Lord Mayor Elect Alastair King writes for London Business Matters

Johan Wolfgang von Goethe remarked that the hardest thing to see is what is in front of our eyes. Living and working in London, it can be easy to forget that the City of London is a proudly progressive, multicultural, multilingual, pluralistic success story – a global economic powerhouse and “a roost for every bird”, as Benjamin Disraeli commented. Indeed, thanks to our deep and abundant talent pools, enabling regulatory environment, the use of the English language, and globally central time zone, the Square Mile remains the number one financial centre in the world, leading the pack in areas like insurance, foreign exchange, and legal services. It’s something we should be unabashed in celebrating and risk taking for granted at our peril.

Cheerleader-in-chief
Despite the City’s long history as an international hub of commerce and trade, we have no God-given right to this pre-eminent status. What’s more, many seek to eat our lunch. It’s the role of Lord Mayors (an office stretching back continuously since 1189) to serve as cheerleader-in-chief for the Square Mile and the wider UK financial and professional services sector, both at home and abroad – a task I look forward to when I am formally given the reins on 8th November.

Honour
To be elected the 696th Lord Mayor of London is not only a tremendous honour but a remarkable feat – not by me or any of the other colourful individuals, like Dick Whittington, who have held this post, but by our City. It speaks to the longevity and adaptability of the Square Mile, one that has seen it survive disease, famine, fire, schism, and attack, and through it all, come out stronger on the other side. To continue to thrive, we must show a willingness to adapt again.

Many of us who work in the FPS sector share the same feeling: we have been driving with the handbrake on in recent years. So, through this year’s mayoral theme – Growth Unleashed – my pitch is a simple one: to be bolder, think smarter, and take off the handbrake, reigniting the City’s appetite for positive risk, seizing our national edge in innovation, and supporting the many communities that make London unique.

Three pillars
Guided by 20 stakeholder events with senior political, business, and community leaders, as well as journalists, trade associations, and ambassadors, Growth Unleashed seeks to support people and businesses so that they can fire on all cylinders. At its heart sit three key pillars.

First, growth optimisation. By advocating for both regulatory and mindset reform, we want to help people feel emboldened and challenge industry to maximise opportunities via responsible risk taking.

Linked to this, our second pillar: technology, or, more accurately, seizing the white heat of tech. We want to ensure the UK FPS sector is habitually the early adopter of dynamic new technologies that can give it the competitive edge. To help encourage this, we’ll be organising both a hackathon series and Pitch at the Mansion House events – a means of introducing British capital to British technology companies that are seeking to raise between £5m and £30m to scale up.

And third, with more diaspora groups calling London home than any other city in the world, there will be a strong focus on communities throughout this mayoralty. By establishing City Belonging Networks, we hope, with the support of the City’s many stakeholders, to amplify and celebrate each community’s contribution to the Square Mile, encouraging them to help us expand the pool of talent that will keep the City growing. The first four of these – for the Muslim, Jewish, LGBT, and Armed Forces Veterans communities – will be launched by the end of the year.

No limit
We have lots of other exciting initiatives planned, not least Lord Mayor’s Awards to recognise the work taking place across the City. The Lord Mayor’s Show on 9th November is an opportunity to play your part in an 800-year-old City tradition – an annual reminder that despite only being 1.12 square miles in size, there’s no limit to this city’s ambition and what it can achieve when it comes together.