For India-watchers, the country’s remarkable digitisation in recent years is one of the wonders of the 21st century, massively reducing corruption, increasing tax revenues, boosting financial inclusion, and turbo-charging the national economy. Now, the prospect that Africa will copy India’s lead and reap the benefits for itself is becoming a reality. A series of initiatives is rolling out across the continent, harnessing the energy that India generated. Here are two of them:
Adopting digital public infrastructure (DPI)
Countries such as Nigeria, with its high population and relatively low financial inclusion, are tailor-made for DPI. Bill Gates is among the proponents. “Digitising things reduces overheads massively and it does it in a pro-equity way,” he said on a recent visit to Nigeria. “The ideal is for a woman to have her own savings account,” he said, which means less money goes on alcohol and more on school fees. Gates praised the Indian example, where money no longer leaks out of the benefit system. Previously, “the cash would show up and the big man in the village would get his piece. Now he can’t get that because it’s going on to her phone directly.” The Aadhaar digital identification system is also ideal for sub-Saharan Africa, where an estimated 470 million people have no official ID. Ghana’s vice-president Mahamadu Bawumia is among the biggest supporters: he points out that governments can’t serve their people if they don’t know who they are. Even though some argue that authoritarian governments could abuse the system, Bill Gates counters that “a competent government is better than an incompetent one,” and knowing who your citizens are is an important step towards giving them healthcare, education and the right to vote.
An Indian African trade partnership would be transformative
Welcoming the African Union into the G20 – to create a future G21 – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened up the prospect of far closer economic ties between his country and African nations. While India currently accounts for just 2.8 per cent of global trade and Africa for 3 per cent (compared with China at 14 per cent and the US at 8 per cent), trade between the pair has risen exponentially in recent years and could soar over the coming decades. “India and Africa, with their increasing incomes and population trends, could be significant markets,” said Vera Songwe at the Brookings Institute. “They could supply the world with both intermediary and finished products in EV cars, green housing, green fertiliser, renewable energy and digital infrastructure,” she said. “Africa can support India’s transition to a green economy” leading to economic benefits worth $20 trillion between now and 2040, she believes. Narendra Modi’s proposed infrastructure deal, offering African nations an alternative to the more onerous conditions that China attaches to development, is another prime example of a mutually beneficial partnership. Roads, railways, data and energy pipelines could lift many millions of Africans out of poverty and deliver increased growth and prosperity in both India and Africa.
Dinesh Dhamija founded, built and sold online travel agency ebookers, before serving as a Member of the European Parliament. His latest book, The Indian Century, will be published in the Autumn.
Christopher Jackson examines the rise and stall of the 2021 US Open champion, and asks what we can learn from her in our own careers
Emma Raducanu sits in a luxury hotel, immediately more interesting than the backdrop behind her. Interior designers will have specific words for the subtle gradations of brown, beige and mauve which I see, conveying low-key opulence. The gold struts of a light disappear out of shot. Behind her, half-lost in the night, are the ghosts of other buildings, suggesting Raducanu is in some upper floor suite: this feels appropriate since she has been in the stratosphere of sporting stars for the last 14 or so months.
Raducanu is perched on the sofa, professionally lit. She is dressed in what looks like a purple ballgown and which is probably Dior – one of her sponsors. The spangly crucifix which she wears for all her matches – including her 2021 US Open final victory – disappears in the glitter of her dress. It is as if she has found herself by accident in the interviewee’s chair and decided to allot some brief time before heading out for the night.
Recalling the last helter-skelter year, she says: “I’ve had a lot of new things that have been exciting. It’s great to learn from different industries and see new things, and I can apply it into every aspect of my life really, even my tennis. So I think that’s been really eye-opening.”
To recap for those who may have missed what has been without exaggeration the most astonishing fairytale in all sport, Emma Raducanu began 2020 as a little known tennis player. The armchair fan might easily have pigeon-holed her as the latest in a long run of British tennis players who ‘don’t quite make it’. It would have been easy to imagine without any disrespect intended to any of these players that here was another Johanna Konta, Elena Baltacha, or Heather Watson – one of those British hopes, who shine briefly then move off into commentating, coaching, management, or agenting.
It didn’t work out like that. Instead, Raducanu had a promising run at Wimbledon in 2021. At that time, she was ranked outside the Top 300, and entered the tournament as a wild card. She charmed everyone on her way to the fourth round. That match was disappointing at the time, and saw her lose to Ajla Tomlianoviç after experiencing breathing difficulties.
But in retrospect it was formative: Raducanu subsequently entered the US Open Championships and had to win three qualifying matches to be able to enter the main draw.
What happened next would be deemed unlikely if submitted as a Hollywood script. Raducanu went on to beat a string of top players: Stefanie Vögele, Zhang Shuai, Sara Sorribes Tormo, Shelby Rogers, Belinda Bencic, Maria Sakkari and Leylah Fernandez to win the tournament. More than this she did so without dropping a set. On her victory, she received public congratulations from the late Queen Elizabeth II, who called it: “a remarkable achievement at such a young age…testament to your hard work and dedication”.
These developments have let to pressure, of course, but Raducanu herself has been philosophical about that. “I’m a Slam champion, so no one’s going to take that away from me,” she has said. “If anything, the pressure is on those who haven’t done that.”
In short, this sort of thing doesn’t happen; to Raducanu it did.
School’s out
Raducanu’s victory was astonishing in itself: it also revealed somebody who revealed herself as well-spoken, educated, charming and humorous. She has sometimes been deemed, as we shall see, a poster-girl for social mobility or diversity in sport. Interestingly she has a grammar school background having attended Newstead Wood School in Orpington, which though it celebrates her on its website does so in a more understated way than other schools might.
In fact, for much of her ascent to superstardom, Raducanu was multi-tasking her burgeoning tennis career with A Levels, but now things have shifted a bit. Raducanu continues, telling Harper’s Bazaar: “Even though I’ve finished my A Levels now, I like to keep my brain quite active. Bath time is also when I watch TV or Netflix– I find I don’t get much spare time to do that otherwise. People always ask what I’m watching but it’s usually quite obscure.”
And what is she watching and reading? “Right now I’m really into these different Chinese shows because I’m trying to improve my Mandarin! As for books, I recently finished The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma which is about this lawyer searching for the meaning of life. I like non-fiction books best. I also like talking to my friends – not so much on the phone, but I’m a big texter.”
It’s this which sets Raducanu apart: her maturity and willingness to learn. As you consider the person on the hotel sofa, you realise how she is already an old head on young shoulders, used to being the object of attention and fascination; the impression is of somebody who has very swiftly reconciled herself to fame, as if her astonishing story was what she expected to happen long ago. She came prepared.
So what is it like when the limelight comes for you? When I speak to Chris Eaton, the former World No.317, who reached the second round of Wimbledon in 2008, he compares his own experiences as a tennis player to what Raducanu is experiencing: “I would say that my experience would be extremely different to a lot of other peoples’: it’s rare to have an experience with the press which is only positive. For me, there was no expectation. Nobody got my phone number, social media wasn’t what it was. Accessibility-wise, you didn’t have Instagram where you could message somebody or post something. Emma has outrageous expectation.”
I remember once talking to a tennis coach at Reed’s tennis school, which the former British No.1 Tim Henman – and Eaton – had attended. He told me that many students had been as talented as Henman but Henman had been the only person who, if you told him to hit a ball against a wall for 10 hours, would follow the order unquestioningly.
The story, apocryphal or not, seems to open up onto the question of what success means in sport, and how much should be sacrificed in order to obtain it. Furthermore, success in sport has its relationship to success in other disciplines, and young people already wish to find out how they can emulate her achievements in their own lives.
“I think the confidence comes from just inner belief,” Raducanu has told Vogue. “My mum comes from a Chinese background, they have very good self-belief. It’s not necessarily about telling everyone how good you are, but it’s about believing it within yourself. I really respect that about the culture.”
2M5W3PM Emma Raducanu, MBE, British tennis player, close up of face, smiling, in evening dress,
But Raducanu’s story is already a layered one as much to do with setback as it is to do with that astonishing victory. 2022 was the year she began to experience reversal as she adjusted to joining the main tour: the latest example of this was her defeat to American teenager Coco Gauff in straight sets in the second round of the 2023 Australian Open.
Raducanu has been both a meteoric success story and someone who has increasingly had to wrestle publicly with disappointment. In the merciless world of stratospheric celebrity, disappointment will mean criticism, most of it unfair. Press intrusion is now an aspect of her life; perhaps it’s even its defining note – along with her newly found wealth which itself cannot come without its own measure of difficulty.
