Hay Festival 2022 – Business

Mistakes happen. In most fields the consequences are limited, but in healthcare they can be fatal. Every week in England there are 150 avoidable deaths. Most tragedies could be prevented simply and cheaply if we were better at learning from mistakes. Instead, the system ‘goes after’ someone when something goes wrong, and the result is a blame game that stops learning and allows the same mistake to be repeated, often countless times.

Zero investigates how the NHS can reduce the number of avoidable deaths to zero, and in the process save money, reduce backlogs and improve working conditions. Former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt speaks to NHS palliative care doctor, writer and former broadcast journalist Rachel Clarke about the imperative to deliver the safest, highest quality care in the NHS post-pandemic – our own 1948 moment.

Tony Fadell spent the first ten years of his 30-year career in Silicon Valley failing miserably, before leaving his mark building the iPod and iPhone and starting Nest. He learned the hard way that throwing away the old and starting from scratch is not always the optimal route to success. Sometimes old school guidance provides the necessary wisdom, whether you’re looking for your first job, contemplating a career change, mapping out a start-up or selling a company. What you need at those junctures is a mentor, someone who has been in the trenches and can give it to you straight.

Tony now leads the investment and advisory firm Future Shape, where he mentors the next generation of tech start-ups that are working to change the world for the better. He joins us at Hay to talk about the importance of great mentors, how to deal with terrible failure and phenomenal success and why he believes that the world’s first tech trillionaire will be someone who helps to fix climate change.

The fashion industry is the third most polluting industry in the world after oil and agriculture. Did you know that at the beginning of the Covid pandemic, dozens of global fashion brands refused to pay for an estimated $40 billion worth of finished goods, leaving millions of garment workers and their families without payment, savings or support of any kind? Did you know it can take 2,700 litres of water to make a T-shirt? And that in the UK an estimated £140m worth of clothes is sent to landfill each year? It's an industry that encourages consumers to buy poor-quality clothes, worn an average of seven times before being discarded. Find out why the current business model is broken and what each of us can do about it. Aja Barber is the author of Consumed: The Need for Collective Change – Colonialism, Climate Change and Consumerism, Sara Vaughan is an Innovator and Global Chief Purpose & Sustainability Advisor to Marie Claire and Dilys Williams is Founder and Director at the Centre for Sustainable Fashion at London College of Fashion.

Trevithel Court is a traditional mixed farm and David James is the third generation of his family to work there, along with his son Will. Their orchards supply apples for Bulmers and other cider producers in Herefordshire and Wales. Walk among the apple trees, pollinated by bees, look inside a beehive, learn about cider production and sample some cider and honey. The farm also produces grass-fed beef cattle and arable crops. See the animals and machinery used for production and harvesting. Agronomist Jonathon Harrington leads the tour.

With thanks to David and Catherine James

Kate Bingham is a bio-tech venture capitalist brought in to lead the government’s vaccine taskforce in 2020. She was one of the most prominent figures in the handling of the pandemic in the UK, taking the lessons learnt from her six-month period leading the task force as critical reflection on how health crises can be better handled at present and in the future. Awarded a DBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in June 2021, she is committed to the battle against disease, and is joined by Fiona Fox, Science Media Centre Chief Executive, to discuss her work, challenges, and hopes for the future.

Climate change and inequality are ravaging the world and costing billions. Who will help lead us to a better future? Business. These massive challenges, as well as pandemics, resource pressures and shrinking biodiversity threaten our existence. The push for a clean economy and the focus on diversity and inclusion offer exciting opportunities to heal the world, and prosper by doing so. Government cannot do this alone. Business must step up.

The co-author of Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take offers key lessons from Unilever and others about how to profit by fixing the world’s problems. Courageous leaders are already making it real. Polman was CEO of Unilever 2009–19 and serves as Vice-Chair of the UN Global Compact.

In conversations with Nik Gowing, founder and director of the Thinking the Unthinkable project, former main presenter at BBC World News, trustee of the Hay Festival