Japan-UK Symposium 2001

The Community and Business Partnership

Presented by Robin Rowland

For 12 years I had a wonderful job travelling the world as the International Chief Executive for a very large international insurance company-the Royal Insurance. I was responsible for over 10,000 staff, over 7 million customers and nearly 100 companies spread over 50 countries, including Japan. So I do have significant business experience of both large and small organisations. But three years ago I decided to retire early and use my business experience to help a variety of Community and Social projects. Why did I do this?

Well in 1991 I was also asked by the Royal Insurance, to take on additional responsibility as the Director responsible for what we called Community Relations. Luckily for me, and it did change my life, in 1992 I was taken to the East End of London to see the Bromley By Bow Community Centre which was being run by Andrew Mawson. To me this area, which, as already described by Andrew today, had been one of total despair, had already become a welcoming place where much beauty was being created and people of all shapes, sizes, ages, colours and backgrounds were recovering their self respect. No-one was excluded whether they were old, disabled or could not speak English. Great efforts were made to find an opportunity for everyone to use their talents within the Community.

My eyes were truly opened and I felt inspired. Quickly, indeed that day, Andrew and I started to talk about how Royal Insurance and Bromley By Bow could work together for the benefit of each other. Bromley By Bow could clearly teach many businesses much about understanding their customers' needs, but we also had skills which The Community Centre could use such as planning, finance, computer and marketing skills all of which are needed to optimise the resources available to the Community. Soon we seconded one of our best young managers to the Centre and she very soon confirmed what a wonderful development job it was even for someone well trained in business.

As a result of all this Andrew introduced us to other Social entrepreneurs who were truly changing the world for the better. This was in a world where our so called Welfare State in the UK was failing to deliver solutions to many of the most needy. It is easy to provide standard packages to everyone, but not easy as central government to deal with the special needs of many.

As a business we then backed other initiatives of Andrew's such as the Grand Banquet held in 1995 to discuss social issues, which was attended by Tony and Cherie Blair, and also a young Financial Times Journalist Charles Leadbetter. This in turn led to Tony Blair including in his first Policy speech in 1997 after becoming Prime Minister the statement that "we will be backing thousands of social entrepreneurs".

It also led to us sponsoring the important book - The Rise of the Social Entrepreneur, written by Charles Leadbetter. These experiences, and others, all showed me, and others, that "People must come before Structures", whether you are a For Profit or a Not for Profit Organisation. The priority given to the actual needs of people explains to me why Social Entrepreneurs do succeed where others fail.

This business/community partnership has proved wonderful training for me, already an experienced, and successful international businessman and has given me great pleasure. It also influenced me greatly in deciding to retire early and try to use both my business experience and my social entrepreneur apprenticeship to build a second career helping others to help themselves.

So in the UK I am now involved in a voluntary capacity in more than ten different social/community as well as environmental activities. This includes being Vice Chairman of one very large volunteer NPO which, with over 7000 members, is the largest of its kind in the UK.

But you ask "Where does Japan come into it?"

I first visited Japan in 1987 and made friends here very quickly. I enjoyed coming here and as a businessman came about 40 times in 12 years. During that time I have seen your great country, which has achieved so much, grow from one of great confidence where government and business believed they could successfully tackle virtually all problems, to the situation today where you have much less confidence as to how you are going to solve some of your economic and social problems.

In the last 3 years since taking up my second career as a volunteer social adviser I have been back to Japan 14 times.I have visited and talked with many NPOs and Community organisations. My six visits this year alone have included Tokyo, Nagoya, Kamagasaki, Kobe, Kyoto, Kitakyushu ,Yokohama, Hamamatsu and Sendai. I have spoken at twelve different conferences, workshops and community meetings. (I suspect that for the year 2001 this is more than any other person from outside Japan.)

