Association of Scottish Businesswomen

Saturday, 20th November 2004

I am delighted to be here, I was invited to give a pre-dinner rather than an after- dinner speech – about which I have no complaints.

I thought I would build what I want to say around a few quotes rather than a few jokes.

And, like jokes, when it comes to quotes there are a few old faithfuls – for example Harold Wilson is remembered for “the pound in your pocket” and “a week is a long time in politics”.

And this week’s been a particularly long week.

One week ago George Bush had not been re-elected in the United States – there had not been the loss of life of soldiers in Iraq – and many of us were hoping the North East would vote for its own assembly.

And this bring me to the first of my female quotes – “hope is a very unruly emotion”. It comes from Gloria Steinam.

I think temperamentally women in business are hopeful types so it means I should, at least in principle, this evening be talking to the converted when I make a case for the Scottish Parliament.

But if women in business tend to be optimists by temperament, I venture that you are also not typically dreamers – and so I also want to be realistic in my remarks.

I want tonight to touch on three themes:

the balance sheet of devolution
the challenges that lie ahead and
women in business and life

The Balance Sheet of Devolution

There my quote is from a woman (Beverley Sims) “You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try”.

And in a week where America set the pace, it is important to recognise that Scotland is part of a world wide trend to decentralisation.

In fact we are rather “Johnnie come lately’s” to federalism because devolving powers within big nations to regional tiers of government is something that is now seen in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, indeed all the other major countries in the EU as well as Australia and the United States.

If Scotland had not changed we would have been quite simply out of step with all major nations across the globe.

From history’s perspective Scotland’s devolved Parliament is still in its infancy.

For 100 years before that Scotland’s government was the provenance of one man, (and it was always a man), the Secretary of State for Scotland, who was in charge of Scotland.

Constrained only to be able to spend Monday in Edinburgh followed by Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday in London, and Friday in his constituency. 20^th Century Scotland was more “administered” more than “governed”.

In those terms – Scottish government in the hands of one man and at the margins in terms of Westminster time – Devolution has been a success.

The chance of update Scots law so bills passed including

· the abolition of feudalism

· the abolition of warrant sales

· the tackling of inefficiencies in the justice system.

All of these represent progress from when Scotland was “administered” rather than “governed”.

It simply took too long to make important decisions and it had knock on consequences – in lots of way the system was just dated.

And it was also true of other areas of policy – like economics.

So just 10 years ago we were throwing money at a Taiwanese company, Chungwa, in Bellshill – who not only offered an outdated technology, in the wrong place at the wrong price – but we were willing to extend £50m of tax payer’s money to them for the privilege.

There was a real sense in Scotland at the end of the 20^th Century that it was time for a fresh start, for fresh thinking.

A key point to make is that we have got rid of the Scottish cringe – we no longer blame the English – but we still have the Scottish whinge – although this time we have repatriated it.

So today we should be excited by the challenge of the times in which we live. Times which give us more chance to shape the nation’s future than perhaps a century or more.

For years in Scotland our public debates were dominated by who decides, mainly should Scotland or Edinburgh make the decisions, rather than the much more important matter of what we do.

So how are we doing?

It is very tempting to say “What have the Romans ever done for us?” and talk about

unemployment at its lowest level for a generation
huge investment in public services
the biggest school building programme
children lifted out of poverty
universal nursery education
fuel poverty halved

But that rather misses the point.

The truth is there is disappointment – some deserved some undeserved.

Again it is worth looking outward rather than inward across the globe.

Federal and devolved government brings decision making closer to people; makes it possible to build the national consensus to get agreement on the way ahead.

But, across the globe there is also a downside, and that downside is about the lack of capability at the regional level.

Again Scotland is not alone; other regional governments have the same challenges.

Other regional governments have the same challenges.

The choices to the extent to which we rise to the challenge of building our capabilities.

Let me talk about the possible downsides first.

There is a real danger in our newly democratic Scotland that ‘he’, and its often a ‘he’ who shouts loudest with the most clout, the committees of the Parliament, that too often become vehicles for advocacy more than analysis, the ponds of well organised, well-resourced producer groups and less interested perhaps in evidence than reflecting what they hear from important interest groups.

On my Education Committee we tend to be dominated by the vocabulary of teaching rather than the vocabulary of learning.

On the Finance Committee discussing issues of water and transport, we tend to interrogate those who provide those services rather than those who use them – so there are weaknesses.

But let me dwell for a moment on the upsides – and here I will talk about the advances of this city.

The Public Private Sector partnerships that have renewed all secondary schools in this city doesn’t have a parallel in England

the M74 is now being built
new homes being given back to the tenants
airport rail links being built
the generous settlement for further and higher education
the clutter of outdated hospital being reduced to fewer more strategic sites
plans for the regeneration of the Clyde.
the commitment to challenging sectarianism
the new legislation on domestic violence
and the promise that all children at the age of three and four have the right to go to nursery and promises of extended childcare.

When you look back to the fears before devolution that just having a Parliament would bring about penal tax rate, it is rather encouraging that all this has been achieved without using the tax varying powers.

So let me end my reflections to date on devolution with a quote from Marie Curie – pioneering female scientist who might have been speaking of Scotland when she said “one never notices what has been done one can only see what remains to be done”

And on that note of what remains to be done, let me now turn to my second theme…

The challenges that lie ahead – how we build capability

As some of you may know I was also involved in co-ordinating the Allander Series to bring some of the world best economists to Scotland to challenge conventional thinking about Scotland’s future.

