British Council chairman Sir Vernon Ellis highlights the value of cultural connections

Sir Vernon Ellis explains how the council's relationships are carefully nurtured and marvels at Abu Dhabi's rapid development.

Sir Vernon Ellis, chairman of The British Council, in a interview at Hilton hotel, Abu Dhabi. Ravindranath K / The National

Britain’s success in the world has always been pursued by a mixture of “soft” and “hard” power: the hard commercial and (sometimes) military expansionism of the UK, for example, coupled with the pervasive influence of British culture in literary, musical and artistic areas.

The British Council is part of the panoply of “soft power” the UK uses in international relations and in its cultural, educational and social links with the rest of the world. Sir Vernon Ellis, the council’s chairman, fits that bill perfectly: urbane and intellectual, with long-standing interests in music and the arts, yet with a career at the sharp end of international management consultancy under his belt.

On a recent visit to the UAE, he took time out to explain the interconnection between business and culture, and to highlight how the council is using culture to further British business interests in the GCC region and elsewhere in the world.

“I was first in Abu Dhabi in 1981, when I was helping the Arab Monetary Fund, and my goodness it’s changed since then. The physical appearance, the growth of educational institutions, the sheer wealth of investment in somewhere like Saadiyat Island. The change has been extraordinary, how in such a short time a largely traditional society has been transformed into a modern state,” he said.

He had just finished addressing a breakfast meeting of the Abu Dhabi branch of the British Business Group, of which the central theme was the connection between cultural activity (in its broadest sense) and commercial life. “Culture means business” was the message that came from the gathering.

It was backed up by the findings of a survey conducted for the council by the research agencies Ipsos Mori and YouGov, which gave a solid statistical grounding to the British projection of “soft” cultural power in support of “hard” commercial ambitions.

Conducted in 10 countries, including Saudi Arabia, the survey found that the interest in opportunities to do business with people and organisations from the UK was significantly higher among those who had some cultural connection with Britain, either through education, tourism or sporting links.

“It boils down to trust. To do business you need an element of basic trust and confidence between two parties. We asked the question: can you trust the British compared with other countries? We found that people who had some kind of cultural contact were much more likely to trust us,” said Sir Vernon.

The council is involved in the cultural life of the UAE capital in several ways. Its stock-in-trade is the organisation and provision of English language teaching to adults and children, and teacher training facilities. Business English figures high on the list of in-demand topics.

The council has also been involved in the Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation, the government body which aims to promote the capital’s cultural activities across the world, especially via the annual Abu Dhabi Festival. The council’s programme of “careers in creativity” looks to further develop the connections between the commercial and creative worlds.

“We want to develop the relationship between the subsidised and the commercial sectors, and hopefully change a cultural manager into a more commercially-aware manager,” says Sir Vernon.

The council has also facilitated liaison in the consultative arrangement between the British Museum and the Sheikh Zayed National Museum, planned to open on Saadiyat Island in 2016.

Sir Vernon emphasised the council’s commercial expertise, highlighting the fact that its government grant of £163 million (Dh1 billion) was only a small part of the £823m annual revenues achieved from English language training, examination partnerships and other contracts and ventures. “I’ve always been commercially aware, and so has the council,” he said.

Of course there are sensitivities that have to be negotiated, especially regarding education in the Muslim world. The council has been promoting the role of women in its language-training activities around the world, still the mainstay of its activities.

It has launched an initiative called Springboard to “provide personal development opportunities for some in the Middle East by facilitating the development of sustainable organisational links between the UK and the Middle East”. It also “challenges the public perception of the role and contribution of some to Middle East and UK societies”. The scheme is available in most GCC countries and in Yemen.

Sir Vernon defended the Council’s stance on women. “We have got to stand by the values that we have as Britain, but not let that stop us engaging with and respecting other cultures.” He said he was encouraged by the number of some from mainstream Emirati society who were engaged in education, and by the relative progress of the educational system of the UAE.

“Society here works effectively by marrying traditional ways, like the majlis system, with more modern concepts of participation, like the MP’s surgery. It may not be democracy as we know it in Britain, but it works,” he said.

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