Lord Bob Kerslake is the chair of Peabody and the Centre for Public Scrutiny, as well as president-elect of the Local Government Association. He formerly headed the Civil Service and chaired London CIV.
Here, Lord Kerslake reflects on chairing a Think Tank roundtable and lays down a challenge to his peers.
“What is the role of business in creating a fairer future for all?” That’s the frighteningly broad question that a group of board members, academics, and governance experts explored at a Board Intelligence Think Tank roundtable that I recently chaired.
90 minutes certainly isn’t enough to crack such a problem, but it was sufficient to reach a few conclusions, and recognise three sad truths: That this issue is getting worse; that the world won't naturally get fairer if business does nothing about it; and that business isn’t currently doing enough.
“The world won't naturally get fairer if business does nothing about it.”
In most boardrooms, there is a will to make things better. But uncertainty about where to start stymies progress. And so, here’s the challenge I lay down to my peers: Start by bringing your discussions about fairness to life.
“Wait a minute,” you might retort, “ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) and EDI (Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion) are already discussed in depth at every meeting” — but that’s precisely the problem. Crucial as they may be, these are jargon-heavy, process-driven items, increasingly managed by specialists. And their complexity means that many — inside and outside the boardroom — feel illegitimate when the subject comes up and leave the floor to the experts.
Fairness, on the other hand, is relatable. Unlike ESG, we’ve all experienced (un)fairness throughout our lives, and we can all pitch into a conversation about it. And because no one’s feelings about what’s fair are more valid than anyone else’s, not only does fairness connect us all — decision makers, employees, customers, communities — it also opens the conversation up to us all.
So, what’s a leader to do? We came up with four recommendations:
No organisation can solve unfairness by itself. But the good news is that you have more power than you think — and you shouldn’t be afraid to use it when it matters. By driving the fairness agenda and bringing it to life in ways that empower everyone to join this conversation, you’ll not only be making your business a fairer organisation, but a better, more productive, and more sustainable one too.
Every Board Intelligence Think Tank roundtable features an unexpected guest, invited to bring a different viewpoint to the conversation. On this occasion, we heard from Dr Alexanders Malchevskis, an economist and political refugee.
Dr Malchevskis brought in a more chilling perspective on fairness.
There’s a tendency amongst privileged individuals to only look at the inspirational side of things, and think, “Here’s what we could do if we improved the situation — wouldn’t it be nice?” But sometimes, we need a reality check to realise, “Here’s what will happen if we don’t improve the situation.” Dr Malchevskis reminded us that the risks associated with rising unfairness are real and can be nasty — and that we can’t simply turn a blind eye or hope they don’t affect us.
His take on money laundering resonated with me. I’ve been involved in boardroom conversations on the subject and, too often, the assumption in the UK is that it’s someone else’s problem — because, usually, the dirty money doesn’t originate from here. I’d like to see boards having real conversations about the risk that they might be handling laundered money — not just as a single agenda point in a busy meeting. If more companies took a zero-tolerance approach and refused deals that might involve laundered money, we could make a big difference both here and abroad.
Click here to read the full report on our roundtable findings.