When we decided to embark on the groundbreaking research project, The Colour of Power, we expected our findings to be bleak, yet an uncomfortable truth can, in time, become a great potential asset.

With ever-increasing economic uncertainty, Britain’s business sectors are in chaos and are seriously in need of the best talent for the top jobs. However, the talent pool is not being studied deeply enough and tends to only pick out the already dominant, favoured group of white males, whose advantages are protected by “Identity politics”.

The purpose of The Colour of Power is not to knock brilliant white men, but to demonstrate that the talent pool could be even bigger if we just opened the pathways to the top jobs to all those who exhibit valuable talent. A change in the ethos of society and those placed in the top jobs in the country increase the rate of Britain’s success, but do we have the will?

The Colour of Power is a visual index of the UK’s top jobs compiled by OBV and Green Park, that finds out of the 1,049 individuals in positions of power in the UK just 36 are BME, or 3.4% of the total.

Written by Simon Woolley, director and one of the founders of Operation Black Vote, this article was published by The Guardian on Monday 25th September 2017. To read the full Guardian article, click here.

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