HRH The Prince of Wales initially started an initiative with Business in the Community to help regenerate Halifax - a mill town that in the 1980s had seen a desperate decline in jobs and opportunities. The Prince knew it was vital to involve the private sector but soon found this was only possible if business leaders were persuaded to come to Halifax and see for themselves what the issues were and what needed to be done.

In 1990, as a result of this experience, The Prince started the Seeing is Believing programme, inviting business leaders to leave their desks and to join visits to different parts of the country where they could spend some time in inner city schools, homeless hostels, prisons, or tough housing estates. This gave them the opportunity to see first-hand the challenges faced by their future customers, potential employees and close neighbours. More recently, the programme has taken business leaders into rural communities where deprivation can be just as real as in urban areas, but hidden by the beauty of the scenery.

Fifteen years later, more than 4,000 business leaders have participated in more than 400 visits. Each participant has been asked to write a detailed report on what they have found, and consider what their business can do to tackle some of the most pressing social issues. The results are many and varied, but about 70% report that they changed the way they do business as a result of their Seeing is Believing visit.

The Prince's Seeing is Believing has helped business leaders recognise that quite small actions - like committing to recruit locally, offering work placements or bringing business expertise to local community entrepreneurs - can not only result in extraordinary change for communities but also better businesses, showing that, at its heart, this is about responsible leadership in responsible business.