As you all know – but government has perhaps been slow to recognise, we live in a world where people are the most important resource.

We are in “a war of talent”.

In the old days business success was about strategy, today it’s more often about people.

And people tend to live in urban areas and work in cities, so there are profound implications for planning, transportation and housing policies.

The cosy consensus we have on planning just will not do and yet you see people in all parties wanting a third party right of appeal.

Introducing more bureaucracy rather than reducing it.

Secondly, as a Nobel Prize winner in economics told us, investing in the very earliest years is the most important thing that a government can do to shape the future.

And yet there will be many people here who know personally the challenges of trying to find effective child care in Scotland.

In future generations there will be many more octogenarians than “terrible two’s” and we need to think how to support people to carry out their caring responsibilities for elderly parents.

I don’t suspect Labour would win the next Election by saying last time we introduced Sure Start to provide childcare places, now we are going to introduce Sure Death to help you support your ageing relative – but you get the point.

It is an area where the policy effort has been slow.

And on the economy itself …

Future success depends on closing the productivity gap that holds us back.

It is back to this question of capability.

We need to get better at making things happen rather than just talking about it.

There are too many in government, still tempted to belittle the operational questions.

Amongst our 4000 strong civil service cohort there are only 14 from the private sector, one private sector secondee in Finance and one in Enterprise, neither at a senior level – we must do better.

And, in particular, we must, as FEDS said, address the productivity of Public services.

Currently we are attempting a much smaller level of efficiency savings than has been attempted in the rest of the UK.

Finally we need new wisdom and that often comes when public and private work effectively together.

One encouraging sign last week was entrepreneurs getting involved in supporting leadership academies for head teachers.

Leadership academics are about giving head teachers more self confidence – more self belief and growing self belief for Scottish women as well as Scottish men – which brings me to my next quote of the evening as I move to my third theme of women and business.

The quote comes from Eleanor Roosevelt; a US politician who it would be fair to say would have little time for the current US administration.

She said “nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent”.

I want to dwell on that – nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent, and here I will add a personal reflection.

I am often asked about my own return to the back benches.

It is a decision I have not regretted, and although I was partially influenced by work-life balance issues, also by issues of principle.

I said I thought Scotland needed to think longer and harder about her future – it is difficult to do that in an office.

I do think women tend to lead their lives in cycles.

Its men who tend to see it as the Himalayan ascent.

I also think in politics, and this may also be true in business, that women can often bring wisdom that comes with age.

In truth, I think I am a better politician than I was 5 years ago and will be a better one yet in 5 or 10 years time.

But I think it is also always important to be challenging yourself – and in my case, becoming a visiting professor, writing a couple of books, the third in the planning.

The advantage of politics is that it does allow for a portfolio lifestyle which is not always open to women entrepreneurs or managers – a theme to which I will return.

The failure to use the skills of women of course is just one aspect of Britain’s productivity challenge – it’s a productivity issue.

Let me explain what I mean.

The Country has some very leaky pipes where we are losing mid-career women and yet in the “war for talent” the basis of success in a knowledge economy – it is women who often have what it takes to succeed.

Recent EOC research showed that 1 in 5 lose there jobs at pregnancy and less than half go back to the same employer after giving birth.

A third of women are taking part-time jobs below their potential because they do not see high powered part-time opportunities.

Increasingly in the future the full-time, part-time distinction will break down more and more.

The blackberry is changing all our lives.

Work-life balance is one of the top three priorities for many young graduates.

That, of course, sits along side the future intensification of work and a world where the biggest single issue for many businesses is resisting global competition and possible outsourcing to India where people make a very different work-life balance trade off.

These are tough issues.

But we will never beat the competition if we don’t use what we have to its full potential.

Only 30% of managers are women and 10% of FTSE directorships.

We are only in the foothills of meeting the challenges facing women.

We need to get both managers and the markets to understand what those in this room understand that people are the competitive edge and you cannot exclude half the population.

Women are self-disciplined and self motivated – the skills that the new working environment requires.

And finally what about female entrepreneurs.

For every 10 men starting in business in Scotland only 4 women are starting a business.

We know there is a problem of fewer role models and a fear of failure – that’s why organisations like this are so valuable overall.

Only 15% of businesses in the UK are owned by women compared to 30% in the US.

A step change in women’s entrepreneurship would mean; 75,000 extra jobs in Scotland.

Too often in our companies we recruit, rather lazily claiming we are looking for the “best” people, but often the most convenient people – which is who we find are not the best people.

Women are often the “canaries in the coal mine” in the work place.

The people who question when things are not being done properly.

My vision is for Scotland is for more powerful women with more powerful future.

But I want to end tonight with 2 anecdotes, which I invite you to ponder as “soul food” on the way home tonight.

When I resigned I read the biographies of all female leaders I could find, Margaret Thatcher, Indira Ghandi, Gro Harlem Bruntland – Two things in common – all felt guilty about not having given enough to their families, it’s par for the course but all of them also had found ways to be kind to themselves – all had a weekend place to escape to – the message – solace is vital to survival.

So if the message from female political leaders is make time to look after yourselves.

My final quote – and my favourite comes from Isak Dinesan – that magnificent Danish author – Out of Africa and all that, who said “the cure for anything is salt water – sweat, tears or the sea”.

I am sure that is as true for business and politics as it is for life.

web link : Association of Scottish Businesswomen I am delighted to be here, I was invited to give a pre-dinner rather than an after- dinner speech – about which I have no complaints.