdrop to Business Connect is important. The CBI, the biggest business lobby group, has suspended operations after two allegations of rape by women who worked for it. Even before this scandal emerged there were concerns that the CBI was no longer an effective link between business and government, and that Sunak’s administration was not listening or engaging with the private sector.
Meanwhile, Labour, led by shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves and shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds, has been meeting business leaders at regular breakfast events. I have lost count of the number of business leaders who have said how impressed there have been with Reeves and Reynolds, particularly how much they have listened to their concerns and understood them. It is also interesting how many businesses and organisations linked to levelling-up have said that Labour has reached out to them to ask for a meeting about what is working and what is not.
You can watch Sunak take questions on LinkedIn Live here. It starts at 7 minutes with a short speech from Sunak and only lasts around 20 minutes. Sunak ends by saying: “It’s the end of today’s session but it’s certainly not the end of our conversation with you. We are going to keep talking, engaging so that together we can make this the most pro-business, pro-country in the entire world.”
Sunak did not exactly face hard-hitting questions in the Q&A. If you were to be cynical you would suggest that the questions were planted or that Sunak’s team ensured that they picked questions that allowed the prime minister to talk about his favourite topics.
Among those who asked questions was Dame Emma Walmsley, the chief executive of Glaxosmithkline. Dame Emma asked Sunak what he thinks the strengths of the UK are and where it needs to do better. Sunak said life sciences, financial services, creative industries, data and technology and advanced manufacturing are the UK’s strengths. The prime minister then said that the government needs to look at regulation to ensure that businesses can be as agile as possible and invest in research and development.
James Caan, the former Dragons’ Den panellist, expressed concerns about trying to attract staff and warned the UK could miss out on the benefits of AI technology because of a lack of skills. Sunak responded by saying that skills was the issue he speaks to businesses most about and that the government needs to ensure that it keeps pace with how the economy is evolving so the UK workforce is equipped with the skills that businesses are looking for.
Matt Clifford, the co-founder of Entrepreneur First and chairman of the Advanced Research and Invention Agency, asked what the government can do to help start-ups with procurement. Sunak said that the government wants more of the £300 billion it spends on procurement to go to small businesses and that the UK can use the flexibility it has gained post-Brexit to do this.
Sunak then headed to the in-person Business Connect event where he delivered a similar message…
Despite this event, ultimately it is the conversations behind-the-scenes between government and business that really matter. With a general election looming next year, businesses are keen to get their concerns across and engage with the relevant departments. For more background on this, I recommend listening to our podcast episode with former Downing Street adviser Jimmy McLoughlin, which covered how the government and businesses communicate behind-the-scenes. You can listen here.
With the CBI in turmoil a new organisation could emerge as the link between government and business to help facilitate these conversations. WPI Strategy, a public affairs firm, is leading a push to get businesses to sign-up to a new organisation called BizUK. Nick Faith, the co-founder of WPI, appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday morning to discuss the plans…
Faith told the BBC that there was “a clear gap for a collective independent voice to be able to make the case for midsize and larger businesses with political parties of all colour”. Sky News reported over the weekend that Faith and WPI Strategy have written to FTSE 100 companies about joining BizUK. The organisation “will not seek to replace the CBI directly” and wants to be a temporary body that represents business interests in the run-up to the general election. You can read that story here.
Podcast…
The latest episode of our Business Studies podcast looks at being a female founder, working in the City and skydiving. The episode covers a diverse range of topics and is a fascinating conversation with Clara Melia, the founder of Equitory, which helps public and private companies with investor relations. We talk about why there is a lack of women in the City and the world of start-ups, as well as why skydiving is not as risky as you may think. You can listen to the episode on Substack here, Apple here and Spotify here.
Other stories that matter…
Millennials are better off as a generation than has been claimed, according to a new analysis. Not only are they earning money at a similar rate to previous generations, but they stand to inherit the wealth of their parents too (Noahpinion)
The husband-and-wife team behind Rathfinny, one of the leading English sparkling wine brands, is looking to sell a stake in the business and bring in new investment (The Times)
The discount grocery chain Lidl has published a brochure outlining where it would like to open new shops in the UK and its requirements for those shops. Lidl is offering a finder’s fee to any member of the public who helps it find a site for a new shop. This fee is 1.5 per cent of the freehold on the new shop or 10 per cent of the first-year’s rent. Lidl is the sixth-largest supermarket chain in the UK. It has 950 shops but is opening about 50 new shops every year (Lidl)
The latest memo to investors from Oaktree’s Howard Marks looks at the lessons from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. “You may be familiar with one of my favourite sayings: ‘Never forget the six-foot-tall person who drowned crossing the stream that was five feet deep on average.’” he writes. “Surviving on average is a useless concept; you have to be able to survive all the time, including – no, especially – in bad times. Borrowing short to invest long powerfully threatens that ability.” The piece also includes a reference to how Marks nearly lost personal money in the collapse of Northern Rock (Oaktree)
There is an interesting extract in Vanity Fair from a new book on digital media by former BuzzFeed editor and Semafor co-founder Ben Smith. Smith reveals how BuzzFeed rejected a $650 million takeover bid from Disney in 2014, leaving Bob Igor furious. BuzzFeed last week announced it was shutting BuzzFeed News (Vanity Fair)
A collection of the world’s leading billionaires are betting on nuclear fusion as the future of energy (Wall Street Journal)
It’s the NFL draft this week. This is when American football teams pick which graduating college players they want. The draft is a great test of an organisation’s decision-making and recruitment skills. We also get to see the success of these decisions quickly once the season starts. As a consequence, the draft is a useful place for businesses to look when trying to learn about decision-making and recruitment. One factor gaining traction among NFL teams is the S2 Cognition test. This test measures how quickly and effectively someone can process information to make a decision. According to reports over the weekend one of the most highly-rated quarterbacks in the draft - CJ Stroud - scored terribly in the test. He was widely expected to be picked first or second pick in the draft so it will be fascinating to see what now happens and how his career plays out (Go Long)
Lastly, check out our Sunday press review for a round-up of the business coverage in the papers. This week’s edition looked at the existential crisis facing the CBI, the revamp of Jaguar cars and the booming ad industry in the UK. Paying members were sent this on Sunday and you can sign-up to read it and get future editions here
And finally…
I am just back from a trip to the Lake District and took the opportunity while I was there for a special treat - a visit to one of Cumbria’s 11 restaurants with a Michelin star. My wife and I ate at Rogan & Co. This is one of Simon Rogan’s restaurants in Cartmel and is more casual than L’Enclume, its sister restaurant, which has three Michelin stars.
It was a superb evening. The food was excellent - particularly the dry-aged dexter short rib - as was the service and atmosphere, which was friendly and relaxed. At £79-a-head for three courses it is not cheap but it is also better value than many other restaurants around the country of inferior quality.
We also took the opportunity to spend some time in Cartmel before and after eating. It really is a beautiful village with a thriving collection of pubs, bars and restaurants. Check out Unsworth’s Yard for a collection of local businesses offering pizza, cheese, wine and craft beer, as well as live music and tables in the sunshine (when it’s not raining). You can find more information on Rogan & Co here and more on Unsworth’s Yard here
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Best
Graham