Do Not Adjust Your Focus Episode 4 - Matt Peacock, ex-Vodafone and world-leading expert on purpose and ESG
Companies: it’s not enough to say ‘we do no harm.’ What is the good that you do?
In the latest episode of Do Not Adjust Your Focus, Blurred’s regular podcast, Stuart sat down with Matt Peacock, until recently the Group Director of Corporate Affairs at Vodafone, leading the company’s renowned corporate social transformation strategy across 30 countries.
Matt is one of business’s leading experts on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) principles and operations, including a specialist passion for digital human rights. He is also a former BBC News Correspondent, working on its flagship World At One programme.
Matt and Stuart discussed the role of mobile technology in the world and whether it is a force for good or not, given the current concerns over the impact of social media on democratic process.
But the core focus of the conversation was around corporate transparency and purpose. In the podcast, Matt talks about his worldview on corporate social purpose and how it needs to start with a rigorous risk assessment, grounding it in firm ESG principles. He explains how he and his team inculcated a culture of social purpose across the business, arguing strongly that for any such strategy to be effective it must be grounded in hard business metrics, not a moral argument.
““The way we persuaded (Vodafone) was to present a very hard business case. What we didn’t do was make a purely moral argument.””
Finally, Matt and Stuart discuss the state of our journalism and politics today and whether, if we care about understanding the world’s biggest problems and dissecting the pertinent issues, we should be worried…
You can listen to the full podcast here and subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. And below is a handy time-guide for topics and questions covered.
We have more exciting guests lined up for future episodes - if you'd like to be featured let me know!
Topics and time codes:
Mobile
00:06 Introduction
00:46 In the last eight years, we’ve seen mobile go from being a technology, to a sector, to a channel. And now it’s arguably everything. Is its ubiquity a good or a bad thing? Mobile is one of the greatest social goods in human history – the fact that anyone on the planet can be connected and has access to a community, education and financial services is incredible. But is it all good?
03:11 Do you worry at all about the encroachment on private time, uninterrupted thinking, and how mobile has led to an always-on culture? Balancing the good versus the bad, it’s a fact that mobile has changed lives. The negatives are clear around social dysfunctionality, excessive screen time, the effect of social media on public discourse and public confidence. Despite these, is the world better with or without it?
05:23 Are you a tech optimist? History shows us how technology changes humanity and vice versa. There is a certain optimism about technology helping address the bigger problems of the future, such as climate change. It’s essential that people learn the ins and outs before committing to a definitive opinion.
07:08 What are your thoughts on 5G? Is it overhyped or not? When it comes to financial stability, the mobile industry is currently in a bad place. It’s capital intensive, but with low profitability. It’s a matter of survival – operators feel the need to move on to the latest innovations, such as 5G. But how does it differentiate from its predecessor?
Purpose
09:33 At Vodafone, you were responsible for it becoming the UK’s most valuable brand, based on its purpose, corporate transparency and sustainability work. How did you go about it? The company’s decision to focus on purpose was driven by events that forced the business to think differently about current and future risks. For example, when accused of tax evasion in 2010, Vodafone decided to launch one of the world’s biggest tax transparency programs. That process in turn makes you think: what are the other risks? What else worries people? It’s imperative that you look your business from an outsider’s perspective.
13:53 What were the big challenges to achieving corporate transparency and a purpose-driven mindset across the organisation? Transparency and open communication about the risks that alarm the country provide a firm foundation for purpose. Once you establish the risks, you then need to establish what good you do, forming the core of a company’s social purpose.
It’s essential that you make a solid business case, based on long term projections of revenue and cost cutting, rather than on simple moral arguments. Support your theory by going in with business cases that support a social goal. Go with the grain of the business to ensure it happens now.
16:41 Does the current ‘bandwagonry’ frustrate you? It even further diminishes public trust in businesses – when they aren’t practicing what they preach.
21:00 What’s your prediction for the next phase of purposefulness? If it’s going to be more than just marketing fluff and lead to solutions, not just ideas, the ESG part will eventually drive the social purpose part.
ESG was nowhere four years ago. As a concept it is very new – it’s now defining investment decisions and whether or not private equity firms can raise finance to go off and buy, as well as shaping every aspect of how modern global capitalism works.
ESG has now gone mainstream, from that will then flow the proactive contribution. The absence of a negative is not enough, you need to proactively contribute a positive.
27:01 There’s a sense that, with populism and protectionism on the rise across the world, nations are pulling up the drawbridge just when corporations are trying to be more global. In terms of the global challenges we face – the climate, resources, automation etc – there’s a clear tension. Who can best deliver solutions to a problematic world – governments or corporations? It’s a race – will businesses be able to reinvent themselves, and the fundamental model that underpins how they operate, quickly enough to head off the tidal wave of angry populism that’s transforming politics?
Media
33:30 As an ex journalist, what state do you think the media is in? Do you have a passion for that world still? Is journalism in a good state? Professional journalism as a business model is in crisis. It’s kept alive by small numbers of wealthy benefactors, such as governments, legislative processes that provide funding, desires of media owners to have a flagship news organisation that doesn’t generate a profit). Media must now cover more with less, which is worrying because freedom of media is the first human right that goes.
Personal
36:40 I’m currently compiling my Christmas book wish list, so I’m asking everyone for a recommendation. What’s your best book of 2019 that I should add? Our Final Century – Martin Reiss. An interesting examination of every covered in this podcast; all the threats that humanity faces, which, ironically, are less frightening now than they were when the book was written.