The gathering economic gloom should not obscure a fundamental truth of our time: the market remains the most successful engine of wealth creation known to humankind. This will come as no surprise to Financial Times readers. But when times get hard, business can quickly find itself under siege. Edward Heath’s “unacceptable face of capitalism”, the lampooning of 1980s “greed is good” and last year’s media assault on the private equity barons all show it is not difficult to find symbols with which to attack the market.

For those of us who worry about equality, it would be all too easy to join in. Business still has plenty to do to instill fairness in the way it works. There is still a pay gap between women and men, there are still too few people from ethnic minorities in the higher echelons, disabled people are still too likely to be outside the world of work and we have yet to work out how best to use the skills of older workers. But the Equality and Human Rights Commission will not be joining the hunting party to seek capitalism’s demise.

In a statement on our ambitions, published on Monday as “Fairness, A New Contract with the Public”, we recognise that the days of regarding business as a tolerated enemy are over. The call last week by Nicola Brewer, our chief executive, for a realistic assessment of the effect of employment laws that grant greater flexibility to mothers, is only the start of our programme to recalibrate thinking on equality.

Equality and enterprise go hand-in-hand. Without enterprise there would be no opportunity for the disadvantaged to improve their standing. But without fairness, business would never benefit from the talents of many who do not fit the standard template. By 2010, just one-quarter of the UK’s full-time workforce will be white able-bodied men aged under 45. Some 80 per cent of jobs created in the past decade were filled by women. Between 2005 and 2009, half of the growth in the working-age population will have come from ethnic minority groups.

This is why smart businesses are recognising that managing diversity is central to future success. Alex Gourlay, managing director of Boots The Chemists, part of Alliance Boots, last week called for tax breaks for companies that increase their diversity. BAA – not exactly the world’s favourite airport operator after the Terminal 5 debacle – is training workless people locally in order to improve its service delivery.

Success in handling diversity will not depend on business alone – it is also the job of the education and training sector. But a modern equality regulator in tune with the needs of wealth creation can make a difference. The Equality and Human Rights Commission intends to be just that. We believe we can help business in several ways.

First, we know that unless business can find people to do the work, it is forced to fall back on expensive imported labour. Our powers over the public sector enable us to bring pressure to drive up standards of education and skills. Working with Ofsted, the schools inspectorate, we intend to ensure nobody is excluded from the labour market for reasons of gender, race, disability or age.

Second, we want to ensure that businesses understand how to hold on to their best people. I have seen chief executives of the old school swallow hard and march into receptions for minority graduates in the hope of snaring the brilliant young Asian trainees ahead of their rivals. The commission intends to expand its own networks to allow businesses to share ideas on how best to reach the top talent.

Third, we will look for ways of rewarding success. We will publish data showing which companies are doing well and will aim, through awards and perhaps the Kitemark-type scheme proposed by the government, to identify organisations that are ahead of the pack. We will help to introduce rules that will ensure companies that take equality seriously gain a bigger slice of Britain’s £160bn annual public procurement budget.

Fourth, we will make sure the law is simpler and clearer, by promoting a modern Equality Act that tells people what they can and cannot do on for, example, positive action. We will not rely on quotas and vast bundles of guidance and we resent paying lawyers to clog up the courts. But we will enable companies to move faster where it is in the public or consumer interest. We want to work with the tools of the market – accountability, transparency and competition – and we want change to come about through normal business methods: pressure from consumers and shareholders.

The writer chairs the Equality and Human Rights Commission