New Year's Honour for Federation Chairman

We all congratulate Marie on being awarded the MBE in the New Year Honours List. The citation says "for Services to Personal Finance" and one has only to look at the potted biography published with the papers for our Conference last September to realise that it is richly deserved. As well as being our Chairman she is Chairman of the Money Management Council (the Money Education Charity) and deputy Chairman of the Insurance Ombudsman Council. She is also a member of the Consumer Education Forum of the Financial Services Authority. She has written many hooks about consumer affairs, business ethics, personal finance and communication and was responsible for an innovative and popular television series on personal finance. 

"Welcome to the New Consumer Century"

Says NfCG Chairman, Marie Jennings MBE

We are all glad that the new consumer century has at last arrived. Across many countries consumers are now recognised as the potent force they have always been, but this recognition brings with it responsibilities as well. Any examination of the records of complaints systems will provide evidence of new informed consumers who are now more articulate and knowledgeable about their rights than their predecessors. This is good and healthy and can provide a benefit to business and industry if it is viewed positively.

Consumer activism is seen to have gained "formidable respectability" in Britain. But this contains within it the seeds of problems for the future if the many issues taken up by the consumer activists, from GM foods to personal finance, to name just two, are not sensitively and imaginatively handled by both the consumer movement and by industry.

Sometimes important facts remain invisible. Here is one:

Knowledge - by itself - is useless. A company demonstrating that it is a lot smarter than its customers is doomed to failure. If customers don’t understand, they won’t buy. And customers recognise only too well when they are being patronised.

We are constantly being exhorted to join the knowledge economy. What we need now is recognition that the knowledge economy must evolve into one where knowledge is harnessed to genuine understanding of the needs and benefits to both parties. Good business flourishes where there is visible and demonstrable benefit to both sides. Excellent communication must be in place before this can be achieved, also recognition of the interdependence of the new global consumer society in which we are all living.

Dialogue among equals, between businesses and their consumers, is the name of the game for NfCG in the new Consumer Century. Consumers and businesses need mechanisms to work more closely together, to understand each other better. There are many models of note in the last days of the 20th Century which are worth studying. The one which springs to mind immediately is the recent Northern Ireland issue, where dialogue provided the lubricant for much progress towards the growing hopes for the much sought-after peace process.

Hot Issues

NfCG recognises that consumers need business just as business needs consumers. Over the past year, through our ‘Hot Issues’ group, we have demonstrated that the process of sharing concerns can work while respecting each other’s opinions. NfCG recognises also that consumer organisations have a responsibility to assist industry in identifying the essential elements in achieving "good corporate citizenship". I believe that we are the only consumer organisation to identify the importance of this issue and the priority which should be given to it. We trust that others will join us.

NfCG also recognises that the "Big Issues" need to be tackled by government, business and industry, and the consumer organisations, all working in harmony.

NfCG is a small organisation with limited resources. This has not prevented us in the past and will not prevent us in the future from having big ideas and from striving to make progress. Our position is unique:

• We have a proud record of nearly four decades of service to the public interest.
• We are in the towns, the villages and the cities, contributing to the local and regional as well as the national current issues of concern.
• Our views are respected by government, business, and other consumer organisations.
• We have key networks, both in this country and overseas

But, above all, we have a gold mine of committed, concerned, influential and informed consumers, prepared to contribute to the public interest and with experience and knowledge to bring to their particular areas of involvement.

"NGOS" Recognised

In an age where the role of non-governmental organisations is, at last, being given the recognition it deserves, and where the contributions of the voluntary organisations in the UK are gaining more visibility, NfCG underlines its unique contribution as Britain’s only independent grassroots consumer watchdog. I am confident that, at the end of the century, NfCG’s past work and its present and future contributions will have proved a positive benefit to those involved in building the dialogue of equals, essential for the survival of a generous, caring, democratic society.

NfCG has always been ahead of its time. The going may be hard but I believe that we have got our priority right. There is no point in being second! Watch this space as NfCG’s ambitious plans for this, the first Consumer Century of the New Millennium, come to fruition.

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