Boardrooms must set values for their organisations and demonstrate them, Tesco chairman Sir Richard Broadbent has told Bristol businesses.
They should be innovative in their strategy and encourage innovation at all levels of the business. And they must demonstrate leadership not just talk about it, he said.
In a wide-ranging speech as part of the Bristol Distinguished Executive Address Series (BDEAs) staged by the Bristol Business School at UWE, Sir Richard, pictured, who was deputy chairman of Barclays, tackled the importance of corporate governance in the light of the banking crisis as well as the loss of trust by politicians and public in business. 
He said the values of an organisation were vital – and they must be set at the very top of the organisation by the board.
“Values are about honest relationships,” he told the audience at the M Shed, the largest in the current BDEA series.
“And it has to start at the top. It takes time. It has to flow down – you have got to lead it by demonstrating it.”
Those values must also allow everyone in an organisation to feel they are important and can influence it. “They must encourage people to stand up and be themselves,” he said.
Boards should also set the strategy – but it had to be the right strategy. “It doesn’t matter how good you are, if you are heading in the wrong direction you will never arrive,” he said.
On the wider subject of trust in business following the banking crisis, he said the debate had become politicised and the language used was often quite violent.
Businesses were part of society yet they were being sheepish in defending themselves. The challenge now was to restore trust inn business.
Sir Richard has been chairman of Tesco, which employs around 300,000 people, since 2011 and was previously deputy chairman of Barclays and chairman of Arriva.
BDEA partners include ACCA, Bristol City Council, Business West, CBI, CMI, FSB, IoD, and the West of England LEP.
To register for forthcoming talks visit: www.uwe.ac.uk/dea
