The video transcript discusses the fusion of private business and government roles during the economic challenges heightened by crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. It highlights the role of government as the lender and paymaster of last resort to stabilize the economy. It also addresses the need for businesses to shift from a purely shareholder-focused model to becoming entities accountable to a broader range of stakeholders, which include taking pivotal societal responsibilities like ensuring environmental sustainability and fostering social equity.

Business leaders are seen exploring new paradigms and cooperative models that serve a wider range of interests, even as skepticism remains on shareholder-driven impacts towards promoting such transitions. The Co-op Group serves as an example of a business not solely prioritizing growth but evaluating its social impacts and contributions to good causes. The video also underscores the need for businesses to build resilience in their operations and reflect on the dependence on international supply chains.

Main takeaways from the video:

Please remember to turn on the CC button to view the subtitles.

Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. bailouts [ˈbeɪlaʊts] - (n.) - Financial support to prevent the failure of a company or economy. - Synonyms: (financial assistance, rescue, subsidy)

These bailouts and all the important pieces in the jigsaw puzzle that support business should come with strings attached.

2. stakeholders [ˈsteɪkˌhoʊldərz] - (n.) - Individuals or groups who have an interest or concern in a business. - Synonyms: (interested parties, participants, investors)

I think what you can evolve to now is making sure that every company is responsible to all of its stakeholders.

3. technocratic [ˌtɛknəˈkrætɪk] - (adj.) - Relating to or characterized by the government or control of society or industry by an elite of technical experts. - Synonyms: (bureaucratic, administrative, professional)

We dealt with the 2008 financial crisis in a very limited and technocratic way.

4. paradigms [ˈpærəˌdaɪmz] - (n.) - A model or pattern for something that may be copied. - Synonyms: (example, standard, prototype)

One fascinating aspect of discussion at the moment is the number of business leaders who are already talking in terms of new models, new paradigms.

5. accountability [əˌkaʊntəˈbɪlɪti] - (n.) - The fact or condition of being responsible; answerability. - Synonyms: (responsibility, liability, answerability)

Our way of working, our governance, our accountability, is a better way of doing business.

6. zeitgeist [ˈtsaɪtˌɡaɪst] - (n.) - The defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time. - Synonyms: (spirit of the times, ethos, cultural climate)

That way of working will chime with a new zeitgeist of how businesses run.

7. resilience [rɪˈzɪliəns] - (n.) - The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness. - Synonyms: (fortitude, endurance, adaptability)

Has resilience become a higher priority for business and for government?

8. supply chains [səˈplaɪ ʧeɪnz] - (n.) - The sequence of processes involved in the production and distribution of a commodity. - Synonyms: (logistics network, distribution system, delivery line)

Unsustainable debt levels and vulnerabilities that Covid has exposed in supply chains and systems geared to ever greater efficiency

9. interventionist [ˌɪntərˈvɛnʃənɪst] - (adj.) - Favoring intervention, especially by a government in its domestic economy or by one country in the affairs of another. - Synonyms: (active, involved, proactive)

Is our new perspective one that will reshape how we respond to economic crises and how interventionist we think the state should be?

10. provenance [ˈprɒvənəns] - (n.) - The place of origin or earliest known history of something. - Synonyms: (origin, source, birthplace)

It might also require a shift from customers like the public sector buyers, for whom price has tended to trump quality or provenance.

The Covid Economy - Bettering Business - BBC Newsnight

This crisis has blurred the lines between private business and government in unexpected ways. These bailouts and all the important pieces in the jigsaw puzzle that support business should come with strings attached. Faced with economic catastrophe, the government became lender and paymaster of last resort. I think what you can evolve to now is making sure that every company is responsible to all of its stakeholders.

Has it changed your view on business's place in society? I think shareholders need to say we believe that the most successful companies over the long term will be doing their bit for society, won't be taking the shortcuts. What should be expected from business after Covid? The financial crisis started with mortgages and banks. But the downturn reverberated far beyond the City of London and Wall street.

We must, in an uncertain and unstable world, be the rock of stability upon which British people can depend. As panic settled into years of slow growth and stagnant wages, some saw an opportunity missed, an opportunity that perhaps has come again. We dealt with the 2008 financial crisis in a very limited and technocratic way. But we didn't fundamentally rethink the way risks are shared in the economy and how we look after people. That legacy is what has haunted our politics in recent years.

