CONFERENCE SPEAKERS
£2.5K TO £5K
PRESENTERS
£2.5K TO £5K
"Extremely relevant"
Association of Insurance Risk Management
WIKIPEDIA
TOPICS
Economic Overview, IT & Online Business, Energy & Sustainability
SPEECH TITLES
Business and the Environment - Friends or enemies?
The death of distance - How technology changes everything
The company of the future - A sideways look at a corporate future
A macro-economic overview
BIOGRAPHY
Journalist Frances Cairncross is one of the UK's most respected economic commentators. Formerly Management Editor of the Economist, she has held senior positions at The Times, The Banker, The Observer and The Guardian and presents BBC Radio 4's Analysis programme. Her broad-based knowledge of economics encompasses environmental change, the internet and mass communications.
After reading Modern History at St Anne's college, Oxford, Frances gained an MA in Economics from Brown University, Rhode Island. She holds honorary degrees from Trinity College Dublin, Glasgow, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, City, Loughborough and Kingston Universities. Frances is Rector of Exeter College, Oxford and immediate past President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.
As a business speaker, she draws on her wealth of experience to provide insightful and practical assessments of the economic scene. On the issue of climate change, Frances argues that policies that prepare the world to adapt to it are now just as important as efforts to slow it down. She relates these issues to the corporate world in her presentation, Business and the Environment - Friends or Enemies?
As a futurist, Frances examines the forces that will shape twenty-first century businesses and economies. Her book on the subject, The Company of the Future, won her the Institute of Internal Auditors' award for business and management journalism.
Frances also speaks on the subject of the internet and the global communications revolution, which she examined in her book The Death of Distance. She discusses how the web will change companies and outlines how businesses, governments and environmentalists can make common cause.
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Q&A
JLA: How well do you expect the economy to withstand public sector cuts?
FC: Pretty well. I'm more worried about the political fallout: these are planned as the toughest cuts in some areas of spending that there have ever been. In particular, we have no idea how local authorities will cope. The economy will grow this year, and the private sector will be fairly buoyant, but individuals will start to feel the early impacts of the tax increases and that will hold back consumer spending.
JLA: What do you make of 'localism'?
FC: The real problem with localism is the postcode lottery. It's extremely hard to see how one gives genuine power back to regions without allowing a much wider variation in the quality and range of services. The other big question hangs over public sector pay. It varies far less across regions than private sector pay. That urgently needs to change - as part of localism - but the Government will face some huge fights with the public sector workforce on the way.
JLA: Might Coalition be better for the economy than a majority government?
FC: Yes - I don't think a Tory government could have got away with as much as the Coalition. The Lib Dems need to hang in, and pray there's something to hand out in the run-up to the next election. They can't afford to bail out.
JLA: Are the right measures in place for the UK to rebalance its economy?
FC: Not yet. The measures currently in place will (if they work) stop the deficit from rising, but they won't start to reduce our huge debt. And there's still the possibility that things will go wrong, for example if tax revenues will drop off sharply. In an economy where, until recently, 25% of income tax revenue came from 1% of taxpayers, there's lots of scope for tax revenue to leak away.
JLA: Will business emerge stronger, leaner and more responsible?
FC: Business will certainly be stronger, if only because there have been some big rises in productivity during the recession years. But the 50% tax rate and the attack on bank bonuses, plus the new rules on University access, are all likely to drive the folk at the top to think of life elsewhere - in Hong Kong, Geneva or New York. That's seriously risky.
February 2011