Culture is King. 

While that may be an over-simplification, there can be no doubt that culture is a very powerful determinant of what is – and what isn’t – deemed to be acceptable conduct. 

Based on the poor conduct that has too often prevailed, it’s easy to come to the conclusion that the sector needs what we sometimes describe as a “cultural transfusion”. That point was first made at the May 6^th, 2015 meeting held at Senate House, London University; a meeting that went on to inspire the creation of the Transparency Task Force. We believed back then that culture could be a key driver for reform of the financial services system, enabling the positive, progressive and purposeful finance reform that is so desperately needed. We believed it then and we believe it now; in fact, even more so today. 

To be blunt about it, any attempt to reform the financial services sector without addressing the huge importance of culture will fail. 

That’s why cultural reform is one of our 12 Finance Development Goals (FDGs). The FDGs are an idea inspired by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and they were conceived following a meeting in New York with Georg Kell; the man that inspired the creation of the UN’s SDGs and its Global Compact. 

Our FDGs are at the heart of the Framework for Finance Reform that we are creating with the help of a wide range of stakeholders around the world including some notable thought-leaders. In essence, our Framework for Finance Reform is based on the idea that we need “a whole system solution to a whole system problem,” an idea depicted by the oil on canvas artwork created for the front and back covers of our book.

This symposium represents a great opportunity to discuss and debate the importance of cultural reform; and how to harness it as a driver of change. 

We’ll be immersing ourselves in the topic and considering a wide range of perspectives. These quotations help to set the scene nicely and will hopefully help to get you “in the zone” as it were: 

·       “Culture is the deeper level of basic assumptions and beliefs that are shared by members of an organization, that operate unconsciously and define in a basic ‘taken for granted’ fashion an organization’s view of itself and its environment”.

– Edgar Schein

·       “Why is culture so important to a business? Here is a simple way to frame it. The stronger the culture, the less corporate process a company needs. When the culture is strong, you can trust everyone to do the right thing”.

– Brian Chesky

·       “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”.

– Peter Drucker

·       “Every CEO is in fact a Chief Cultural Officer. The terrifying thing is it’s the CEO’s actual behavior, not their speeches or the list of values they have put up on posters, that defines what the culture is. Without these four powers (Hiring, Firing, Promoting, Punishing) any employee at the company is along for the ride in a culture driven by someone more powerful than they are”.

– Scott Berkun

·       “We can change culture if we change behaviour”.

– Dr. Aubrey Daniels

·       “There’s really no such thing as internal culture anymore. Your culture is always public, and it’s your most powerful, public-facing asset or liability”.

– David Mattin

·       “Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do.”

– Potter Stewart

·       “When people go to work, they shouldn’t have to leave their hearts at home.”

– Betty Bender