Leadership in London – Opening New Doors

The purpose of the London Leaders programme is to demonstrate the power of leadership, collaboration, and innovation in tackling the sustainability challenges inherent in global cities such as London.

London Leadership Personified

According to Mark Woodcock, Managing Director of BigFoot Digital in London, "Community, connectivity, networking, and more – everything a business needs to succeed can be found right in London. While London offers plenty of opportunities to grow your business, it’s also brimming with competitors all looking to generate profit." There is a strong movement in purchasing not just products, but services online locally due to the heavy stress of the traffic congestion in London.

Woodcock continues, "If you are looking to grow your business in the capital, and capture a major portion of the online sales, then you need an SEO strategy that is proven and tested to work. More and more people are using search engines like Google to find products and services to meet their daily needs. If you don’t appear in those searches, people may doubt your legitimacy and therefore discount you as an option altogether."

And isn't that what you really want?

London is already one of the most sustainable major cities, but this initiative aims to help make the capital a world leader in social, environmental, and economic sustainability. Since the programme was created, 80 London Leaders have been supported, constituting a wealth of expertise and experience in sustainability leadership which the plan harnesses for the benefit of London.

London is about to get its first-ever elected mayor and elected assembly. There are currently more than seven million residents in London, and political leadership is much needed. The Greater London Counsel (GLC) was disbanded in 1986, London has not had a central authority.

The new mayor will be mostly responsible for environmental and transportation issues. The horrific traffic congestion in Central London links these two problems. Four out of five commuters into London do so by public transportation. It is estimated the London Underground will need seven billion pounds to repair and expand to handle the rising demand.

Above ground, the average speed during rush hour is just 10kph, which is raising the tempers of drivers, and reports of "road rage" are on the rise. The focus of the mayor will be to get people out of their cars and onto buses or other public transportation options.

Crime is another major topic as a quarter of all crime committed in the UK happens in London. In the country, London has some of the wealthiest and poorest people. There are more than 40,000 families living in temporary housing, which is also where most of the crime is occurring. Most Londoners want to see improvements in this area sooner rather than later as it is looked upon as a significant social issue.

One-fifth of the economic earnings of the UK comes from London and a gross domestic product of over 100 billion pounds ($160B USD). London business leaders want a clear strategy to help both established businesses and new businesses create more jobs and wealth within London to help ease many of the social issues currently hurting the city.

The mayor will have a lot to tackle despite having no political power to raise taxes to meet the obligations expected of him to meet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxBLjfI20xQ