One fascinating aspect of discussion at the moment is the number of business leaders who are already talking in terms of new models, new paradigms. I think there's a lot of willingness to explore imaginative new solutions and more inclusive, more sustainable solutions. While many businesses were shutting down, Co op was stocking up. It needed 5000 extra workers in lockdown. Co op Group is owned not by shareholders, but by its members. It's a different model of organising a business, one that makes its boss accountable for more than just growth.

I'll be very much assessed by the social impact that I can have in communities, by how much money we can raise for good causes, by where our efforts go around campaigning. And so it's a far more deeper, richer assessment than possibly a Plc CEO might go through. The idea that companies should be serving a wider range of interests than just investors has been increasingly discussed in recent years. But attempts to formalise it, like Theresa May's move to put workers on boards, didn't get very far.

And there is skepticism that shareholders will be the ones to push it further. Most of the investment, especially these days, is speculative. It is easy money. Investors may have wanted companies to make a song and dance about climate change, but nothing fundamental changed in the important decisions that businesses reached regarding emissions, regarding their attitude to climate change. It was a lot of window dressing, usually this center would be full of children making the most of its summer schemes.

We sort of wanted to be almost like a modern youth club. There's recording studios, dance studios with pop videos. The Harmony youth group gets money from Co op's members fund. We're based in Hallowell, which is one of the most attractive wards in Bolton. And basically you've got youth, your most deprived groups, your refugees, your single parents, your unemployed, your young unemployed, and they've all in a mishmash. And young people need a safe environment where they can come socialize and just express themselves in a positive manner.

And that's what we're trying to do here, really. The cooperative model is one that may have broader lessons for business. In those first five years of difficult startup, twice as many co ops survive than the normal business. And therefore it suggests to me that our way of working, our governance, our accountability, is a better way of doing business. That way of working will chime with a new zeitgeist of how businesses run.

Unlike in 2008, there's of course no company or sector that's particularly at fault in the pandemic. But many businesses will have benefited from some kind of public support in this extraordinary period. And the public mood seems pretty unforgiving of those that aren't seen to be doing the right thing or playing by the rules. The question is whether Covid marks a moment where companies are increasingly held accountable to a wider range of interests than just their shareholders.

It should make many business people realize that they have a license to operate from the society in which they function. And whilst there are many aspects of it that are tricky, I think it should mean the absolute dominance of a shareholder maximization culture, often at the expense of everything else, might have seen its peak. And we go back to a more complex form of business engagement with society. I think it's going to be really important in terms of what businesses do for the communities where their employees work, where they can invest, where they can really help socially.

Personally, I think the traditional models, they don't need to completely change, they need to be adapted for what's right for the future. And what's right, I think, is very much support the most vulnerable in society and make sure we have employment for everybody and make sure that we really support the lower paid. Being able to progress in the UK. As the UK gets further from the start of this pandemic, business may simply cross over to the next set of challenges. Unsustainable debt levels and vulnerabilities that Covid has exposed in supply chains and systems geared to ever greater efficiency.

This Scottish manufacturer of outdoor clothing was squeezed when Covid hit its supplies from Asia, but it expanded into making medical gowns and overhauled its logistics. Obviously, price is quite, quite key because we're in a very competitive market, but we've managed to source as much as we possibly can locally, in terms of materials, in terms of what we call trims, whether it's elastics, whether it's cuffing, these type of things. The company would like to buy more closer to home, but the choice isn't always there.

It might also require a shift from customers like the public sector buyers, for whom price has tended to Trump quality or provenance. This whole situation has really highlighted how dependent we are on other countries. I think it will be important for business, people in business and people at government level to start rethinking some of that process. Has resilience become a higher priority for business and for government?

The global supply network, people insisting on the cheapest prices and going to the cheapest labour markets. These shortcuts have ended up costing us. And so I think government has now the moral high ground to say to businesses and reminding consumers that actually, if you insist on paying the lowest price, you will end up causing damage.

I think resilience comes more and more into focus, something which is the only way to respond to this. But I think that only comes out as a priority when people have thought quite a lot about the kind of world we're in, about the fragility of our situation, about the things we can't predict and don't know.

Is our new perspective one that will reshape how we respond to economic crises and how interventionist we think the state should be? I think we need a new social contract between people in society and between the generations. What do we owe to those who kept working during the worst of the panic?

On a good day, I try to imagine that we will be thanking Covid-19 for giving us an opportunity to rethink those issues. And what do we ultimately want from our Covid economy?

Economics, Business, Innovation, Cooperative Business Model, Corporate Accountability, Economic Resilience, Bbc Newsnight