Latest / Bloomberg Intelligence / Lord Browne on 'The Glass Closet': Inclusion is the Key (Audio)

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Lord Browne on 'The Glass Closet': Inclusion is the Key (Audio) · Bloomberg Intelligence

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  Speaker 1: sweeping anti LGBT bill that he signed into law was
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  Speaker 1: Bloomberg business flash. You're listening to Taking Stock with Kathleen
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  Speaker 1: Hays and Pim Box on Bloomberg Radio. Lord John Brown
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  Speaker 1: is the executive chairman of l One Energy. He's the
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  Speaker 1: former chief the executive of BP. But he is much
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  Speaker 1: more than just those two titles. He is also the
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  Speaker 1: author of a book, The Glass Closet, Why Coming Out
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  Speaker 1: Is Good for Business. He is also the co author
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  Speaker 1: of Connect and Lord John Brown joins us now from London.
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  Speaker 1: Lord Brown, thank you very much for being with us.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you for having me. I want to begin by
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  Speaker 1: just stating that you have spoken recently about the events
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  Speaker 1: regarding your departure from BP, and also why you chose
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  Speaker 1: to stay in the closet for much of your life,
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  Speaker 1: and also the way in which the world has changed
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  Speaker 1: in recent years with regard to LGBT issues. Uh, I
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  Speaker 1: wondering if you could speak to your particular experience and
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  Speaker 1: perhaps connected to what is going on currently in North
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  Speaker 1: Carolina many. I'm sure you know the news about PayPal
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  Speaker 1: and Deutsche Bank saying that's not where they want to
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  Speaker 1: be expanding absolutely well. I, as you know, I was.
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  Speaker 1: I'm a child of the forties, and when I was
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  Speaker 1: growing up, being gay was first illegal here in the
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  Speaker 1: UK and secondly not a way you could really do
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  Speaker 1: anything in society. But more importantly, I had a mother
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  Speaker 1: who was a survivor from Auschwitz, and she taught me
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  Speaker 1: a couple of lessons which lived with me and kept
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  Speaker 1: me in the closet. The first was never tell anyone
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  Speaker 1: a secret because they are used against you. And secondly,
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  Speaker 1: never be an identified member of minority, because when the
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  Speaker 1: going gets tough, the majority always had the minority. And
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  Speaker 1: I think it's that point that I'd actually pick out
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  Speaker 1: for North Carolina and one or two other places in
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  Speaker 1: the US. Clearly, when the majority feel that the under
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  Speaker 1: threatened anywhere at all, majorities tend to turn on minorities.
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  Speaker 1: Lord Brown and interviewing. When your book first came out,
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  Speaker 1: it's a great book, and it's a very uh it's
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  Speaker 1: almost a management book in some ways, because a very
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  Speaker 1: passionate argument for being your authentic self at work. And
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  Speaker 1: I want to talk about that. But in regards the
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  Speaker 1: specific question of North Carolina, this legislation the government governor
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  Speaker 1: now claiming had nothing to do with being anti gay
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  Speaker 1: or transcender. It had to do with privacy. Are there
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  Speaker 1: cultural shifts that need to be respected or do people
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  Speaker 1: just have to realize they've got to get on board
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  Speaker 1: To a large extent, A lot of this to me
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  Speaker 1: seems to be generational. But you know, the younger generation
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  Speaker 1: is much more accepting of differences when it comes to gender,
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  Speaker 1: raise so many things. Older generations did not grow up
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  Speaker 1: this way. They're less so I think that is true.
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  Speaker 1: There were many different standards of behavior, if you will,
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  Speaker 1: and what was regarded as acceptable and unacceptable in the past,
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  Speaker 1: and indeed succeeding generations have changed that over time. To me,
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  Speaker 1: the most important saying that people have I believe everywhere
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  Speaker 1: in the world trying to struggle with is how to
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  Speaker 1: be how to include people, how to bring them in
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  Speaker 1: rather than push them away exclude them. In business, this
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  Speaker 1: is one of the most important things you have to do,
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  Speaker 1: whether it is with the team you're building, or whether
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  Speaker 1: it's customers or communities you're working with. And the reasons
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  Speaker 1: for that is inclusive teams. Inclusive businesses actually work better,
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  Speaker 1: they make more money, they make higher profits that can
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  Speaker 1: be proved by studies. Uh. And that because they're including
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  Speaker 1: people and they're passionately giving them some passion to go forward,
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  Speaker 1: rather than making them stand outside a team. So I
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  Speaker 1: think that is beginning to change. I am aside be concerned.
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  Speaker 1: I have to say with many young people who come
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  Speaker 1: into corporate life while they've been openly gay at university,
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  Speaker 1: they go straight back into the closset when they come
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  Speaker 1: into business because they feel that it's an item which
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  Speaker 1: might get into the way of getting the way of
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  Speaker 1: their advancement. Lord Brown, you were chief executive a BP
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  Speaker 1: from to two thousand seven. You have advised five prime
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  Speaker 1: ministers and built a reputation as a leader um in
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  Speaker 1: doing in doing all those things and then writing this book,
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  Speaker 1: Have there been any reaction from people who you thought
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  Speaker 1: were friends who became even better friends to you, or
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  Speaker 1: people that then reacted in a way that you thought
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  Speaker 1: you were surprised by. The curious thing I think to
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  Speaker 1: me was when I came out, I actually thought that
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  Speaker 1: I'd lose most of my friends, I'd got lose respect
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  Speaker 1: in business, people would cross the street to avoid me,
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  Speaker 1: and actually the reverse happened. I had a vast amount
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  Speaker 1: of support, and over the period from two thousand and seven,
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  Speaker 1: I've been making new and different friends, people who want
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  Speaker 1: a debate not only issues to do with LGBT inclusion,
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  Speaker 1: but also their impact on human rights and the rights
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  Speaker 1: of people to be themselves in societies which are very complex,
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  Speaker 1: not only the US and Canada and the Europe and
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  Speaker 1: the UK, but also around the world. And so it's
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  Speaker 1: it's something quite different has happened, and I think they
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  Speaker 1: will do respect people being themselves. Thank you very much
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  Speaker 1: for being yourself with us. Lord John Brown, executive chairman
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  Speaker 1: of l One Energy, form A, chief executive of BP,
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  Speaker 1: the author of The Glass Closet. While coming out is
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  Speaker 1: good for business, you're listening to taking stark, I'm pim
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  Speaker 1: Fox My co host Kathleen Hayes, and This is Bloomberg
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