“As they do business around the world, good risk management requires that companies work harder to be sensitive to local cultures, to be more ready to adapt, and to show communities that they can be responsible contributors to the local economy and society.” – Lord Levene, Chairman of Lloyd’s, April 2008
‘Poems about conflict and instability’ is the second collaboration between Lloyd’s and the charity Poet in the City. Click here for details of the first collaboration on the subject of climate change.
Click here to read the new suite of poetry.
Lloyd’s own research with business leaders around the world has found that businesses are increasingly worried by a range of emerging risks. In particular, these include home-grown terrorism and political instability in emerging markets. Yet despite these concerns, only one-in-three CEOs agrees that their business has a good understanding of the risks it faces.
Trying to help society to understand and manage its risk better can also lead to some less obvious responses. Often, business typically sees itself neither as part of the problem nor part of the solution in areas of conflict and subjects of instability, and often remains on the sidelines. However, a growing body of opinion now suggests that closer engagement – both at home and abroad – can make a lot of sense for both the business and the local community.
Communities in the UK must now also face up to their own emerging issues – like radicalisation of young people by terrorists and the trend towards knife crime. To communicate about these issues effectively, we must begin to think in a fresh and thought-provoking way. Partnering with Poet in the City to commission original poetry from three very different poets on these topics is part of Lloyd’s contribution to that process. It is a great privilege for Lloyd’s to be able to support the creation of new work from Britain’s contemporary literary talent.
As with last year, the project has funded the training of poets as educators who have been taking the poetry into primary and secondary schools in Tower Hamlets.
Aoife Mannix said of the programme:
"I think the key to involving students in poetry is for them to see that you take their opinions seriously and that as a poet I am genuinely interested in what they have to say and have a lot to learn from their experiences. It’s about communication and sharing ideas."
Over the last twenty years, Lloyd’s has been building bridges with young people in the borough through its Community Programme. Other current activities range from helping children get to grips with literacy and numeracy, to mentoring college students to help them get jobs and organising an annual Lloyd’s Cricket Cup.
Disengagement of young people from our communities is one issue that requires co-operation and commitment from the broadest possible range of stakeholders across society. There are no quick fixes to generational problems like this. But once again, through the schools work we have been able to spark meaningful debate among tomorrow’s employees and leaders, and hope to inspire other organisations to think creatively about today’s important issues.