Raducanu admits this publicly, telling Sheer Luxe: “Professionally speaking, I’m very proud of my resilience this year. I’ve faced quite a bit of adversity and I’ve had to keep getting back up a lot. So much stuff is said about me that isn’t true, but I try not to let it affect me. The past year has meant getting used to that side of things – the publicity and hearing all these things I never even knew about myself! The attention on the tour is so intense.”
Behind the beauty and the smile and the Raducanu we think we know there is someone far more complex, and indeed perhaps less obviously enviable than the one we had her down for.
Numbers Girl
By their endorsements shall ye know them. Raducanu has had the most monied and famous brands beating their way to her door, and this has given her, in addition to instant financial security, a host of commitments.
Raducanu explains in that plush hotel room: “I’ve been lucky enough to work with Dior and Maria Grazia Churi who I’ve met a few times and she’s so nice. I also like that she’s all about feeling comfortable and having casual stuff in your wardrobe that you can wear day to day. Nike is probably another one because I’m always in tennis clothes and don’t go out very often! That said, I think they’re the masters at making the sporty stuff just look a bit cooler. I’m also into quite masculine pieces – you’ll often find me wearing a men’s polo and tennis shorts.”
Eaton explains how it goes for the likes of Raducanu: “It all depends on what contracts she has with these brands. Is it to wear a watch at the end of everything and do one corporate day a year? If so, it shouldn’t be a problem. If it’s a question of five different sponsorships requiring ten days a year, suddenly you’re looking at 50 days a year which then means you don’t get any time off and you’re always working.”
For Raducanu, the sponsorship questions feel different; for this article, we spoke to Christopher Helliar, her agent, who was willing to cooperate on the basis that our magazine was interested in Emma’s substance.
And there’s a lot of that. In general, her endorsements feel thought-through. Raducanu is able to talk articulately about the sponsors she’s signed up with. Consider this excerpt, for instance, this dropped-in reference from an interview with Harper’s Bazaar: “I wake up a lot during the night and my hydration always takes a hit overnight – I’m an athlete, so I need to keep on top of that to perform properly during the day. You’ll always find a big bottle of Evian next to my bed, so the first thing I do is normally have a big glug of water!”
Likewise, her commitment to BA chimes with the jet-setting lifestyle of an international tennis player, and her physical beauty makes her a natural fit for Tiffany’s jewellery and Dior.
But the same brands would be a good fit for many other tennis player on the circuit. As one looks through the long list of her endorsements, one leaps out as somehow being more specific to Raducanu and that is her deal with HSBC to work on financial literacy, about which she has said: “To partner with HSBC is so natural for me having grown up playing in the HSBC Road to Wimbledon and having been a customer for many years. If I wasn’t a tennis player, I would definitely want to work in finance so I’m excited to learn more about the industry in the years to come.”
Raducanu’s parents are both in finance and so it is of interest to look at what the sponsorship might mean. Strangely, HSBC say they are unable to comment which makes one wonder a little about the depth of their commitment to the question itself. However, there can be no doubt that financial literacy is of importance and that the broad idea is valuable, even if HSBC’s approach to the sponsorship might be deemed unduly standoffish.
I talk to Anna Freeman, founder of Zavfit, a business committed to financial literacy. So, what does she make of the partnership between Raducanu and the bank? “From a marketing perspective it makes a lot of sense,” she tells me. “HSBC has always looked to use ambassadors who connect cultures while using sport as a tool for education around their brand and products. Emma is a great example of someone who is young and has found her passion and taken her chance with a brilliant platform to carry a message to a new generation.”
Of course, it’s not necessarily a straightforward match. Freeman continues: “While it’s hard to ignore the fact that Emma won’t be having financial struggles herself anytime soon and she’ll have obligations to support HSBC with their advertising returns, she is relatable to a younger audience while representing aspiration, so using her to help bring education to the next generation is very important. However well it does as a campaign, we’d like the big players like HSBC to continue using real people in everyday situations to tell their stories and make the conversation reach everyone.”
2JDRRM0 Emma Raducanu features on HSBC advertising outside their branch in Wimbledon ahead of the 2022 Wimbledon Championship at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, Wimbledon. Picture date: Thursday June 23, 2022.
So why is financial literacy a problem in society? “It’s not understood because it’s not interesting. It’s not interesting because it’s not relatable,” Freeman replies. “Children and young people have learnt preconceptions about financial literacy and money from their parents which will usually have a negative connotation. We’re made to think that ‘money = problems’ and so we avoid learning about it. We’re then brought into a society where every finance operator sells the same thing ‘Saving is Good, Spending is Bad’ and the cycle continues from generation to generation.”
So what is Freeman’s solution? “Instead of talking about all the bad things associated with finance, why don’t we talk about the good it could do?” she asks. “How to spend our money in ways that improve our health and happiness and get away from the model that finance is all about protecting a future that feels like lightyears away to the younger generation.”
This failure has real mental health effects in Freeman’s view, and it’s this insight which led to her founding Zavfit. “From our perspective, we see money in the same as diet and fitness – we know people want to do the right thing but they don’t know what that is. We’re all different and so we need to find what works for us. Instead of ‘how much money do I have’ we should be thinking about ‘How can my money make me happy’.”
The above conversation illustrates the power of Raducanu: she can make us talk about things which we wouldn’t otherwise talk about.
Eschewing the Negative
But, of course, building a brand is a complicated business. Formerly of BDB Pitmans, Stuart Thomson is one of the UK’s foremost public affairs practitioners and explains: “Hitting the heights of winning the US Open at such a young age has presented Raducanu with the opportunity of building her brand the way she wants it to be. For many more established players, there isn’t the level of interest or relative blank sheet that Raducanu has. That lack of history is a real benefit to her.”
And does he foresee any difficulties there? “Well, with that, of course, comes the pressure not only to win more tournaments but also to live and breathe her newly established personal brand. Many audiences will be interested in any deviations from the brand and use that against her or to generate click-bait adverse headlines. She will need to get the right people around her in both a sporting and communications setting so that her brand is built and protected for the long-term.”
And, of course, there is a substantial team of people behind her from her financially savvy parents; her agents Helliar and Max Eisenbud; her physiotherapist Will Herbert; her nutritionist Kate Shilland; and hitting partner Matthew James. Professional sport as it grows and expands produces an array of well-paid careers undreamed of even 20 years ago.
Despite these people around her, tennis is often considered a highly individual sport – and it is. There is a loneliness about the match situation which can only be partially offset by the creation of a large entourage. This is tennis’ particular fascination: it is a game of fine margins, where the scoring system makes it possible to win more points than your opponent but still be defeated because you didn’t win the crucial points at a crucial time. There isn’t another sport like this which so advertises the need to compete well in pressure situations.
In others words, it’s an abnormally stressful career choice. It might also be said that Raducanu’s story opens up onto the whole question of positivity in sport and in our lives generally. Her uniqueness is so far encapsulated by that incredible run at Flushing Meadows in 2021. If she never wins another major championship it will always be a remarkable story: it can never be taken away from her.
So how did she manage to hit those heights, and what might we ourselves learn in our careers from her? After all, work must be said to have its element of performance, analogous to sporting performance.
To learn more, I talk to leading psychologist Dr. Paul Hokemeyer, who tells me: “Succeeding in both competitive sports and a competitive life in times of elevated stress requires us to elevate above our emotional reactivity and utilize our prefrontal cortex. This is the part of our brain that enables us to control our emotional responses and channel them into concrete and focused action.”
What’s interesting is that Hokemeyer doesn’t just find this in his sporting patients; it’s replicated in other sectors. “Many of my highly successful patients frequently describe this ability as ‘supernatural’ or as an ‘out of body’ experience,” he continues. “They go on to explain how in this state, they are removed from what they see as their human form and come to occupy a highly mechanical state that has no feelings. In this highly automized state of being, their emotional reactivity is suspended, their physical sensations fall away and their mind becomes myopically focused on the immediate task at hand – be that task winning a tennis match or closing a real estate deal.”
When it comes to Raducanu, she has been able to reach heights few other players have ever managed, but then she has found it hard to rediscover that form. Likewise, in our own lives we have good days and bad days, a period of peak performance, and moments when we end up wondering why we couldn’t replicate our best.
So what is happening to us in our careers when things aren’t working out? Hokemeyer tells me: “When it comes to sport, not everyone is biologically wired to withstand this intense level of being. Some people, in spite of their talents and discipline are genetically wired and environmentally tuned to reject the pressures and stresses of elite competition. Their central nervous systems short circuit the elevated cognition needed to stay focused. For these people, failing or surrendering becomes a primitive and highly successful strategy to put them back into a place of physical and emotional safety.’
