Our responsibilities, by Emma Adair

Turbulence and Clarity 

As business consultants, we are seeing in real time what a turbulent period this is for many organisations. Debt to GDP ratio has risen substantially in the UK. This reflects the decrease in economic output and the necessary increase in spending.

Political leaders are considering how this will be tackled and alongside this, the economics profession is going through a much-needed period of intellectual disruption. Clarity of advice is needed more than ever.

What do we do about it?

I have been thinking about how we can effectively contribute to this recovery in a way that truly aligns with our values.

We have influence, so what do we do with it?

It needs to be more than helping organisations create financial resilience, growth, and sustainability. We can see how the pandemic has exacerbated inequality across our communities. How do we use our position of privilege to improve society and how do we succeed without getting too caught up in that which is inherently political?

It is a complex problem so I think we should keep the answer simple. We are acutely aware of the intelligence and strong values of the leaders in organisations that we work with. Our focus is now on how we empower them to revolutionise economic, social, and environmental value creation. By reducing hierarchy and overly bureaucratic governance through devolving opportunities and ownership, we focus on all three with equal priority.

We should ask ourselves, through every piece of advice, does what we do help those organisations to make money, make people’s lives better and make the planet better?

If you’d like to speak to Emma about some of her ideas on co-designing a better way or to find out more about her favourite beetroot recipes, you can get to her on emma.adair@the4oc.com