DPM launches the business X-Factor

Well done to Deputy Prime Minster, Nick Clegg who today has launched the Business Compact, the first step towards ending the culture of “who you know, not what you know”.

The move aims to put in place merit, accountability and peoples’ worth ahead of a culture of returning favors offering the best opportunities only to those you know and promote contacts over merit and ability. With more than 100 of the UK biggest businesses signed up to the Government’s Business Compact – the DPM hopes today signals the beginning of the “what you know, NOT who you know” culture.

Mr. Clegg is right: “This is an important step towards a society where it’s what you know, not who you know that counts.” It is a fairer and more open way for businesses and our society to adopt. Despite some incidences, such as last summer’s London Riots, Britain is rich with some of the most talented, able young minds who are neither educated in the top universities, nor come from a connected family, and I say this from experience. Between 2005 and 2011; I worked with some of the most talented young minds and saw firsthand what our young are capable of achieving. Sadly many of them, in spite of every effort and regardless of their abilities, don’t even get a foot in the door and the opportunity to focus and develop their raw talents and drive to excel to benefit themselves, their communities and their families.

The Business Compact is a starts, a great step toward the DPM’s and the Coalition Government’s Social Mobility Strategy project which aims to ensure every individual is free to achieve, regardless of the circumstances of their birth.