Possibly one of the most widely felt repercussions of the recent economic crisis has been a
crushing blow to the jobs market.
This has made it more crucial than ever for businesses to support enterprise and create
employment in the economies that needed the most.
Today's intimate and exclusive event hosted by the International Business Leaders Forum
looks to take a fresh perspective on the opportunities that exist for companies to create a positive
impact on the communities in which they operate.
The business of jobs is a challenging one and it raises some big questions such as how
can we reset the economy to support the markets most hit by the downturn and can collective
business action stimulate new ways of thinking around job creation and skills development.
Let's find out.
The need for collective action to bring about change in terms of jobs in terms of skills
in terms of enterprise development and employability is more vital than ever.
And so we're here today to consider a framework that we've been working on as IBLF to help
to build more collective and concerted action on these issues to engage your views and experience
and we know there's a lot of experience in this room and delighted to have you all here
to explore.
This is at the very heart of what I think is not just the work of the IBLF and the debate
of the IBLF and where the IBLF has been positioned over the last 20 years but it's the very
part of where we as society have to come together in order to be sure that the engines of development,
the engines of business development have this whole societal connection but also a societal
resonance.
IBLF believes that supporting employability and enterprise to create jobs and increase
incomes for communities is the most direct way in which businesses can contribute to
sustainable development.
I have to now focus more on this enterprise, your creation, mobilize the poor people.
They will surprise you with their internal energy.
When you look into the brown eyes of these outcast people in southern India living below
one dollar an hour, illiterate and so on, there's a fire burning, they've got a chance
now, they're not going to miss it.
The IBLF Forum on Enterprise and Employability also involved the formation of discussion
groups where the top level attendees shared opinions, brainstormed and then fed back
this input to the rest of the room.
There is a responsible way of downsizing, in fact, creative downsizing by helping those
people who are letting go actually create their own businesses.
Businesses need to think about their role for their own people and what is the role
of their own workforce in delivering skills development and delivering these employability
programs and it's really around employee motivation and retention for the company's
own employees.
The Forum marked the launch of a working paper titled The Business of Jobs, highlighting
a new focus for the IBLF in employment and enterprise development.
At a time when there is real concern about rising unemployment, this report looks at
how companies can and are developing employability and enterprise by collaborating with other
partners.
We asked senior executives how they measure success with these projects and the role of
IBLF in this arena.
In a way, fundamentally success is about economic activity.
If you've created wealth in a community which is previously impoverished, you've returned
dignity to that community, they are then free to spend that money on things like health
and education and, of course, where necessary, additional food for their own communities.
I think IBLF have got a key role going forward.
I think channeling the corporate power of large organisations like Deloitte is really
key that we can have one global voice where we can work together with organisations like
IBLF to really make not just a localised difference but a global difference to people's lives.
So Benji, I think that went pretty well.
What do you think of the next stages?
I think we've had a good day today and some good discussion and we're going to be refining
our framework and our research that we've written up to date and hopefully by the end
of the next month we'll be able to publish that research and disseminate it to our group
of stakeholders and to other people to bring more people on board into understanding the
work that we've done so far.
I've had the privilege to be working since 1993 with the IBLF and I've watched it evolve
from being one of the real pioneers, in fact probably the pioneer in looking at how businesses
can connect with society as a whole in terms of being a very positive force for development
in the world.