My resounding conclusion from all these discussions and visits is that we can help each other, we can learn from each other. In the UK we have just had about 15 more years experience of realising that Central Government is not capable of solving alone many community and individual problems. We have discovered in the UK that we must involve and support people themselves in solving their own community problems. Our years of experience have most importantly shown that each community has its own particular features which need addressing. This is particularly if we want our Reinvented Communities to involve, as they must do in my view ,everyone in need. This is why development of a network of social entrepreneurs who can share experiences, even if just sometimes by email, has proved so powerful in the UK.

During my visits to Japan I have met some wonderful social and civic entrepreneurs capable, if given the right sort of support , of solving many of the social problems you now have.

As a example of how the business and the social sector are already working together I would briefly like to recall my visit in August to Hamamatsu. There I was asked by Yuko Yamaguchi, who runs NPocket , a support office for NPOs and grass roots organisations, to sit down with her in her office for an hour and use my business and social entrepreneur experience to suggest some words which they might put up on their office wall. She wanted to provide them as encouragement and advice to the people and organisations they support.

I have since quoted these words both in Sendai and in the UK and in all cases they seem to be welcomed. This again demonstrates that the principles of good business and successful social and community work have much in common.

So these are the words which N Pocket later that day put into a Powerpoint presentation and which, now translated into Japanese, are on the wall in Hamamatsu.

Use your Imagination Be open Have a Vision Raise Money for your Vision

Learn from Other People and use their experiences. Learn from GOOD business practice

Keep telling people what you are doing People are always the most important

We should not do anything without respecting People Quality follows Quality

I challenge any businessman or woman to say that these are not what they regard as important for success in business. So the principals are the same, whether for profit or not for profit. I believe it is most important for people running social and community projects, whether they are social entrepreneurs or local Government, to recognise this.

I did make one mistake in Hamamatsu. I should have also told them how important it was to also

Be prepared to work in PARTNERSHIP

Government (Local and Central), Business and the Community ideally have to learn to work together but with the greatest voice being given to the people's needs.

Finally to show that I am not only the only businessman who has identified closely with the People Before Structures/Bromley By Bow Model here is how the Chief Executive of British Gas expressed it

"This kind of social enterprise represents a fundamental shift in approaches to deprivation and social exclusion.

It's a partnership involving all of us!

Thank you for listening.

Keynote speaker profile Robin Rowland FIA, FCCA

Robin Rowland retired two years ago after 40 years with the Royal Insurance and Royal Sun Alliance Insurance Groups. Having qualified unusually as both an actuary and an accountant, he was later given responsibility for computer services and then for international business. On his retirement he had been International Chief Executive for 12 years with responsibilities covering more than 100 different businesses, and over 10,0000 people in over 50 countries, including Japan. He was Chairman or Director of many of these businesses.

He was Chairman of the International Committee of the Association of British Insurers and for 5 years was also Chairman of the Japan Committee of British Invisibles. (Since 1987 he visits Japan about 3 times a year).

Importantly in 1990 he also became the Worldwide Community Relations Director for Royal Insurance and this brought him into direct contact with some wonderful people and projects in the voluntary and social sectors. He helped create a number of close business/NPO relationships and developed a strong interest in supporting 'social entrepreneurs' such as Andrew Mawson of the Bromly By Bow Centre. He has encouraged the creation of the Community Action Network (CAN). He has also been Trustee of Benevolent and Pension funds with particular concern for the elderly and disabled.

Since 1996 he has been a member of the UK-Japan 21st Century Group and was asked to present a paper on 'New Social Welfare Challenges' to the 1999 meeting in Chiba. At the March 2000 meeting he presented a paper for discussion on 'Demography, health and retirement'.

He is Adviser to Links Japan, Vice Chairman of the Chiltern Society (one of the largest NPOs in the UK run only by volunteers), is a member of CIVICUS and Adviser to the Wigmore Hall Trust (a world famous music NPO).

Born in 1940, he is married with two daughters. His email address is:
robin.rowland@dial.pipex.com