So on some level then, it’s almost as if we want to lose. Eaton, who now coaches at Wake Forest, one of the top tennis universities in the the US, agrees with Hokemeyer, and tells me that the very top players – Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray – all of whom he has got to know well on tour and as a coach, very rarely let this mindset enter into the picture. “These very top guys. They have five or six people to take care of them, which definitely helps. But take Andy Murray, who I got to know well – his attention to detail is amazing. Here at Wake Forrest, I’m coaching 22-year-olds and some are very good and some will turn pro. But what’s hard is to get across how far along the best guys are in terms of desire.”
Eaton gives me an example: “Look at the Andy Murray Netflix documentary Resurfacing. It just punches you in the face how desperate he is to be great. You watch the practice drill, the warm-ups, what he’s doing between shots: everything is immaculate. It stinks of desperation to be great. Very successful people are operating on that different level of detail.”
And yet for everybody – even for Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, and certainly for Raducanu – things go wrong. “For my players here,” continues Eaton, “I see the frustration when it comes to dealing with things going wrong. It’s not this generation’s strength: they’re very used to getting what they want and so when things don’t go well they don’t always respond well.”
For Eaton, if you look at the stories of the great players, they always met a moment similar to the one Raducanu finds herself in 2023. “It seems like everybody has to conquer a personal flaw to get to be great. Federer for a while was too angry, or maybe too relaxed in his personality. He conquered that. Nadal used to seem scared or too timid; he certainly conquered that. There was a point when Djokovic would complain too much about injury. And in that documentary, you can see Andy Murray sitting in a hotel room in Australia having just lost to Djokovic in the semi-final, and saying, ‘This is not acceptable. What can I do to change this?’”
And Raducanu? “It will be interesting to see how she deals with it. She’s young and she’s got expectation and there’s this way out smiling at her – her marketing ability. It will be interesting to see how desperate she is to be great.”
Careers wise, there are sports psychologists out there to help the likes of Raducanu, and a good coach will also be a mentor: here, then, we meet another analogy between the world of work and sport.
One of the leading sports psychologists is Matt Shaw who works for Inner Drive. So what work does he do and how did he discover it was what he wanted to do?
“In my role, I work in two main contexts, in sport and in education. In sport I tend to work in two key areas: all-round development and learning and performance under pressure. In the all-round development element, I help athletes to learn better, improve and to grow as a person, whereas in the performance under pressure element, I help athletes to thrive under pressure when it matters most. Both my sport and education roles require me to deliver 1-1 support to athletes and speak in front of large groups of pupils, staff, and parents.”
So how does he teach players to optimise performance? “Our athletes work with us to explore what being mentally strong really looks like in the build-up to a big event. For example, working on things like how to deal with mistakes, asking for help, and how to appraise stressful and important events. This enables athletes to better focus on what’s important in the moment and to think in helpful ways in order to perform at their best.”
Matt wisely refrains from commenting on Raducanu’s precise plight as he says it’s not helpful to comment from the outside. I ask him instead what it is about those like Tiger Woods who do come back from injury, and what we might ourselves – and perhaps Raducanu herself – might learn from them? “What we tend to see with experts like Tiger Woods and other successful athletes is not only a physical muscle type memory whereby they are able to complete successful movements over and over again, but also a resilience that is built by a long and often challenging path to success. For many athletes we often only hear about their success which of course teaches them how to win and the emotional control associated with that. However, it’s often the tough moments that the best grow in and learn from to get better next time.”
By that measure, Raducanu is entering the most important years of her life now; what she chooses to do in these years will define her as an athlete and as a person. It will be difficult, as all careers are, but that difficulty is also a gigantic opportunity for a new level of greatness.
Simply the Best
But there are many promising signs that Raducanu is grounded and self-aware. She knows she is in that rare category who have not only discovered what they might be capable of, but explored it, conquered her demons, and achieved a career as a result.
But this isn’t the case for everyone; many have an inkling that tennis might be for them, but they have no serious chance of knowing for sure one way or the other. For instance, she has shown herself admirably concerned over the question of social mobility and tennis.
The great issue in relation to tennis is that many young people from disadvantaged backgrounds don’t have the opportunity even to discover if a tennis career is possible for them: our country is full of a latent athleticism which, lacking an easy outlet, fizzles out in far too many cases.
2G68NJ7 Emma Raducanu of Great Britain in action against Sorana Cirstea of Romania during the third round at The Championships Wimbledon 2021, Grand Slam tennis tournament on July 3, 2021 at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London, England – Photo Rob Prange / Spain DPPI / DPPI
Fortunately, there are many people, and some of them highly influential, who are making it their life’s mission to fix the problem.
One is Nino Severino, a former tennis coach, and the widower of former British No. 1 Elena Baltacha. To say Baltacha, who died of liver cancer at the horribly early age of 30 in 2014, is much missed is to riot in understatement: when she died, she left a terrible gap in many lives.
But this might be to state the case too despairingly: because of what Baltacha committed to during her life, she continues to impact lives positively: her generosity of spirit is her legacy, and, as you talk to Nino, an astonishingly active legacy at that. Raducanu donated two tennis rackets to the charity auction organised by charity Love All, with proceeds going to several charities including the Elena Baltacha Foundation.
I ask Nino how the foundation started: “It was when we were travelling. What Bally noticed whenever we were travelling was that tennis is typically for more affluent children and the kids in the deprived areas weren’t getting a chance because tennis didn’t go to the schools. She said she wanted to do something about it.”
Many would make the observation and then do little about it. Bally, by all accounts, wasn’t like that. “In between travelling the world on tour, we started to organise school trips with a view to introducing tennis to deprived areas.”
Soon others became involved: “Judy Murray loved the idea. That was back in 2010 and she loved Bally like a daughter. She came on as patron and then she was followed by Martina Navratilova. All we’ve tried to do is get as many girls as possible into tennis.”
Raducanu has sometimes been deemed a poster girl for social mobility in tennis. After the famous 2021 US Open victory, the Olympian javelin-thrower Tessa Sanderson wrote in The Sun: “For years, tennis in Britain was generally regarded as a white and middle class sport but thanks to Emma Raducanu now it is not.”
Severino agrees: “Emma is as close to a tennis miracle as you can get. Qualifying was tricky enough so to go and do that. It’s funny though, in all my years of coaching, you come to realise there’s no accident. It’s their pathway to greatness, and it’s their opportunity to continue their rise.”
What Severino is now focused on is giving that same opportunity to as many people as possible. The Elena Baltacha Foundation is focused on young people who may well get on the track to a professional career. Judy Murray (“she really gets her hands dirty”, Severino says) is focused on helping kids near Dunblane. Tim Henman is active in the area too with the Tim Henman Foundation.
Another is Patrick Hollwey, who has founded TennisForFree with comedian Tony Hawks, a charity which aims to regenerate park space with a view to giving young people the opportunity to take part in tennis.
Hollwey tells me about the genesis of TennisForFree: “It’s a bizarre story as to how it all started. My wife was always a tennis player and when I took it up I must admit that I found the cliquiness in clubs quite off-putting. It’s not the most welcoming of environments if you’re not a good player.”
This caught his attention and as his interest in the sport grew, something began to bug him: “I began to notice that the public courts were never used and were padlocked. You had to go down to a hut, pay to get on the court and it made the game a bit unwelcoming.”
And how did he pair up Hawks? “A few months later I was on a plane coming back from India with Tony, and we had both had pretty rough trips. We sat at the bar and put the world to rights; among the topics discussed was the elitism of middle class sport. A few days after the flight, Tony called me up and asked if I was serious about making a difference. I said I was. So we went down to the local tennis court and chained Tony to it. Then we sent a cutting email to the Minister for Sport, the Head of the LTA and other tennis luminaries and we essentially said: “This is a public sporting facilitiy that is locked and excluding people. You don’t do this with basketball, or skateboard parks. Why do you do it with a tennis court?”
Fast forward to 2023 and many people have listened. For one thing, Hollwey and Hawks have an impressive list of celebrity endorsers including Pat Cash, Hugh Grant and Stephen Fry. But the government and the LTA are listening now too.
Hollwey is among those who applauds the government and the LTA in committing to delivering this changed landscape: “We talk with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. DCMS is currently investing £22 million into public tennis courts, and the LTA top that up with £8 million, and £3o million over the next few years. That’s a lot of money going into the question of rectifying the dilapidation of public facilities.”
