COMMENT Recently, a young, black man, Cephas Williams, left one of our brand partners’ stores and was stopped. He was then physically restrained by the store’s security team and prevented from leaving having been accused of theft. He was innocent.
This should never have happened. But from speaking with our teams internally, I know that incidents such as this happen far too often today. This was echoed by the social media response that followed.
Cephas is a successful entrepreneur, campaigner and public speaker with a strong social media platform. We’ve since met to discuss this incident and also his wider experiences. In some ways, it was fortunate that this happened to him, and not someone else. He has the power and the ability to make his voice heard. Not everyone is in this position.
Let me be clear, everyone should be able to visit one of our retail spaces and feel welcome, safe and respected – it is our responsibility as the landlord and operator to ensure that happens. Every single landlord in the business of inviting people into their spaces – be that retail or offices – will say this. In fact, we say it so often as an industry it has become a little trite. But it is important.
You’re probably wondering why I’m talking about this openly. But learning from when things go wrong is vital for any business. It is vital for each of us. That is exactly why I felt it was important to meet with Cephas.
This incident has caused me and my team to pause for thought. As a business we place great importance on inclusivity, enabling our people to bring their true, authentic self to work each day. These are not hollow words.
In 2020, we introduced our new purpose of creating sustainable places, connecting communities and realising potential. What this incident has demonstrated is that we need to do more to connect our purpose with how people experience our places. It needs to inform every aspect of our business and the decisions that we make. And it must extend not only to our people but our entire supply chain.
From our third-party service partners to our brand partners, we are all responsible for ensuring that our spaces are safe, welcoming and inclusive. We must work together so thaat the different pieces of our ecosystem work together – with no one part undermining the other.
For anyone familiar with the running of shopping centres, you will know that this is no easy task. It will take focus and collaboration. But if we want our purpose to drive forward our business, if we want to remain relevant and present in the lives of our guests and partners then we simply don’t have a choice. And it’s something my team and I will be focusing on over the coming months.
Purpose is not a tagline or a slogan. It is the why and the how – and particularly in this case, our purpose is both why and how we will do better. We also hope that it is the thing that invites our partners to work even more closely with us – because the ambition underpinning our purpose can’t be delivered by us alone.
Mark Allan is chief executive of Landsec
Take part in EG’s Race Diversity Survey 2021 to help us help us support change in the sector and to use our voice to call out unacceptable behaviours. The short and anonymous survey can be accessed here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/EGracesurvey2021
