Insights
We should all be trying to help other people and make the world a better place - Emma Bridgewater
The doyenne of British ceramics on deploying her social capital
When you’re running your own business, you don’t tend to think much about what it all means, says Emma Bridgewater. “At the time, it is very difficult to see your life in terms of a ‘pattern’,” she told guests at the latest Four Pillars of Capital dinner, held at our London offices. “But now, in my 60s, that is the conversation I have with myself. What have I done that’s of any use? What do I want my legacy to be?”
The Four Pillars event, held to enable guests to air their views around the learnings from our most recent Four Pillars research (Managing Risk in an Age of Upheaval, 2023), saw Emma focusing on social capital, the pillar perhaps closest to her heart.
As founder of Emma Bridgewater, she has always taken seriously her responsibilities as a manufacturer and employer in the town of Stoke-on-Trent, the heart of the UK’s pottery country.
When she first started the business, all the other producers in north Staffordshire were pulling the plug on their factories and outsourcing to Asia. “I looked at the dereliction in the city of Stoke, at the empty factories, and felt a yearning to turn the lights on and fill them with people and energy. Looking back, bringing the factory back to life became my purpose from day one,” she said.
Since then, rebuilding the community around the factory and keeping local crafts and skills alive has been central to the purpose of the business. It is an ethos – giving back – that occupies Emma’s mind today.
“The real thing we should all be trying to do is help each other, making sure all the great things we’ve achieved are set to help other people. Because if we’ve been so persistent and – let’s face it – lucky, personally, I think it behoves us to work out intelligent ways of making the world a better place.”
Having set up a tiny business in 1985, Emma Bridgewater now employs around 500 people. Over the years, the pottery has produced several editions in support of various charities.
We are proud to say that Emma is one of our inaugural cohort of SFXV, a celebration of 15 extraordinary women and their achievements.