But there’s still a long way to go, he adds: “What we need to do is to encourage people to get out there. People need to know what is available and what the benefits are, and I don’t think enough people know of the opportunities.”
This is where Raducanu is of such importance. Hollwey says: “I can’t think of any comparisons to Emma’s story – not even Leicester City winning the premier league. To go through qualifying like that – it’s Roy of the Rovers stuff. She’s inspirational to young girls and teenage girls are the hardest to get into the sport – and then to retain.”
Business case
Tennis then keeps intersecting with other things: with politics, with business, and with our essential ideas about justice. Perhaps this is a function of its popularity; but of course not all young people who take tennis seriously can have a lengthy career in it.
We might forget what a high level the top players are at: it is quite likely that even if you are stratospherically good at tennis, you’ll eventually meet a ceiling where you can’t get any better.
But if that’s the case then there are other options; excellence at tennis has much to teach us about how to attain excellence in the wider world. Hokemeyer tells me: “I rarely find a highly successful person who has not engaged in some sort of sport in the past or is currently engaged in a sport of some kind in the present. For this reason, I advise the parents I work with to find some sort of sport, activity or hobby their children can engage in.” So what are the precise benefits? “Sport enables our children to cultivate discipline and develop a sense of agency over their lives,” Hokemeyer explains. “In clinical speak, through sport we develop what’s known as an internal locus control. We see the connection between effort and outcome and we develop healthy bodies and minds that can manage stress and conflict in productive ways. It’s also important to note that people can start playing a sport, be it tennis or bridge at any stage of their life.”
Severino sees other synergies between sport and business. “You’ve got to have a Plan B,” he explains and points to his work at SportsSkills4Business which aims to help young people beyond their sporting journey. “We want our SS4B Student Athletes to know that their time in sport is not only about learning how to become technically and tactically skilful at their sport, but also to be connected with the virtues and skills that being a competitive athlete will provide them with,” the website’s mission states.
Hollwey is also bullish about the opportunities available in sport: “There are so many opportunities for people to work in sport. A lot of coaches left the sport during the pandemic; they had no work and took up other temporary careers which have turned into full time careers. So there is a shortage of supply of coaches and particularly new young coaches with a different mentality and a different outlook.”
Eaton also points out the win-win nature of trying to make it at tennis, or other sports. “Some of my students go on to be pro, and go onto the tour; some do well and others struggle,” he says. “We have the same conversation, and I always say: “Go on tour and play for a year.” Don’t go straight into a job. For employers, it’s quite appealing to have somebody who’s been a sportsman, and who has some real experience of having travelled the world. Sport gets you far: it shows that you’re decent under pressure, able to deal with things when they go wrong. I say to my guys: “Do you really want to be the same person as 700 other applicants?” You can say: “I’ve done everything they’ve done, but I’ve spent the last two years in 25 different countries, basically running my own business.”
And Raducanu? The curious thing about these tennis players is that they exercise a certain fascination because of fame, talent, and wealth. But something about the way they acquired all this is so extraordinarily simple – a case of dedication and talent at a single sport – that you find yourself looking for the next thing about them. But often there really isn’t much more to it than this and that is what feeds the media frenzy: an appetite has been created for something which isn’t there.
With Raducanu, the more I look into her I feel differently: she has hit the heights but shown rare dignity when difficulty has arisen. She’s been wise and thoughtful in her choice of sponsors, and articulate about what she wants to achieve, and philosophical when she’s had setbacks. Our world is full of sporting phenomena. Raducanu, in her talent, her single-mindedness, and in her fallibility is something rarer. The only word for it is inspiration – and you don’t need to be a budding tennis player to feel it.
Emma Raducanu Timeline
Nov. 13th, 2002 – Born in Toronto, Ontario to Ion Raducanu and her mother Renee Zhai.
2004 – Moves to England at the age of two, raised in Bromley
2006 – Attends Bickley Primary school in Bromley
2007 – Begins playing tennis, alongside a number of other hobbies including gokart racing, ballet, and horse riding
2013 – Begins attending Newstead Wood School in Orpington
2015 – Becomes the youngest ever to win an International Tennis Federation tournament at the age of 13 when she wins the Nike Junior International in Liverpool
2018 – Professional debut on the ITF women’s circuit, winning the $15,000 ITF Tiberias, her first professional title. Later that year, she would go on to win a second title at the ITF Antalya.
2020 – During the pandemic, she wins LTA British Tour Masters title while preparing for her upcoming A-level exams.
2021 – She reaches the fourth round in her Grand Slam main-draw debut, before winning the US Open without dropping a set. She tests positive for Covid-19, causing her to miss her second exhibition match at Royal Albert Hall. She completes her A-levels, earning an A* and an A in mathematics and economics, respectively.
2022 – Faces aftereffects of Covid-19 and injury, leading to an early withdrawal from the Nottingham Open and causing her to miss Eastbourne. She competes in Wimbledon where she is defeated in the second round, and enters the US Open again where she loses her opening match.
I am sometimes asked if there’s any danger of children being put off by reading Shakespeare. Our children at Michaela Community, some of them start here at 11 years old and they’ve got the reading age of a seven year old and so we are just trying to get them to read at all – especially in the age of phones and Internet and so forth.
You might have a few kids in the top set who might read. When I do assemblies and take copies of Julia Donaldson and ask who’s read The Gruffalo and so on, a few children from the top sets might put their hands up, but most won’t. So they don’t really know books at all. For us, it’s not a question of should we do Ian Fleming instead of Shakespeare. It’s much more fundamental than that.
In our library we have speed reads, what they are books written for six and seven and eight year olds, we don’t want them to feel they’re written for younger children. The idea of them being voracious readers isn’t accurate, apart from a few children in the top set. One of them we say when families come into Year 7, is we want children reading half an hour every day – that’s additional to their English lessons. For some of them, we say, they can do ten minutes a day.
But in their lessons, they love Shakespeare. In their lessons they really enjoy it – they understand him, they can access him, and it’s dramatic. But our families have never heard of Hamlet – not only do the kids not know, but the parents don’t know. And the few who have, certainly don’t talk to them about it at home.
We’re trying to get families to talk to their children – and it could be about anything. Many middle class people without knowing it are in on this secret club without knowing it where everyone knows how to teach their children. They mention Hamlet, or they count how many peas are on the plate, or the daily news, or they teach them who the prime minister is, and to ask how their day is. They know how to do it and it’s naturally.
I’ve worked my whole life with people who don’t know much about their children. The question then is how to change this. The problem is that education moves very slowly. What’s a good today can be a bad school in three years’ time. The Education Secretary changes every couple of years and if you set up a new school it takes five years before you have results but by then you’ve had two education secretaries. It takes a while for things to change.
People in government I know from working in the Social Mobility Commission, they’ll change every few months – somebody new joins, and trying to find consistency is really hard and and that’s why there’s no institutional knowledge. I don’t know how you fix that – you’d have to change the way government works.
I suspect it’s a problem across government. It’s one of the things which makes the state weak. The people at Apple have been at Apple for years and year. Of course, they’ll bring in new people and lose people, but at any point time you’ll find that the core people have been there for at least eight to ten years. In government, you’ll often find that people have been there for that period, but the system they’ve been moving around within government doing different roles.
It’s not that they leave government, or that they’re not paid enough, it’s just the way the government is set up. Those who work there like the variety. I bought all my team of the Social Mobility Commission to Michaela Community to show them what’s possible, but it takes a long time to get them on board. And then you get them on board and they go off to some other part of government.
I’ve never chaired a commission and I’m not giving up just yet. I’m at the stage where I’m persuading people, and people are coming on board and I’m hoping people will stay and they won’t move. I’m hoping they’ll stick with me because they’ll have been inspired by what they see and hear.
Katharine Birbalsingh is the headmistress of Michaela Community School
‘Now is the time for eating. Later is the time for regret.” So said my companion as we sat down to lunch at Galvin at Windows. In the end we had the eating, but not the regret.
But first the view: London, unlike New York and Paris both of which are built to comprehensible plans, looks delightfully mad from the skies. The Thames is never quite where you think it should be, swerving in and out of everything, seeming to force the architecture into unexpected arrangements. From on high, you realise too that the tube map is a perfect liar, giving you a false sense of distance and relationship when you travel through it.
