Trust, Leadership, and Tax: What We’ve Learned Over Ten Years
Last month, our Global Responsible Tax Program (in partnership with KPMG International) celebrated its first decade.
This is an important milestone for KPMG, Jericho and our wider community.
Jericho was created to deliver new models of trust, communications and leadership that are radical, transformative and democratic. What we have achieved together with the Global Responsible Tax (GRT) program shows not only the strength of sustained commitment to the common good but also gets to the heart of the Jericho method and what is possible with new leadership, perseverance, openness, curiosity and vulnerability.
We marked this moment by interviewing some of the key and diverse voices from our journey. The interviews speak to the range, depth and richness of the conversations and debates we have held. You can read the short publication here.
About Responsible Tax - and what everyone can learn from it
This is about Tax but it's about so much more. It's about how we negotiate the complexities of the 21st century. We started the GRT program in the UK, against the backdrop of austerity measures, as an attempt to overcome the polarisation and heat in the tax debate and to get stakeholders from different perspectives to listen and learn together.
What began in a toxic environment of “men on mountain tops shouting at each other with megaphones” has since moved on to something more collaborative, constructive and open.
Tax is complicated, multi-faceted and has real-world impacts. What businesses do, how they are advised, how they are regulated, and how this all happens really matters. To say the least, this makes tax a difficult arena for debate and discussion. The GRT program looked to create a space where all key stakeholders, companies, advisors, decision-makers, campaigners, academics and thinkers, investors and the media could meet, talk and understand the complexities of the issues and the assumptions of their counterparts.
Sometimes, we could find agreement and better solutions; sometimes it was just a question of better understanding where the differences are. From 14 people in a room in October 2014 we’re now a 2000+ strong global community, having published hundreds of papers and reports, hosted countless roundtables and convened events to develop better relationships that engender better policies for the global common good. Most importantly, it’s become a space to share ideas and learn.
What is clear from the conversations in the publication is that, while there is still more to be done, a lot has changed in ten years. As one community member put it, “It’s like night and day”. Many businesses have now published their own responsible tax principles. This would have been almost unthinkable in the past. We have seen the digitisation of taxes, public Country-by-Country Reporting in the EU, the development of BEPS 2.0 and a 15 per cent global minimum corporation tax, along with a greater understanding that real trust comes from behaviour not just transparency. There still isn’t full agreement, and there may never be, but huge steps have been taken.
This was never going to be able to be the work of one person, company or organisation but has necessarily been the concerted and ongoing effort of an eco-system of NGOs, campaigners, regulators, policy-makers, commentators and business leaders of which we’re proud to be a part.
What Jericho does...
This is what Jericho does best: Helping businesses understand and redefine their purpose, build trusted relationships with their stakeholders, and establish themselves as leaders in their industries.
We work with people who face complex issues that mix corporate and public interest, whether it’s tax (because tax is the entry fee we pay for a civilised society), the future of work (because good work needs to be human), transport (because the future of transport needs to be more than just industrial relations), building (because the built environment needs better policies and stronger leadership on standards and quality), energy (because we need long-term transformative ideas to meet net-zero) or social care (because how we define care defines us as a society).
We are experiencing huge levels of uncertainty – political, social, environmental and technological. Austerity has given way to slow growth and other crises abound: geopolitical upheaval, cost of living and a resulting spread of populist sentiment. Citizens are looking to businesses to prove their value to society and governments looking to pay are increasingly focussing on business as the answer.
More than ever we need actions not words; collaboration not just competition.
Talk to us if you want to:
Identify the societal or public good issue behind your organisation’s key challenges
Tackle a complex challenge that requires collaboration beyond your organisation
Build trust with your stakeholders through meaningful action
Take a proactive role in shaping the future of your industry
The coming years are likely to be very different from the last 10, but equally challenging, enlightening and rewarding. The journey continues.