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CHARLES DANCE OBE [ profile of the classical actor and gent ] 13TH DUKE OF ARGYLL [ we speak to the Duke on his love of polo ] PATRICK MOURATOGLOU [ we speak to Serena William’s former tennis coach ] BARONESS SCOTLAND [ interview with Secretary of The Commonwealth ] KELLY HOPPEN [ interview with the business owner and interior designer ] LORD MARLAND [ Britain’s future is in the Commonwealth ] VARTKESS KNADIJAN [ the CEO of watch manufacturer Backes & Strauss ]

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Editor In Chief and Publisher Vincent Abrams vincent@imagazineuk.com Designers Merlin Publishing - Julia Sabiniarz Deputy Editor D.L Osborne Business Editorial Advisors Lord Marland of Odstock Lord Beecham Lord Glentoran CBE Baroness Prashar CBE Lord Popat Baroness Thornton Baroness Greengross Lady Massey of Darwen Lord Soley Lord Watson of Richmond CBE Political Editorial Advisors Lord Jones of Cheltenham Baroness Perry Baron Grenfell of Kilvey Lord Chidgey Lord Haselhurst PC Lord Willoughby de Broke Advertising Enquiries info@imagazineuk.com Contributing Cultural Editor Henry Hopwood Philips Japan / Asia Editor Michiko Asanuma Public Relations Alana Charlotte Panton

The Editor’s Letter Welcome to the January 2023 issue of I-MAGAZINE, the cover star is Baroness Ariane de Rothschild, the most powerful female banker in the world, she discusses how she balances being married into one of the most well known banking families and how she balances work with the raising of her young family.

I-MAGAZINE Editorial Board Member, Lord Haselhurst writes on transitioning from the House of Commons to the House of Lords, he was former Deputy Speaker. Nick English, Co-Founder of Bremont writes on ‘The Story of Bremont’, a classical watch brand. Rachel Reeves MP writes on Women of Westminster, a short history on the presence of women in the House of Commons, and about how Westminster was quite a masculine and unhealthy place, historically, Vernon Bogdanor discusses brexit and the referendum.

Rabbi Marc Schneier talks about Israel and The Gulf, bringing the two sides together in terms of diplomatic relations, as well as strengthening the relationship between Judaism and Islam, and Muslims and Jews. Marine Tanguy, CEO of MTArt Agency talks to us about The Future of Galleries and Art, galleries are typically peaceful, all in all, perfect places to gaze at art in silence for hours and not rush about, because you get the bigger picture at

Printing by Warner Midlands warners.co.uk

first glance but there’s so much about the details. Alex Reedijk, General

Distributed by Seymour

the Modern Textile Industry, the future of the industry and the use of textiles in

Contributors Erol Tabanca, Charlie Betts, Yossi Eliyahoo, George Bamford, Jahid Fazal Karim, Jonathan & Alitza Ashmore, Giovanni Dolci, Tej Kholi, Carole Hubscher, Touker Suleyman, Rita Trehan, Jeremy Griffith, Nicklaus - Thomas Symonds MP, Rachel Reeves MP, Orlando Rock, Christopher Hill, Ben Derbyshire.

I-MAGAZINE 10 Bloomsbury Way Holborn London WC1A 2SL Tel: + 44 (0) 207 756 3684 Fax: + 44 (0) 207 298 2132

Director of the world class Scottish Opera speaks on making opera accessible to everyone in Scotland. Tim Brownstone, CEO of Kymira, writes on sport and fashion. Alan Weiss talks about, Consciousness and The Application of Control, of course, consciousness comes before control, here, and also, risk and motivation, when applied wrongly. Interviewed is Jahid Fazal Karim, Chairman of the Board at Jetcraft, he talks on current trends in the private aviation industry, also, we speak with Jonathan and Alitza Ashmore, founders of ANARCHITECT about setting up offices in Kings Cross, having being f ounded in the Middle East ten years go. Also, we speak to Alex Beard, CEO of The Royal Opera House, in Covent Garden.

Your feedback is always appreciated so do feel free to email me via the email address below and let me know what you think.