From the 28th floor of the Hilton Park Lane you discover if you didn’t know it already that London is a mystifying place to live. What is Westminster Cathedral doing being so near, for instance, to the back garden of Buckingham Palace? Throughout our meal, we were able to see a peaceful soul mowing the gardens at the palace, looking in his way more kingly than the king. Talking of the regal, there was also an emperor of a seagull presiding over the area near Vauxhall, a bird who, we came to decide, certainly views Nine Elms as his terrain not ours. I noted the occasional stray drone skating along clouds – inquisitive, knowing things we didn’t.
But we knew also what it did not: the supreme glory of the food at Galvin at Windows. The butter came, slightly fanned and petalled, like an apricot rose on a basalt slab. The butter-knife resembled a sort of bladed paperweight, whose balance would self-correct if you nudged it so that its sharp end always pointed upwards. Like this, admiring a minor novelty, we embarked on one of the meals of our lives.
In retrospect greatness was coming at us from every possible angle; but I think it was the service which began to alert us to the sheer quality of the afternoon. One by one, good-humoured and knowledgeable staff arrived at our table, conducting the rituals of public dining with a notable intelligence and thoughtfulness. A great meal must of necessity be to some extent incidental to the food: a Burger King would have tasted good up here.
But happily, this was no fast food experience. Tasting the bread, we already knew that the food at Galvin would be reliably first rate. At around this point, the attentions of Rudina Arapi began to weave in and out of the experience. Arapi cheerfully told us about her upcoming sommelier exams – and the thoughtful pairings throughout the meal make me think she’s likely a shoo-in for these.
Hearing that I wasn’t drinking alcohol, she caused a revelation in the shape of a few glasses of Wild Idol, the closest non-alcoholic approximation to champagne I’ve experienced – only the very slightest alien tang giving the game away.
Food-wise, we started with caviar, which came amassed on an oyster shell at the centre of a plate of ice. Adjacent to it, was an oblong plate of bite-sized pancakes together with a tiny china saucepan of whipped cream cheese, sprinkled with chives. I recommend trying the caviar without any additional flavour in the first place so as to concentrate entirely on the pop and brine-rush of the little fish beads.
This was mere prelude to our main courses. I consulted the menu. After a period of anxiety, where every decision seemed to cordon off too many delightful possibilities, I opted – grieving for what I wouldn’t eat – for the artichoke soup. But I hadn’t erred: what emerged was a gorgeous broth, topped with truffles. I found myself reflecting that I never regret ordering soup. My companion went with the crab, which came with a veritable garden of edible flowers, as well as dill. A generous splash of caviar was to one side – like a kindness when someone doesn’t demand a thank you.
By the time of the main, I was by any reasonable standards already full – almost to the extent where food was beginning to present itself as a dangerous notion. But I had previously committed to a bulky steak. At this point – though my steak was delicious, I might have preferred the cod which my companion had ordered: a thing of delicate crutons, scattered capers, grapefruit, and mash.
No onlooker, seeing what we had already eaten, would have expected us to order dessert. But our ambition had increased, and so had our curiosity regarding what was possible. Not to eat dessert would have been like hearing the first four movements of Beethoven’s Ninth, and not listening to the finale. That would be to miss out on the Ode to Joy.
I opted for the araguani chocolate and dulce de leche, which came with banana and lime ice cream, topped with a sort of hyperloop of caramelised banana. To my own amazement, its deliciousness caused me to eat it in its entriety. My companion meanwhile showed no compunction about finishing her apple tarte tatin, with Calvados caramel and Tahitian vanilla ice cream.
When she laid down her spoon, it was with the confidence of the soothsayer who has been proven right. It had indeed been the time for eating. We had done our duty – and perhaps if you’re reading this, you should too.
It wasn’t something I ever expected to do. Though it was an experience a little outside my comfort zone, when I was given the opportunity to talk to the former leader of the Green Party Natalie Bennett, I decided to go ahead. It had been a year of ups and downs; I had decided to intercalcate from my computer science course at Lancaster University but was by means sure whether I should return or not, or whether I should pivot.
Fortunately, I have benefitted from the attentions of the Finito bursary scheme. This scheme aims to help young people like me in the journey toward a meaningful career, and I have worked with the company’s business mentors now for several years. When I suggested to my mentor Talan that I was considering moving courses into Ecology and Conservation, the opportunity to talk with Natalie came my way.
Before the call, I wasn’t certain about the opportunities available to me if I did decide to make a change.
At the start, Natalie provided me with technical examples which began to address my concerns about the breadth of careers I could go into. She also reassured me that the time I had used studying Computer Science had not been wasted, as there are numerous ways in which the subject areas are being combined. After the call, I was more sure than ever that my decision to study Ecology would be the right one.
I also learned a lot from talking to Natalie herself. She came across as a very well-informed and intelligent person, with a wide range of experiences from all over the world. She taught me to always be open to new experiences and that there are plenty of different roles even within certain disciplines.
Crucially, Natalie also gave me technical examples that are currently relevant or which she expects to be emerging areas of study. For example, we discussed how the excess use of fertiliser on farms means that chemicals are being washed into nearby water courses. This causes the growth of vegetation on the water and stops light from reaching into the water, leaving fewer nutrients for fish and other aquatic animals.
Another point we discussed was the issue concerning the discharge of raw sewage into rivers and the sea by water companies in the UK. In exceptional circumstances, such as after very heavy rain, this is permitted. However, there is an average of hundreds of discharge incidents per day. This heavily pollutes the waters within and surrounding the UK. There are ongoing campaigns for heavier punishments for the water companies involving larger fines. Under proposed legislation, the executives of the water companies would be personally liable for paying fines.
Natalie also explained how government policies affect environmental issues and to what extend they are applied by the UK government. She believes their current efforts do not go far enough to make a positive difference. Bennett believes that the age of neo-liberalism that started with Thatcher and Reagan in the 1980s must come to an end soon and more progressive policies should be applied if change is to take place for the better.
She also described how she got into politics through journalism with The Bangkok Post and subsequently finished her first degree in Agricultural Science. She then completed outreach volunteering work via Australian Volunteers International. Her second degree was in Asian relations which she completed at the University of New England. Her third degree is a MA in Mass Communication which was awarded by the University of Leicester in 2001.
Bennett later went on to join the Green party on 1st January 2006. She represented various constituencies in London and later Sheffield Central in 2017. She described how there are only two Green peers in the House of Lords but they make a significant impact because they are the only party with new ideas. Natalie also remarked on how strange the House of Lords can be with the clothing and décor!
When I explained to Natalie how I was taking a year out of university and planning on changing my course to Ecology and Conversation from Computer Science, she moved swiftly to put my mind at rest. She explained that there are more and more emerging ecology roles that involve algorithms and quantising data using computers. This was an important connection which I hadn’t made before, and gave me much food for thought.
A call like this is always nerve-wracking, but Natalie’s manner was at all times open and kind. This was a lesson in itself, and one I intend to remember as I forge my career.
In 2013, an Ofsted enquiry into careers education reported that, “only one in five schools were effective in ensuring that all students were receiving the level of information they needed”. Since then, the Department for Education has certainly taken action: schools are now provided with statutory guidance on careers education and the latest Ofsted Framework [September 2023 – the eighth in eleven years] stresses the importance of “next steps” and CIEAG [Careers Information, Education, Advice and Guidance]. Furthermore, the Skills and Post-16 Act 2022 requires all maintained schools and academies to arrange for students in Years 8 to 13 a minimum of six “encounters” with providers of approved technical education qualifications and apprenticeships (though, in effect, this equates to only one “encounter” per year).
Since 2015 the DfE has also funded The Careers and Enterprise Company which provides digital resources and Careers Hubs, bringing together employers, educators and providers, to which some 90% of secondary schools currently belong. In addition, the DfE funds the National Careers Service which is intended to provide free and impartial AIG [advice, information and guidance] to anyone aged 13+; the Service offers web chats, webinars and individual guidance appointments online or at a venue.
Both the Statutory Guidance and Ofsted Framework place great emphasis on the eight Benchmarks devised by the Gatsby Foundation, the charitable foundation established by David Sainsbury. These recommend that all secondary school students should benefit from:-
1. A stable careers programme
2. Learning from career and labour market information
3. Addressing the needs of each pupil
4. Linking curriculum learning to careers
5. Encounters with employers and employees
6. Experiences of workplaces
7. Encounters with further and higher education
8. Personal guidance
Schools will, no doubt, argue that money limits what they can offer: minimum funding per secondary school pupil for 2023-24 is £5,715, rising to £6,050 in 2024-25 [National Funding Formulae 2024-25]. Even though schools receive additional top up funding for additional needs, IDACI and deprivation factors etc. this must cover all school costs (over 70% of which are universally taken up by salaries) and is far short of average independent school fees which stand at about £15,000 per annum. Teachers will also probably argue that it is “yet one more thing” to cover despite the constraints of time and the numerous other demands on their role: the requirement to teach a broad curriculum for as long as possible, the pressure to achieve the highest exam results they can because of public, competitive league tables, as well the requirements to teach PSHE [Personal, Social and Health Education], RSE [Relationship and Sex Education], Cultural Capital, SMSC [Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development] plus the growing public demand to see greater emphasis on students’ mental health. Time must also be found for sport, music, drama and extra/co-curricular activities such as the Duke of Edinburgh Award, the very things that help to develop character, resilience and social skills.
