The new head of the crisis-hit CBI, Rain Newton Smith, said she did not take the group’s future “for granted” and warned that the task of restoring trust from companies was “as great as it is urgent”.
Newton Smith, who parachuted to head Britain’s largest business group last month, made her comments after a mass exodus of members following serious allegations of sexual misconduct and rape, which police are investigating.
Writing times This morning, she warned that the community is “awash in an epidemic of discrimination and harassment against women” and that the organization she leads “has a place in this call to shame.”
She replaced Tony Danker as Director General on April 24 with the CBI suspending “all policy and membership activities” until it meets in June.
It has been hit by a string of high-profile departures including Aviva, Phoenix and the City of London Corporation, trying to distance themselves from serious allegations.
As the crisis unfolded, Newton-Smith apologized and said she would rebuild and reimagine the organization, before announcing that it would likely be renamed CBI.
In her Times article, she explained, “the shift in corporate culture promised by the board of directors is already under way” and will not stop during her tenure.
She described inaction as “the enemy” in the CBI, and said that experts were brought in to help transform the organization, and that restoring confidence begins “within the organization and works its way out.”
This comes after the City grandees suggested it was a “moment of consolidation” and that “something” will end up taking the place of the embattled Confederation of British Industry (CBI), if it can’t recover.
There has already been speculation about which organization might replace the Central Bank of Iraq.
Newton said she did not take the CBI’s future “for granted” and added that if the organization did not exist, she would recreate it, as it “does a vital function of talking business.”
Looking ahead, she scans for the expected general election next year, saying the CBI’s role in being able to “speak up” the city has “never been more important.”
In a “CBI New Look” that won’t “necessarily get everything right,” she said the challenge of rebuilding trust is “as great as it is urgent.”
