Q: Who is, or was, your mentor?
A: I don’t actually have or believe in mentors per se. I think it’s more influences as you go through your career. One was when I worked at British Gas. I was very junior and [the immediate boss] was still junior relative to the hierarchy. He was chief management accountant; he was much more an entrepreneur, get-it-done, hands-on, don’t-sit-in-theoffice-go-to-the-site sort of chap. He did a couple of good things for me. If you like, he shaped me to think a lot more non-government type, the more hands-on approach.
Q: Which businessman or woman do you most admire?
A: I am not a great admirer of people. If you press me, the answer I’d give is Martin Sorrell [the WPP chief executive]. I hesitate a bit, because clearly it looks contrived, that I am slapping him on the back. Absolutely not. You have take your hat off to a guy who built that thing from nothing. The knowledge, the interaction, the passion, the commitment, the deal-making, everything in [Martin] is what I like, what I aspire to, and what I try to do myself.
Q: Do you read books on management? If so, which has influenced you the most?
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A: The last business book I read was in September 1980, when I was four weeks off finishing the MBA course at Cranfield. I had to do it in order to pass the exam. I can’t even remember what it was; something about organisational behaviour or business methods.
Q: What is the most important business event, good or bad, to occur in your working life?
A: One experience that changed my life was at Crosfield Electronics. There was something in that business; it was very embryonic, very entrepreneurial, commercial type of people who I still mix with today. I still very much see myself — it’s ironic — as a boy of that company, even though today they look at me and say: “We knew you’d do well.”
Q: Which is more important: what you know, or who you know, and why?
A: In the early days it’s what you know, because it’s only what you know that can propel you. Then it becomes who you know. When you get to command, it’s a level of responsibility with which one has to move quite quickly to who you know, not just internally but externally as well.
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Q: What does leadership mean to you?
A: Let’s put it this way: I like to lead rather than be led. I am not a person who probably does too well, so to speak, in taking orders. I am the one who leads. I strived early on, whatever job I’ve been in, to get myself out in front to the best of my ability or capability, even if it’s pushing the boundaries of responsibility or authority.
Q: If you could change one thing about the business, financial and commercial environment, what would it be?
A: Let’s be clear, we need governance. That’s not saying we didn’t have governance before [and] I believe it’s become an onerous burden, which has a detrimental effect to board performance. The best boards are the ones who can see that and recognise that and manage the burden of constantly tickboxing and checking over their shoulder, and that’s a difficult call for a lot of boards, especially, in my personal judgment, for the members who have been absent from full-time employment for some years. I think it’s very difficult because you are reliant on reading textbooks, reading the papers, going on courses, which I think as a snapshot might help but can often portray the wrong picture.
Q: Does money motivate you?
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A: I didn’t come into this for charity. I started work a) to make a living and b) to make enough to stop. The irony is, having got to the second objective, I haven’t stopped but kept going like, I am sure, many people in my position. But do I need it? Do I depend on it? No. Now I am doing it for passion, professionalism, the right job.
Q: What gadget/piece of technology can you not do without?
A: The mobile phone and the aeroplane. I am not one of those people who has it [the phone] glued to his ear, but for me the other thing is the aeroplane because it’s forever enabling the business of communication and interaction.
Q: How do you relax?
A: In order of necessity it would be the gym, golf, skiing and flying. In order of passion it’s the other way round.