UK businesses need to prove they’re worth listening to – and we need to start paying attention

Putting aside the pros and cons of Brexit, it’s evident that the heads of our largest, best-known enterprises are simply being ignored, writes Chris Blackhurst

Does business know best? (EPA)

At the last count, 27 million people in Britain worked in the private sector. Going by the latest numbers, too, the total voting population stands at 45.7 million.

Some more statistics. There are 8,000 large businesses in the country, defined as more than 250 employees, accounting for 40 per cent of employment.

Which means that a substantial chunk of the UK electorate work for those large businesses. And yet, here is the rub: no one is listening. Worse, many of those employees are defying their bosses and going completely against what they’re advocating.

In the Brexit debate, big business is virtually entirely for staying in the EU. Yes, there are some Brexiteer big businesses, but compared to the large corporations they are few.

But, it stands to reason, judging by the size of the vote, that many of those Remainer big business workers opted to leave – and, based on the polls, despite the shouting from their employers, continue to take that view.

Putting aside the pros and cons of Brexit, it’s evident that the heads of our largest, best-known enterprises are simply being ignored. They’re not heard, they’re not believed, not trusted.

There was also evidence for this in the Scottish Referendum campaign, when the biggest companies and their captains were issuing dire warnings of what might happen should the majority choose independence. In the end, the result went the other way, but arguably, that was down to passionate, last-minute interventions from the likes of Gordon Brown, than anything issuing from Britain’s boardrooms.

When Brexit is over, whatever the outcome, our business leaders need to take a very hard look at themselves. They no longer command an audience, they’re not being taken seriously by enough people.

With financial services, the chasm is understandable. The global financial crisis left deep scars, and the banks have got a lot of rebuilding to do.

But the divide goes much broader. It’s not just on Brexit or Scottish independence where business is not getting through. We’ve had complaints about red tape, severely complicated taxation, poor transport infrastructure, lack of recruits with adequate skills, onerous business rates – to mention just some of the issues concerning commercial leaders.

They might as well be talking to a brick wall in terms of the impact they’ve been having. In Whitehall, the old Department of Trade and Industry was long seen as not one of the heavyweight departments, lacking in influence. It went through several incarnations, but its current successor, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, fares little better.

Yes, the prime minister has had several major employers in for cups of tea and a chat. And our politicians love nothing more than holding a press conference on a factory floor, or to be photographed touring a company’s state-of-the-art research and development facilities.

It’s true, as well, that the chancellor went out of his way to phone selected business leaders on a late-night call after a recent Commons Brexit vote, to reassure them that Article 50, triggering our departure from the EU, could always be extended. But this appeared to be more Philip Hammond “flying solo” rather than an agreed, concerted cabinet-wide response.

The deafness does not stop at politicians. It’s right across large sections of the media. Roland Rudd, chair of the People’s Vote campaign and head of Finsbury, the City PR firm, was asked to go on Radio 4’s Today programme, to discuss Brexit. When he was introduced, the interviewer questioned the wisdom of his decision to speak to them live from the World Economic Forum at Davos.

What was not said was that several of Rudd’s FTSE 100 clients were at Davos, and it was an efficient method of meeting them. And that it was also the same gathering that Sir David Attenborough and Prince William chose to attend.

In theory, business has a voice in the shape of the CBI. The organisation claims to speak for 190,000 businesses employing seven million people. It may do, but is anybody actually paying any attention to what is being said?

Worse, of those seven million, how many choose to oppose the views of the CBI and their employers?

The most recent foreign places I’ve been to through work have been New York and Dubai. Both of them embrace capitalism – not always with perfect results, it must be said. Nevertheless, the sense of hearing business, of giving companies and employers what, within reason, they want, and the resulting buzz and energy, is apparent.

As a nation our love of making money has never been as profound as that of New York and Dubai. But I would say that as a society, recently, we’ve shifted in the other direction.

What is required is a reworking of the relationship. Business has to prove its worth, to get across that it’s not simply about lining the pockets of a few at the top, that it’s there for the common good, as the major source of revenue for the public purse, the biggest provider of jobs and prosperity.

It’s a two-way street, and our elected politicians and media have to do their bit too. But the rebuilding starts with business chiefs first admitting there is a problem and deciding to do something about it.

Chris Blackhurst is a former editor of The Independent, and director of C|T|F Partners, the campaigns, strategic, crisis and reputational, communications advisory firm