BUSINESS INSIGHT
THE BIG PICTURE Relocate’s perspective
FOR BUSINESS
The 2016 CBI Annual Conference delivered a programme whose speakers and experts reinforced Britain’s position at the forefront of global innovation. Relocate’s managing editor, Fiona Murchie, reports.
A
ttending the CBI Annual Conference, themed around innovation, growth and prosperity in a world of disruption, was a surprisingly reassuring experience.
Behind the scenes, no doubt, there was a lot of politics going
on, but my impression was of a purposeful audience of over 1,000 business leaders just wanting to get stuck in, deal with the challenges thrown up since the EU referendum vote on 23 June, and understand the potential impact of the US election result. Most business leaders are pragmatists. They understand that
embracing digital solutions and technological advances can put them in the strongest position to ride the waves of change and withstand overseas competition. Standing still is not going to cut it. Announcing that Facebook planned to recruit 500 new staff to
its UK headquarters, Nicola Mendelsohn, the multinational giant’s EMEA vice-president, advised firms to be agile. Said Lady Mendelsohn, “We have 1,000 people working in our
offices in London, but we’re going to continue to invest and we’re going to increase our headcount by 50 per cent in the next year, so we will have 1,500 people here in the UK. If you’re looking for a job – we’re hiring.” She added that technology was “a British success story”, and
advised big business to try to be as agile, fast-moving and able to disrupt the norm as smaller firms. She encouraged companies to give their staff greater access to information to help them make better decisions, as this would empower them to have a greater impact.
16 | Re:locate | Winter 2016/17
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