The question remains, therefore, whether students will be “work ready” when they leave school. For obvious reasons, the national system is unlikely to have the capacity to provide the individual, one-to-one coaching and mentoring necessary to help every student transition from school to work. Time will tell what a difference this recent investment will make, though we must hope that the National Careers Service is not too target driven or preoccupied with box ticking, as some have alleged. A key point is also missing in the latest approach – it is the whole school experience that should help to prepare young people for the adult world, not just in terms of knowledge but skills, personal traits and what used to be covered by the phrase, the “hidden curriculum” – what schools deliver almost subliminally – something hard to measure and quantify, yet indicative of a truly great school.
In my first headship, we gave all Year 11 pupils a dedicated fortnightly careers lesson, during which, as well as developing personal statements and CV’s, they were encouraged through talks, presentations and online programmes, to explore the world of work. More than anything, these lessons proved a great motivator as they encouraged youngsters to begin to understand the whole point of education, that it was leading somewhere and that in order to get there, they had to work hard and to succeed. I was sometimes asked by teachers of core subjects to scrap the lessons and given them to maths or English, but having time to see the bigger picture was, I think, a worthwhile use of finite timetable space. Some years later, this argument was echoed in the 2015 Statutory Guidance which stated that the aim of careers advice and guidance is that pupils should be, “inspired and motivated to fulfil their potential”.
Not the least important purpose of good careers education is to simply open the eyes of youngsters to what is out there. How many teenagers know what a quantity surveyor or an actuary does for a living? Typical teenagers will be limited in their experience of the professions – perhaps just teacher, doctor, nurse, police officer, armed forces – and have even less fist-hand knowledge of technical or practical careers. Having a goal and knowing what you need to do to get there, can only have a positive impact on motivation, attendance and work ethic.
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“EngineeringUK has been tracking the annual demand for engineers and technicians needed to just keep pace with infrastructure and other engineering projects…..Despite the prioritising of STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths] in many schools and 2018 being denoted the “Year of Engineering” in the UK, almost half of those between 11 and 19 said they “know little or nothing about what engineers do”.
“Overcoming the Shortage of Engineers”, Riad Mannan, 2021, NewEngineer.
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The new T Levels, as with the previous short-lived 14-19 Diploma, place emphasis on industry involvement and genuine, meaningful industry experience for youngsters. This can be of real practical benefit, but we must also be cautious. Since we are talking about teenagers, their ability to travel to placements is naturally limited and consequently there is a danger that since they will be bound to make use of local industries and employers, far from broadening horizons, they could become tied to the needs of the local economy. This will have its benefits, but it is far from the genuine aim of education. We are unlikely to replicate one school in 1930’s Orel, the city in western Russia, where all senior students were trained to be “poultry-breeding technicians” as that was what was required for the city by Stalin’s Five Year Plan, but we must be careful not to narrow students’ options. True “levelling up” demands that we broaden the horizons of all young people, regardless of background, ability or where they live.
When discussing preparing for adult life, it is essential that we also consider the curriculum – what is actually taught in our schools. The emphasis for many years has been to stress traditional academic subjects and the EBacc [the English Baccalaureate – English literature and language, maths, the sciences, history or geography and a language.] The aim, according to the DfE, is to keep “young people’s options open for further study and future careers”. Annually, however, despite all the investment and developments in education, one third of sixteen-year-olds still “fail” their GCSE’s. If we are serious about producing future citizens, equipped with the knowledge and skills to meaningfully contribute to society and the economy, we need to accept that “success” can be measured in many different ways. “To only judge things according to their ability to climb trees leaves the fish going through life feeling it’s a failure”. [Wrongly attributed to Einstein.] Whilst new courses are being developed in technical and vocational subjects, these are currently almost solely for post-16 students. Of course, there is nothing to stop academically successful youngsters from embarking on these courses, as some do, but for many, vocational courses are the only option after “failing” traditional academic GCSE’s. How are we ever to attain parity of esteem between academic and non-academic subjects [the descriptor used in the 1944 Education Act for academic grammar schools and less academic technical and secondary modern schools] if the latter continue to be seen as second best and only available after perceived failure?
This is far from arguing that we want prizes for all, but it does question the efficacy of eleven years of compulsory education. Nor do I argue for a utilitarian approach to education – an appreciation of literature, art and music, as well as an understanding of the country and world which we live, remain essential components of a meaningful liberal education. Accepting different pathways from 14 as opposed to 16 could, however, enable us to raise standards in all subjects, including the traditional academic ones as they would no longer have to be designed to cater for pupils of all abilities. Our aim should be to fulfil the true etymological roots of the word “education”, to bring or draw out, to nurture and nourish and to enlighten: not to “fail” simply because a student has aptitudes other than for academic subjects. As a Head, I always argued that I was happy for us to teach classics and plumbing, on one condition: that we produced the best classicists and the best plumbers. Equally, the calls for a “knowledge rich” curriculum must be accompanied by an understanding of the real purpose of knowledge: not knowledge for the sake of knowledge, but knowledge to aid understanding. Students must also be helped to develop the skills to use and apply that knowledge – only then does knowledge become “powerful” or, indeed, useful.
It might be worth pausing for a moment to consider the French approach. The French Baccalaureate, a three-year course (15-18) has long been renowned as a demanding academic qualification but one that also has a remarkably high pass rate – over 90%. How is that possible? Are French students or teachers better? Does it suggest that academic lycée/grammar schools are more effective? The answer is probably none of these but rather it is down to the fact that only just over half of French students study the academic Baccalaureate – the more academic half; the rest follow technical or professional courses post-15. The point is that by accepting that one size does not fit all, we can raise standards, provide more meaningful and useful outcomes and, not least, improve young people’s motivation to achieve.
In recent years, following the work of the American psychologist Angela Duckworth, a great deal of emphasis has been placed on the importance of “grit” as a key ingredient of success; having “the perseverance and passion to achieve long term goals… It’s a marathon, not a sprint.” [Psychology Today] Of course, developing grit does not mean, as many youngsters have been encouraged to believe in the past, that you can achieve anything you want. You can’t. Success also requires ability and aptitude; effective, honest and realistic careers guidance should help to steer us appropriately and successfully, and also support us if we cannot achieve our initial goals.
As I have previously argued [see Better Schools – The Future of the Country] we need to consider young people’s wider attributes rather than solely their academic achievement. We should introduce a non-academic school leaving certificate which should state factual information about the pupil – attendance, punctuality, attitude, behaviour. These are attributes which really interest employers. During the 1990s and early 2000s, pupils produced a Record of Achievement, a portfolio of documentation about academic and non-academic successes but very few employers, and practically no universities, took any notice of them, primarily because they contained no objective and quantifiable information. In the past, many school reports have also been worthless because of the requirement to be “positive”. Yet it is of crucial importance to employers and admissions’ officers to know whether the pupil was rude, defiant, continually late or frequently absent; such information was missing from the Record of Achievement. A national, standardised certificate could be easily completed by schools and could then be used for job/apprenticeship applications or for admission to colleges and school sixth forms. The idea is nothing new: the Newsom Report of 1963 called for pupils’ wider qualities to be recognised including their, “patience and persistence…general attitudes to learning…honesty, cheerfulness, pleasant manners…and an ability to get on with people”. [S258] Above all, such a certificate places the responsibility for attendance, behaviour, manners and work ethic on individual pupils (whilst also enabling the school to explain any extenuating circumstances) and makes them realize that they will be personally accountable for any shortcomings – what could be better preparation for the world of employment?
We have come a long way since the 1960’s when the headmistress of a local girls’ school allegedly concluded a final assembly by bidding the leavers farewell with the words, “I wish you all every success in your future careers as wives and mothers – and preferably in the order!” Personally, I always chose to end my leavers’ assemblies with the Winston Churchill quotation, “The world was made to be wooed and won by youth”. Our prime duty is to equip and empower young people to do that wooing and winning.
