CBI Economics – 397 days on
What was it like to launch the CBI's Economic Consultancy division during the pandemic?
A year from launch, CBI Economics is a success. In truth, it’s hard to believe that more than a year has passed since we began offering bespoke economic consultancy to businesses.
Launching in a pandemic
What a challenging time to start. Our launch activity was curtailed by the arrival of COVID-19 and our teams were adapting to remote working even as we gained our first clients.
It’s said that demand for economic insights and analysis is counter-cyclical. Demand is great when there is a high degree of ambiguity about the future. That’s a hard one to call in terms of our launch, but we found appetite and enthusiasm for the unique blend of economic expertise, policy, and political awareness that CBI Economics offers.
It’s been remarkable as CBI Economics has scaled even as the economy has been buffeted by COVID-19 and Brexit. Inevitably, you do reflect on the fortunes of those impacted by illness and the enforced changes in the labour market. CBI Economics wasn’t in some way immune to the virus, with many stories and experiences across the team.
Delivering at pace
In terms of deliverables, we’ve undertaken pioneering work on air pollution, surveyed the COVID-19 driven rates of technology adoption, delivered economic contribution studies, and evaluated stimulus measures. The pace of change and variety of work has been both gratifying and breath-taking.
Building on core strengths
Economic analysis has been a feature of the CBI since its inception. Our Industrial Trends Survey launched in 1958 and our business sentiment surveys now cover much of the UK economy. This suite of economic surveys is depended on by analysts, commentators, and government. If there was ever a doubt of the importance of health as a driver of economic growth, then the oscillations of those business sentiment measures as we moved through the pandemic provide compelling evidence. We license this granular insights data through leading vendors of financial data.
Adapting to world events
As I look forward at the emergent economic trends and challenges ahead, whether that be technology adoption, hybrid working, trade, biodiversity, innovation or health and economic wellbeing, I like to think that CBI Economics have and will continue to make important contributions to the economic evidence base.