I-MAGAZINE is published by Merlin Publishing a Merlin Lott Group Company All reasonable e orts have been made to ensure accuracy of information at the time of going to press. The editor, publishers and Merlin Publishing can take no responsibility for inaccuracies due to changes a er that date. Nor can the publisher, editor of Merlin Publishing publications or contributors accept responsibility for loss occasione to any person acting or refraining from action as a result of any material in this publication.

The publica on of opinions, whether implied, solicited or unsolicited, does not imply endorsement by the publishers, employee, agents or any other individual associated with the publica on in any way, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be stored in a retrieval system, resold, lent hired out or otherwise reproduced or transmited in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of Merlin Publishing. Merlin Publishing, words and Merlin Publishing logo is a registered trademark and; copyright work is owned by Merlin Publishing Limited

Vincent Abrams Editor In Chief vincent@imagazineuk.com

23 - CREDITS PAGE - includes the letter from the Editor in Chief Vincent Abrams 174 - GRAND HOTEL STOCKHOLM SPECIAL - an in depth look at one of the most beautiful hotels in Sweden, featuring Managing Director Pia Djupmark.

POLITICS LORD SUMPTION - interview with the british judge, author and historian, interviewed by Henry Hopwood Phillips.

BARONESS GREENGROSS - writes on the impact of longevity and technology on employment.

LORD HYLTON - House of Lords peer Lord Hylton writes on the relationship and conflct between Syria and Turkey taking into account history and how the conflict is based on past occurences as well as its impact on women and the region.

BARONESS PERRY - writes on the role of government in education, academic research and the role that universities play in government in general.

BUSINESS PAUL CHAVASSE - Head of Investment Management and member of the Executive Commitee at Rathbones writes on generational wealth management.

JAN MUHFEIT - global stategist and former Chairman of Microsoft Europe write on ‘being a positive leader, fuelling success and happiness in a world of disruptive change.

GINA MILLER - says don’t put all of your eggs in one basket, diversify or die, she gives investment advice for those seeking diverse returns.

ALVIN HALL - writes on the keys to nancial freedom in retirement, making sure were looking after ourselves and our families as we approach retirement.

DIANA CHAMBERS - writes on philanthropy and how it is available to us all.

WINSTON MA - ‘silicon valley talking’, looking at China’s rise and balance, especially in terms of its innovation and eco-system.

LIFESTYLE LORD ARCHER - the House of Lords peer and succesful author writes on balancing his roles in both the house and as a s uccessful author.

RICHARD PATERSON - Master Whisky Distiller at The Dalmore is interviewed on his career to date producing one of the world’s nest tasting notes.

FAWAZ GRUOSI - President, owner and founder of de Grisogono, we interview him on his return back to his paternal country in many years.

IAN DEJARDIN - we interview art historian and current Director of the Dulwich Picture Gallery in Dulwich, southeast London.

CULTURE DAN HILLIER - interview artist Dan Hillier, about his show ‘Ceremony’, held last year at The Saatchi Gallery.

MICHAEL WHYTE - we interview the late great Director and Cinematographer on his career.

THANK YOU, BERNARD.

In the 1940s, if you were the pilot of a fighter plane and you got hit, you had two choices:

And it was he who became the very first person to complete a mid-flight ejection, on 24th July 1946.

Our latest model, the Bremont MBIII, is a beautifully-engineered mechanical chronometer.

1. Stay in your stricken plane and risk certain death.

Bernard went on to complete more than thirty ejections.

2. Jump from your stricken plane and risk certain death.

The Martin-Baker seat was an immediate (and very welcome) success.

It’s been certified as 99.998% accurate by no less an authority than the official Swiss Chronometer Testing Institute.

Not ideal, to say the least.

At the last count, the company’s ejection seats have saved more than 7,400 lives worldwide.

Surely, the experts argued, there had to be a way to get a pilot out of his aircraft and bring him safely back down to earth?

The British company Martin-Baker were among those seeking an answer.

One of the co-founders, Valentine Baker, had died trying to land a crippled plane in 1942, and his partner James Martin had committed himself to the cause of pilot safety.