Over the last 15 years, we have built a great machine for fundraising. It is called Big Give, and you might have never heard of it. If so, I want to introduce you to our work and ask for your help.
What we have pioneered is the concept of match funding – asking funders to match donations to charities made by members of the public. So £50 from an individual becomes £100 for a good cause, after being doubled by a Big Give match funding ‘champion’ – typically philanthropists, foundations or companies.
What the champions who support Big Give say is that they are so pleased to see their donations multiplied, often by many times. The average donation to Big Give last year was multiplied by 5.6, making their money go far further than it would otherwise have done.
We are now the UK’s biggest match funding platform, working every day to multiply people’s generosity.
Public donations are crucial. But we need the fuel provided by more champions to take our work to the next level.
My feeling is that a lot of wealthy individuals want to help and to do something charitable, but they are not quite sure where to put their wherewithal and their energy.
It’s actually not that easy to give away a lot of money and do it effectively. It may be that there is a cause you want to champion – the environment, homelessness, the arts, women and girls, developing communities – but you aren’t sure who to work with to have the best impact.
Working with us means you make much, much more impact. We say to the public who donate to charities through our platform that one donation has twice the impact. But for the champions, it’s a lot more than that.
In the UK the top one per cent are not as generous as they are in the US. What I would say to those people is that you get an enormous satisfaction from making a contribution like this. Once you have got the material things you need, the return on acquiring more and more material things diminishes. When you contribute philanthropically, the satisfaction grows stronger each time you do it.
The people who take part tell us that it is really enriching. They get huge satisfaction from supporting what is often a number of different organisations. If you want to support the homeless, say, you can target your help at more than one charity working in the sector. You also know that we have done the work for you in terms of selecting well-run, effective organisations to support.
Our annual Christmas Challenge raises money for over 1,000 different charities, and even our themed campaigns like the Green Match Fund, which targets environmental causes, are very varied.
Wealthy people should think about how much they want to give away every year, and then they can plan effectively for doing so. In some religions, it’s expected that you will give away a certain percentage of your income. I’m not saying everyone should set it in stone, but there is something to be said for planning ahead.
I try to do that, and it helps that I have been working with charities since I was a young man. I have seen how well targeted work can make a huge difference to people’s lives.
What we have created in Big Give is a way of multiplying and magnifying that. We give the organisations that take part in our campaigns a lot more financial firepower.
I find it very satisfying when I hear back from our charity partners that they have hit a target and demonstrate amazing programmes of work as a result, across all different aspects of society that are really inspiring. That motivates me.
There are a lot of cracks in our society and life that government does not fill. Voluntary and individual action is a necessary part of the social landscape.
The small battalions, as they have been called, make a huge positive difference. A lot of them are led by very impressive individuals who are really remarkable leaders.
We want to work with them to reach a new target of raising £1 billion by 2030. It’s a big number and it’s a long way off where we have got to. But I’ve always found in business that it’s good to know what you are trying to do and have a target. It keeps you focused on the goal, which is raising money to help charities finance the work they do.
Currently, we are not far off having raised a quarter of a billion pounds – so £1 billion is a big stretch. But it’s doable.
It’s good that people know we are ambitious. After all, the need out there is limitless.
For more information visit https://donate.biggive.org/
Chairman of the board of trustees at Big Give and chairman of The Reed Group
British business and trade will drive the future growth and prosperity of the UK, yet in recent years the relationship between the UK Government and business has been left wanting at best. Business engagement has almost become synonymous with securing donations. Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt are attempting to change this perception and be taken seriously again as the party of business. They are genuinely diligent, intelligent leaders who have impressive business and entrepreneurial experience: a PM with an MBA, ex-Goldman Sachs and a Chancellor who founded a successful business.
Meanwhile, the political and economic fallout after the referendum is still playing out. Brexiter or Remainer, the observable, negative effects of Brexit on business are amplified by the aftershocks of the pandemic and we are still refusing to have honest conversations about where we are. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the improvised explosive device that was Trussononics compound the problems.
Global supply chains are still recovering. Working patterns have changed. Inflation is hard to suppress. People feel squeezed. AI will destroy humanity, or save it, depending on your choice of pundit. The UK car industry still risks being unplugged from the electric future, notwithstanding the deal to subsidise a battery factory for Jaguar Land Rover. Steel is in trouble again. Joe Biden’s gigantic Inflation Reduction Act underpins America’s green industrial growth. The EU is responding, but where does that leave the UK? Then there is the rise of China and India. The promised benefits of Brexit remain unicornian for now. We need a credible plan grounded in reality and we need to communicate it.
The scale and complexity of issues facing CEOs is daunting. It is in this environment that business leaders must chart a course to ensure that their companies thrive. They need stability to make long term investment decisions. The very agility and resourcefulness of business sits totally at odds with the rigidity and torpor of Westminster. All too often we hear that the Government does not listen, and that the Government is not available. Things need to change.
The UK’s Business department should have a full-time Secretary of State, but it does not. The incumbent is also the Minister for Women and Equalities, an extremely important, complex, sensitive and unbelievably time-consuming brief in its own right, that arguably deserves to have its own Ministry. The message to business is all wrong. Is business a priority or not?
We need a paradigm shift in how the Government engages business and without doubt the PM recognises this, but we need to go further within Westminster to support him. We have some exceptional Ministers, but we should in the future place a premium on ensuring that all in positions of power have the passion and experience needed for such an important task. We need to be able to “speak business”, to know the culture of international business and SMEs alike; to understand the diplomacy required to navigate sensitivities and build relationships and to have a sense of the technologies of the future. We need a huge injection of emotional intelligence and a commitment to face the facts about where we are, with courage and humility. We must, as a matter of urgency, acknowledge and tackle the structural problems that Brexit has created for British businesses.
On a more superficial level but equally important, basic etiquette would be standard. There would be respect for CEO diaries, events would not be cancelled last minute after months of planning, and, if unavoidable, then followed up. Invitations would be sent out with plenty of notice and would be professional in delivery. We should not have to say that basic courtesy needs to be observed; the Government needs to reply to correspondence in good time and receive and return phone calls.
Steering groups offer valuable insights from the ground into the issues being faced and provide viable solutions, but unless these insights are taken to the top and heard, time is lost and decisions made without sector input. Alongside these we should have frequent in-depth conversations with business leaders and not just representative bodies. We must recognise that business does not sleep during the day, that some of the best networking, intelligence gathering, deals and decisions are made over breakfast. The Department for Business needs to be open for business from early until late.
The Government must be curious, willing to ask big, open questions and to hear answers that we might not always like: to show humility and patience enough to listen and to learn, to inform policy-making. We must then act with speed to find solutions, not dither in picking up on issues raised months earlier, such as the VAT Retail Export Scheme. We need to act in real time. Even the simplest of solutions can be complicated, though, if the political will is not there to fix it – or more importantly the will to listen to critical voices. It is not enough to keep admitting “we do not know what business is about” and “we want to hear from you”. It is novel, even charming at first, but the act wears thin if the fact is we really do not know, nor really care. Business leaders will become impatient when it is apparent that we are not learning, that incomprehensible political maneuvering trumps urgent business needs and that we are merely paying lip service. Business leaders are not stupid. Businesses want to know how we will now sort the customs and border irritations for goods, how we will tackle business rates, the skills shortages that arise from the lack of labour mobility and myriad other problems created by questionable policy decisions. We need genuine dialogue with give and take from both sides, not tone-deaf political monologue, game-playing and supercilious posturing. Being given only high level policy answers and not practical solutions merely frustrates and further undermines the Government’s credibility.
If Westminster could run more professionally in certain areas and less emotionally, we may get somewhere. For the sake of the country, the approach must be more cohesive and businesslike, and the structures should survive changes of Government. We need to look at where we want to be in five or ten years’ time. What does that look like? What is the vision?
I have seen evidence of ground-breaking approaches to helping some of the biggest global companies to define the future of their businesses. Effective questions are asked using systems design and creative thinking approaches to tackle the most complex issues, from how boards can best imagine the future to define strategy, to how to redesign production processes and supply chains. Stakeholder mapping is utilised to understand what’s really going on in a system, to map the “value exchange” between parts to see what’s working and what needs to change. The purpose is to find a competitive edge, to do better thinking and to produce better strategic options.
These approaches are also used to help leaders from emerging economy governments and multilateral organisations to design and test policy. And yet Whitehall rarely taps into such British expertise and instead continues to work in antediluvian ways that Victorian civil servants would recognise.
