About vocL

Empowering business voices for a fairer society

Why vocL 

Covid, Brexit, disruptive technology, the climate emergency: this is a time of change and of crisis.

It is a time of challenges to which business - with its expertise and experience, its long-term perspective and its resources - must be a critical part of the answer.

The time is thus ripe for vocL.

At vocL, we believe business has lost its voice. Whether at COP26, during the negotiation of vital new trade deals, or in the debate over business ethics, the business voice has seemed strangely quiet or even to be absent altogether.

At the same time, we believe there is an urgent need, within business, for more thoughtful, truthful, inclusive, values-driven and socially responsible leadership.

Finally, we believe it is critical, as never before, for the business leaders of today and of tomorrow - business’s next generation leaders - to have a bigger, freer, more respected and more confident voice in the national conversation; and that our often overly fractious debates would be more balanced and our society fairer and less divided if they did.

Our Values

vocL is a platform promoting responsible business voices and we ask all contributors to buy into our values:

Grounded - We say what we mean and we mean what we say. We want to create a platform where we communicate openly and honestly, offering well-balanced insights through debate and discussion. 

Inclusive - We recognise the richness that diversity brings and we encourage different points of view and perspectives, and value all contributions. We want vocL to be a safe space for diverse thought and ideas to shape our future. 

Lively - We approach every day with curiosity, positivity, and a lively mindset. We want to inspire people with the energy our associates and future leaders bring to the vocL platform, to ultimately spark national debate and effect change on issues that really matter to us. 

Purposeful - We want to create permanent change for a better world by enabling business to speak louder, to be more vocal, and importantly, to stimulate mutual learning and growth through our cross generational mentoring platform.  

Public Policy and Political Engagement

We want the next generation of business leaders to be confident partners to policy makers. This next generation of talent, working with established leaders across the UK, have plenty to add to the quality of our national debate. The absence of these voices threatens pragmatic policy making - which in the end serves the interest of everybody, and not just a select few.

Put simply - these better, more informed and vocal contributions to public policy making from business enriches our national debate and secures better outcomes for companies, their employee's, consumers and society at large. 

This means we are committed to working with businesses and their future leaders to ensure they are confident, understand the political landscape and are well trained by their mentors to make informed interventions in public policy debates. 

We are staunchly apolitical - our focus is to improve the national political conversation, and support the next generation have their voices heard where it matters most.