Chair: Rob Devey
Chief Executive, Prudential UK & Europe
Rob Devey has been an Executive Director of Prudential Plc and Chief Executive, Prudential UK & Europe since November 2009. Rob joined Prudential from Lloyds Banking Group where he worked from 2002 in a number of senior leadership roles across insurance and retail banking. Prior to joining HBOS, Rob was a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in the UK, US and Europe.
Rob is also a Trustee of the Lloyds TSB Foundation for England and Wales.
We asked Rob about his leadership role at Business in the Community and why responsible business is important to Prudential.
You can watch this interview here
Why is responsible business important to your company?
Prudential is an iconic brand which has been around for 160 years. It has been part of the fabric of the UK and embedded itself in the communities it serves. This hasn’t changed and under my leadership has been something that I’ve chosen to re-emphasise. Responsible business is absolutely fundamental to what we do every day.
Why did you decide to take a leadership role at BITC?
BITC has had a profound impact on me personally which started six or seven years ago when I was on a Seeing is Believing (SIB) Visit which struck me very deeply and caused me to re-appraise how I think about doing my job. I started to re-appraise what it meant to be a leader and what was important in terms of having an impact on my business. I have since led a SIB and volunteered with many other charities. When the opportunity came along to chair the London Leadership Team I was delighted – what a privilege which gives me another platform to give something back, make a difference and increase the footprint we can make on some of the biggest issues facing society today.
What difference do you think the London team can make?
There are enormous difficulties facing London and enormous need. BITC is in a pivotal position between business and community and the ability to bring together and harness these capabilities is fundamental. In the London Leadership Team we can shine a light on this and bring together the corporate and charitable sector in a way that you don’t see much elsewhere, which in turn can make a massive impact on a day to day basis. This isn’t just talk but also action – and it’s about sharing the skills of the leadership team - and then more broadly our different industries - to see how we can address issues of today.
What is your vision for London?
London is fascinating city which sees enormous wealth next to enormous deprivation, big business next to tiny corner shops. We should celebrate this diversity but should also knit together skills from large and small businesses, the wealthy and the poor to see how everyone’s lots can be improved by this.
When we surveyed our Leaders in 2010, they said that an important part of their role was to support future business leaders to have a wider appreciation of business responsibility, how are you supporting the future leaders at your company to be responsible leaders?
This is a critical issue and one that we see clearly in our business. When I was an emerging leader where did I put Community engagement? Probably not high enough if I’m honest. I can now see it’s critical that we do push this up our agenda internally. We’re clear that this is an important part of people’s jobs and emphasise that to be good you have to get the right results but also get them in the right way. This is fundamental as emerging leaders have the most impact on most number of people in the organisation and it’s also about leading from the front and the top – walking the walk and talking the talk.
What are the future challenges facing your industry and how can responsible business practices help to address them?
I work in financial services – and there are big challenges of trust here at the moment. That is not a situation that’s lasted forever – 20 years ago the bank manager was one of the most respected members of community. It’s really critical that we regain as a whole industry that degree of trust.
One of the building blocks of getting this back is playing a bigger role in society – clearly financial results are important but it should be about overall business and community results. We have a huge distance to go but it is possible – which is helped by organisations such as BITC.
Now BITC is in its 30th year how can it scale up its activities?
I feel it can do this in two ways – firstly there should be more BITC involvement which can be achieved either through membership or through engagement in some BITC programmes. The second point is about the way one engages - it’s not just giving the cheque but deploying the resources of the organisation. The more you put into it, the more you get out of it. At Prudential we have driven our volunteering to grow from less than 5% of the workforce three years ago to 40% now. This has a profound impact on individuals and organisations we’ve volunteered for, but also on our organisation more broadly and how people feel about working for Prudential.
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