UK 
United States
The vast majority of the business community campaigned for the UK to stay in the EU. So why did the British public not follow their advice?
According to Bill Boulding, Dean of Fuqua School of Business, it was down to a fundamental lack of trust. Data from the US shows that trust in politicians is low but trust in big business is lower still. A similar situation in the UK allowed politicians from the ‘leave’ side to benefit from the perception that: if the heads of banks and multinationals support ‘remain’ it must be wrong for the rest of us.
Leave campaigners were able to move the argument away from the economic consequences of Brexit, which for better or worse will have a profound impact, and to play on fear and anger around immigration and the social fault-lines brought on by globalization.
This troubling trend, paralleled in the US, during the current Presidential campaign, means that there is no pressure for accountability for politicians to offer a better alternative, but rather an easy way out by deflecting responsibility away from policy to business and the focus away from the economy.
Boulding believes that, although in fact business has done a lot since the 2008 crash to introduce more socially responsible practices, this is not the message that is getting out to the public. From the VW scandal to the Libor scandal to news about excessive executive pay, stories of bad behaviour keep coming out. The business community has not done enough to repair the damage of 2008. Banks have never really been held accountable nor individuals suffered any significant personal loss.
He points out that although improvements have been made “perception is reality,” and the business community needs to “mind the trust gap.” It needs to build common ground between communities based on an understanding that diversity and difference are good and can be drivers of sustainable economies, and it needs to prioritise the development of a generation of ethical leaders.
Read the full article at IEDP Developing Leaders
IEDP Developing Leaders monitors the executive development and thought-leadership from the world's leading business schools.
