Jericho Notices – April 2019

Welcome to the April edition of Jericho Notices – a quick trip around the latest news and views from Jericho, with only the slightest mention of “you know what”….

Who Cares?

We need to change our current approach to ‘care’. Box-ticking and compliance are not the answer, argues Alex Khaldi, Partner & Head of Social Care Insights at Grant Thornton. His article asking ‘What do we really mean by ‘care’?’ captures the key themes in the second roundtable discussion, curated by Jericho, as part of the Caring Society programme.

Alex suggests that finding ways to explore the link between kindness and productivity can create the paradigm shift needed in order to re-design Adult Social Care for the 21st century – the challenge at the heart of our programme.

Building a Better Britain

Social Housing needs to be recognised and supported as a national asset. This will help address profound challenges of social exclusion/ inclusion.

The third discussion in the ‘What kind of Britain are we Building?’ series, in partnership with BRE, took place in Manchester recently and participants suggested that success will be led by new and radical partnerships across the ‘Holy Trinity’: local authorities, communities and developers.

With the home representing a pillar of individual flourishing in life, public house-building can and should be the foundation of national success.

The full article and podcast interviews with planners, architects, policy-makers and construction experts can be found here.

The programme has spent time in London, Edinburgh and Manchester with forthcoming events planned in Coventry, Cardiff and Belfast, before re-assembling in the capital to reflect on insights, learnings and policy recommendations. Get in touch if you would like to contribute. 

A New Deal for Children

Children’s services are under pressure like never before. The “Age of Austerity” has hurt children and their families deeply. Too often, the state is simply unable to cope.

Jericho’s March event in partnership with John Lyon’s Charity asked ‘Is it time for a New Deal for the UK’s Children?’. The pressures they face should be cause for national concern and a deal that places children’s health and lives at the centre of its focus will need to be long-term; fully integrated across national and local government; and transcend party politics.

Contributors agreed that the event should be the beginning of a wider conversation. “We don’t want this to be a one-off,’ said Dr Lynne Guyton, CEO, John Lyon’s Charity; “We would like to bring you back perhaps in smaller groups to discuss individual themes and try to influence public policy as a group.”

Lightly Grilled

Gavin Patterson, ex-CEO of BT, was gently probed by Jericho’s Matthew Gwyther, in the latest edition of Jericho’s ‘An Evening with … ‘ series.

Following in the footsteps of interviewees Bill Browder and Justin King, Gavin discussed his leadership style and methods as CEO; tussles with OFCOM; why doing business in Italy is so tricky; the highs and lows of running one of the FTSE 100’s most prominent companies; the pressures on his family; and why he didn’t really fancy running the Premier League.

You can listen to the interview and Q&A session that followed here and stay tuned for next steps in this occasional series.

Brief in haste, repent at leisure

Intellectual rigour, and the time needed to think, has become unfashionable says Jericho Partner, Jan Gooding in this recent piece for Mediatel. Strategic thinking is increasingly regarded as not valuable enough to pay for and we have forgotten how to think about the impact of what we are doing in the rush to action.

Jan combines the wonderful skills of one of Britain’s foremost, award-winning brand marketers and a deep thinker and business leader on Diversity & Inclusion. If you would like more frequent updates from Jan on either of these issues, please get in touch.

No more purpose peddling or PR Platitudes

With quite a lot going on in the world right now, Robert made a short film about how business navigates chaos, complexity and uncertainty. And it’s not with more vacuous bullshit, that’s for sure.

If you are bored of #Brexit, there is always the next season of Game of Thrones. Meanwhile… there will be more on the Future of Work and….

More on Tax

We are now inviting contributions to the latest initiative in KPMG’s global Responsible Tax project. In an era of globalisation and digitisation, do we need new “digital taxes” or wholesale reform of the Corporate Tax system instead? KPMG’s Chris Morgan and Jericho’s Robert Phillips have just published this co-authored piece. If you would like to contribute your ideas, please get in touch. A series of events and Think Pieces will share collective thoughts and outcomes in early summer.

A New Europe?

We almost made it to the end of Notices without mention of the “B- word”.

Clients remain understandably perplexed by the current state of affairs. As are we. Party politics are failing us and Citizen’s Assemblies (or, as Jericho likes to call them, People’s Forums) may help unlock better thinking. Petty tribalism is getting us nowhere, as you may have in read recent pieces by Neal Lawson and Robert Phillips.

Catherine Stewart, Jericho’s Brussels-based EU “veteran” has been thinking about what comes next and what this means specifically for corporate players. If you would like some Euro-therapy with Catherine, please drop her a line.

Optimism …

And, finally… a sneak preview of the cover for the next edition of Jericho Times, out just after the Easter break. Loads of fresh, rich content: on “women in tech”; future transport and infrastructure; ideas for London and much more besides. A veritable celebration of those of us – Jericho, clients and communities – working together towards meaningful change, a better society and the common good. And an optimistic future.

As ever, we would love your involvement in what we do. Please stay in touch/ get in touch to find out more.

Rebecca Perrin

Programme Executive