Creating the future creatives

Representation is power, and we all deserve to see ourselves. If you're not employing your customer, you're not going to succeed. Unless the companies we invest in have diverse, inclusive, well-motivated employees, that business will not perform well.

Looking at you, yeah, I'm Neil Clifford, the Chief Executive of Kurt Geiger. I didn't go to university, I wasn't from a wealthy background, I didn't have the contacts, I'd never been to London. It was very clear to me when I made it into the position where I am that it was a real mission to help kids like me. Thirty years later, I think the reality of inclusivity and diversity is pretty obvious. If you're a retailer and you're not understanding the broader consumer that you talk to in your 57 stores, your website, and your international business across the globe, you're not going to succeed.

My name is Michael, and I am an ambassador of the Brixton Finishing School. Brixton Finishing School is essentially a school for young people who are looking to break into the creative industries. During the course, we were able to meet so many agency partners and brands, and people who really gave us a lot of advice and insights into how the creative industries work. Brixton Finishing School gives young people a lot of skills—not only to work in the creative industries but also just life skills as well. It really helps you develop as a person. To me, Kurt Geiger is fashion and it's luxury, but affordable luxury and high fashion. Everybody deserves to have nice things and feel good. That's partly why I wanted to work there. We have had a real mission to find a niche for ourselves that is a wonderful mix of creativity and kindness. People my age want brands to be a voice. We want brands to actually be actively doing something.

I'm Vanessa Maiden, Corporate Affairs Director at Synven. Invest Europe has done very well to date in helping share best practice among its members. ESG is environmental, social, and governance. The social elements are sometimes overlooked because they are very difficult to measure. Companies more frequently have diversity policies in place. Some private equity firms actually put together diversity toolkits for the companies in which they invest.

Private equity, what it also does in my view, is it simplifies boards and simplifies strategies. There's no room for politics in private equity, so you need management teams that are happy to look at themselves in the mirror and not look out the window and blame other people. I've had five private equity partners, and I've still had relationships with all of them. A lot of people think that private equity is only in business to make money, and I actually think that is fundamentally untrue. We focus on how to get the best out of a business, how to improve the performance of a business, and what we are seeing now, time and time again, is we can only do that if we get ESG right.

There are opportunities like the ones that Kurt Geiger has identified to work with organizations like Brixton Finishing School to actually help young people in their career paths and in employment. There should be diversity at all levels because that’s what's going to make companies great. That’s going to make the real change. You have a diverse, more inclusive workforce, and your staff feel more motivated, more engaged, valued, and empowered.

I want to be a voice and a change-maker, especially for people who are underrepresented within the industry. I think stories deserve to be told and need to be heard. I want to be part of that change, telling those stories.