How do we design a high street as if the world mattered? That was the question set by Retail Reset at the Changemakers Fayre at Westminster Hub, last night.
As the post-it notes and scribbles started flying, pretty soon a debate emerged about chain stores and big business – where do they sit in all this? Do they have a role to play or are they just a recipe for clone town Britain? How can they contribute more positively to our high streets?
Which got me thinking…because while it’s great to see more and more businesses think seriously about how they can have a more positive impact, too often this feels hidden behind a CR report – a series of (albeit well-meaning) programmes, initiatives and commitments which can seem removed from the everyday activity of the company on the high street.
Surely there’s a missed opportunity here? Rather than just talking about what’s going on elsewhere, why not show it in action? Have a clothes retailer give over a section of their shop floor to provide working space for young designers, or a supermarket run regular classes in seasonal cooking in their store, or a bank deliver drop in business advice sessions for young entrepreneurs, or a communications company provide a space to support small business…
You get the idea.
Companies need to be brave about showing people what it means to them to be a good business – and through doing so they can not only talk to their customers more effectively, but play a vital role in making our high streets more exciting, inspiring and interesting places to be.
It sounds like a great event, and I'm sorry I couldn't be there. Having spent most of this week working on a report on what's happening on our high streets and why, I've been thinking about how the key to the future is the space to generate new ideas and the permission and will to make them happen. The approach you put forward here is spot on.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment Julian. Yes, it was a really good session and I totally agree, we need more creativity and new ideas out there! Would be really interesting to hear more about the report you've been working on - can you send more details?
ReplyDeleteHi Kate, Julian
ReplyDeletegreat post, thanks for getting involved. Think that space sharing may be one the few ways left for economy to function in a years (or less) time and perhaps one of the only ways left for BIG retail to have any kind of license to operate (if they dont want to be OCCUPIED etc).
Agree that what is needed is some kind of framework to make it easy for this to happen. I have often thought about a kind of brokerage that matches emerging enterprises with the big guys in their local area. So a set of industry agreed norms and a neat system for making it frictionless.