We should use the best available, cutting-edge techniques in systems design to explore the issues we face, to imagine the successful and prosperous future we wish to create and then objectively work out what needs to change. We need to take a truly collaborative approach that works throughout Whitehall and across departments and sectors. We owe it to the country to think beyond any particular ideology and the electoral cycle, as we require long-term solutions that actually work. How else are we going to tackle climate change, to get beyond net zero and towards a sustainable, regenerative future? How else are we going to stay globally competitive?
We also need a shift in our political culture. It is no secret that successive Secretaries of State have been constantly planning the downfall of whomever is the current Prime Minister and focusing on their own positioning, using whatever brief they have at hand and to the detriment of that brief. Such an environment is unsettling and unsustainable. A great figure from the world of politics who served in a past Cabinet once told me that it used to be, when serving in high offices of State, Ministers focused on the job at hand and stopped playing politics. You served the Government and the country – not yourself. Tellingly they added, “There wasn’t time”. What has changed so much in our political culture that rarely does this seem to be the case today? The instability of the last seven years has fuelled the dreams of those who wish to reach No 10 and so the focus has shifted to personal ambition and away from the day job. The political reflex is to rubbish criticism while scrambling to deny any personal culpability and find fall guys to take the hit, usually officials who cannot defend themselves, or even colleagues in Parliament. All this should stop.
In contrast, when it comes to business, the Government should respect the importance and personal expertise of backbench MPs and include them more in the process of engagement and consultation. They have deep local empathy for and knowledge of the culture of their constituencies, and can offer valuable insight into the needs of their businesses. Visits, issues and ideas can filter through this channel and data can be gathered to inform policy making.
There are very impressive and good people working at the Department of Business and Trade, Ministers and civil servants alike. Talk about “The Blob” is disrespectful, combative and counterproductive. The process of government is clunky and slow but that is from all sides. In contrast, I found hard working, impartial, bright and diligent people who care deeply about our country; people who need leadership and to be encouraged and allowed to think big, but also who need to be heard and valued for the expertise they bring. I am an advocate of a more compassionate, open and collaborative approach to the conduct of government.
A senior political figure once said to me, “The trouble with you, Joanna, is that you see everyone as a friend, someone to work with, whereas I think, ‘How can I kill them?’” I was astounded. How can anything be achieved if the people in our politics behave in this self-interested way, playing a zero-sum game? This country, our people, this nation can only be protected and developed with teamwork. If we are constantly undoing the good of others for self-gain, how does that serve? Look around, this is how we have ended up in such trouble.
There is much that is wrong with Westminster and how it works for business. Engagement with businesses now runs the risk of being about populating a personal address book as a hedge against election defeat, rather than driving business growth. In addition, departmental strategic planning should not be sacrificed due to political pre-election inertia, or the business department risks entering a state of suspended animation, tying the hands of exasperated officials.
We are going through a very difficult time, but I believe that good, competent, committed, creative and courageous people can change things, to stimulate new ideas, to help our businesses to thrive and to drive wealth creation. I have worked with many such great people from all sides of politics, and from the civil service and from business. We need people such as these at the top, making the decisions and supporting the Prime Minister if Government is to get serious about business and drive the future growth and prosperity of the UK.
Joanna Thomas was a Special Adviser to the Secretary of State, Department for Business and Trade until recently. Before, she spent over a decade working in Parliament and in politics. Joanna has a background in business and experience of broadcast television in the US
My parents had a cabaret club in America in the mid-West. They did plays and had performers – people like Woody Allen, and Lenny Bruce – and a then unknown singer called Barbara Streisand. They put on plays by Pinter and Beckett and had a show on Broadway and moved to London in 1964.
I was too young to remember Woody et al. but I remember going to the club and Albert King – B.B. King’s brother – was there and I went up on stage and did the twist. My Dad went on to do all sorts of things; he was a theatre producer, who put on a play at the Edinburgh Theatre Festival. My mother was a lyricist and wrote jazz songs and became a performing poet.
I think my Bohemian upbringing gave me a taste and a leaning towards the unconventional. I’ve never followed the traditional path of most of my peers. I didn’t go to university and didn’t go to Oxbridge. I dropped out – and hung out.
There are disadvantages to that, and I don’t think it makes me superior at all. It gives me a certain unique perspective and that’s good. That Bohemian tradition of which my parents were part of in the 1960s is something I miss. The classic moan is that Soho isn’t what is used to be. But cities have to change. Soho, which was once the Mecca of the Bohemian, has gone.
But sometimes I look back at people who I thought of as square and conventional, and think of how they have the pensions. When you’re in your twenties, you think: “Pensions be damned!”
I know quite a lot of people who did law, for example, not out of passion or interest, and regret it. I could never do something like that; I’m too dumb. I went into journalism because I was too stupid for everything else. I always wanted to write and I’m happy with my choices. I know plenty of deluded journalists who think they’ll write the great novel. Robert Harris is the exception everybody names. I realised I had no talent in that area; I abandoned all hope!
Fleet Street used to be fun. Last time I went to The Sunday Times office it was like going into a library; it was so quiet and calm. Nobody hangs out and has lunch anymore. I meet young journalists who remember The Modern Review and it seems exciting to them. I was invited by Robert Peston to come to his Academy to talk about jobs in journalism. I would say: “Don’t do it – or only do it if you’re driven by a crazed passion that you must.” It’s a bit like becoming an actor – have a reserve job.
I don’t do the kind of journalism that aims to change the world; I want to make people think, but mainly I want to make them laugh. You just do the best you can do, and pray to God that somebody will be moved. You try to be good and say something original and fresh. 95 per cent of what I read is this sludge of opinion and punditry.
Book-writing is very unlucrative too. If you look at the statistics of the number of writers who make a living from their writing alone, it’s tiny, especially for a country as cultured and book-oriented as the UK. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t write books. It’s very rewarding.
My real advice to young people is to try and be different. In this day and age, there’s such conformity – especially in the mainstream. 25 people writing the Harry and Megan article: do something different even if it will be a bit harder. Don’t follow the herd.
If you devote yourself to journalism and writing, you’ll have what we call cultural capital. Don’t not do it because of fear about your pension.
The death of my son Jack, who committed suicide after developing a drug problem, isn’t an easy topic – especially if you’re a parent. Who wants to read a book about this? It came out over the Christmas period last year. I hope people will find in the book more than just a sad memoir. I wanted it to be thoughtful and to have something to say about loss; I wanted it to be entertaining. I wanted to think about what it means to be a Dad.
Parenting is trial and error; you bumble along and try your best. One of the things I write about in the book is that I had this idea of being a great Dad. I realise that I wasn’t being the Dad that my son needed, but I was trying to be the Dad I might have wanted. You don’t have to be a great Dad, you have to be a good enough Dad. You have to show up; you don’t have to be spectacular. It’s not just showing up at the parents’ evening. They’ll remember you sitting you in a chair, and leaning over and smiling at them, and pulling a funny face. It’s those small things: as long as there’s an atmosphere of support, love and care.
You’re going to make terrible mistakes; being a Dad is about being a flawed human being. You’ll shout and lose your temper and regret it. That’s part of the business; it’s what you have to learn.
There are days when I think Jack could have had more support for his condition, but I didn’t give him enough support either.
But I can’t point the finger of blame; these things are complex. You often read that so and so committed suicide because of bullying. I don’t believe that; what drives people to that state of despair is a whole set of complex reasons. It’s not just one thing which does that. We always have these initiatives and drives, but I don’t think there’s a magic wand we can wave. We don’t really know why certain individuals commit suicide. Some will have suicidal thoughts; it’s only a minority will actually go through it.
We need to give young people more tools when they face adversity and unhappiness. Suicide shouldn’t be an easy option; I sometimes wonder it’s become a sort of lifestyle choice – a human right. It should be understood that it’s a terrible thing to do, not just in relation to oneself, but in relation to others. But sometimes the mind orders its own destruction and that’s a scary thing.
The trouble is my son had a terrible drug problem. We’re beginning to wake up to the impact of drugs on young people. I grew up in a generation where drugs were considered recreational and even mind-expanding, and people thought that anyone who disagreed with this view was a right-wing lunatic. Well, that’s just not true.
I don’t think prosecuting people is going to solve the problem. You have to get people to understand what they’re doing. Our drugs problem also enriches the drug dealers, who are the worst in our society.
People feel embarrassed to say they find my book funny, because it deals with tragic things. But humour is important – it’s perhaps especially important here. You don’t have to have a damaged son to enjoy this book.
Jack and Me: How NOT to live after loss is published by the Black Spring Press Group
