In the light of a new report from business organisation the CBI, Fiona Murchie, managing editor of Re:locate magazine, considers the key role that a closer relationship between education and business might play in the global economic recovery.

One of the highlights of this week’s CBI Conference was the launch of their new report First steps: a new approach for our schools. Its vibrant pink cover and inviting illustrations leapt out amongst the corporate conference literature. 

Accessible statistics and lively illustrations served to drive home some powerful messages – for example:

Against the scene set for global growth by Prime Minster David Cameron and Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills Vince Cable, Rupert Soames, chief executive of Aggreko, whose company is the biggest provider of temporary power systems, explained how companies could transform themselves by focusing on being global. Re:locate’s Fiona Murchie learned how tackling emerging markets is a long-term campaign.

Rupert Soames’s company is in the thick of it, serving over 100 countries, with 65% of revenue coming from emerging markets.

The common perception is that the developed world has changed massively in the last 20 years, but, for the people of the developing world, change has been revolutionary, with massive increases in income and consumption – from cars to mobile phones – for six billion relatively poor people.

As Mr Soames graphically put it, “The task in rich countries is like the Battle of the Somme: a grinding struggle from fixed positions to gain ground or market share a yard at a time. But in emerging markets, the war is much more fluid, and replete with opportunity. For every door that is closed, there are three that are ajar.

“So what are the rules of engagement in this two-speed world?

Re:locate's Fiona Murchie, attending the CBI conference, was encouraged by the focus on doing business internationally.

Global business is at the heart of the growth agenda, the Prime Minister affirmed in his opening remarks.

“Britain is selling to the world again. That is a vital part of my job – and what this economy needs.”

This will be very encouraging, not only for CBI members but also for UK businesses in general that are intent on getting a bigger slice of the international action. Encouraging, too, for those HR directors, of companies large and small, who see a strategic place at the table for those managing global teams and the complexities of global mobility.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has said that the UK needs to move swiftly from the current age of austerity to a new “age of enterprise”, and to react to what ishappening in the rest of the world.

Speaking at the CBI Annual Conference, Mr Johnson argued that regulators must not “sabotage” the UK’s banks and businesses with tighter regulation and higher taxes.

Speaking at the CBI Annual Conference, Business Secretary Vince Cable underlined the need to get “the skills system right” for the Government’s new industrial strategy to succeed. 

Dr Cable explained that long-term planning and a flexible approach underpinned the government’s new industrial strategy, and that “nothing fits these two principles as clearly as getting the skill system right”.

In his address to business leaders at the CBI Annual Conference, Prime Minister David Cameron said that the Government would begin radical reforms to speed up the way in which it takes key decisions, in order to help boost economic growth. 

Mr Cameron unveiled a four-pronged strategy to “eliminate bureaucratic rubbish” and dismantle some of the procedures that had slowed down economic growth.