Within a couple of years, a prototype ejection seat had been built, using small explosive charges to send the pilot clear of the aircraft, and a parachute to land him safely.

It seemed to work on paper. But would it work in the air?

Clearly, somebody needed to test the seat. But who?

Step forward Bernard Lynch, a fitter at Martin-Baker.

It was he who bravely climbed into the very first Martin-Baker ejection seat.

While GMT movement means you can keep time in two different time zones (disproving the old adage that you can’t be in two places at once).

And though the present day models are rather more sophisticated than the 1946 model, everybody who uses one owes a debt of thanks to Mr. Lynch.

And it features a bronzed aluminium barrel, inspired by the anti-reflective coating found on cockpit canopies.

When we at Bremont came to design our pilot’s watch, the first thing we did was enlist the help of Martin-Baker.

The Bremont MBIII is a tribute to both the craftsmanship of our home-grown watchmakers, and the engineering ingenuity of the Martin-Baker company.

A true pilot’s watch, we reasoned, should be able to withstand everything the pilot does. Including ejection.

Martin-Baker obliged by strapping our watch to the vinyl wrist of a crash test dummy, then shooting it out of the cockpit. Subjecting it to forces of up to 30G in the process.

Next, dummy and watch underwent a vibration test simulating 30 years in a helicopter. (More than most helicopter pilots ever experience.)

And if all this suggests a watch that has been built for endurance at the expense of performance, nothing could be further from the truth.

But it also owes something to one brave man, who strapped himself into his ejection seat on that July day, nearly 70 years ago.

So. Thank you, Bernard.

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Paul Feeney, CEO Quilter Mental Health A Look at Mental Health In The Workplace

I believe mental health is the last great taboo in business and breaking it is central to creating a more prosperous and resilient society. If we fail then people will continue to suffer in silence.

They will continue to fall back on the ever present self-destructive ‘coping devices’ of alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling and eating disorders, the constant siren calls of all high pressure environments. The City is no exception.

In many business sectors and particularly in my own – within the City – employees still fear that if they talk about their mental health then their boss will think they lack ambition. Some may even fear losing their job. The stigma around mental health in big business is symptomatic of a macho culture where ignorance and bias still exist and that’s got to change.

I’ve had my own mental health issues in life, which stem from my childhood and it took me two decades to seek help. I struggled with PTSD, flashbacks and anxiety for two decades before the pain of continuing in silence became greater than my fear of reprisal. At times I struggle still, but no longer do I feel isolated in that struggle, I can talk about it and I want everyone in my firm to know that they can do so too.

Destigmatising mental health requires cultural change in business. That can be challenging in industries like financial services that are characteristically high performance, target-driven places.

I often joke that business leaders in the square mile won’t improve the well-being of their people until they see it measured on a chart, but there’s probably some truth in that.

But connecting wellbeing with business performance might in fact be a good catalyst for change. There is data that suggests measurable improvements in staff wellbeing do indeed translate into better business performance.

Research from Accenture of 2,170 working adults across the UK revealed that twothirds have personally experienced

mental health challenges. It showed that when employees are unable to talk about mental health issues at work, it reduces productivity by 27 percent. But when employees feel the environment allows them to talk openly about mental health, productivity increases by 19 percent.

That’s a 46 percent productivity upside.

Work-related mental health issues are often related to a stressful ‘lights always on’ culture, a bi-product of a success-at-all-costs philosophy. But a culture of cut-throat competitiveness that views burnout as a benchmark of dedication is unsustainable, unacceptable and quite frankly pathetic.

A workplace culture that pressures employees to hide mental health issues is toxic and has the potential to do enormous damage not just to those employees but to the business itself.

I have always worked in teams full of highly intelligent people. While they are driven and competitive, the very best performing teams I’ve ever worked in have also been open and supportive.

Sadly this is not universally the case.

Research in 2018 from the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment, the professional body for those working in wealth management and capital markets, revealed only 46 percent of financial services staff would be confident talking to managers about mental ill health. Of the 3,686 respondents, 23 percent said they were unsure and 31 percent said they were not confident talking to their managers if they felt they were suffering from stress, anxiety or depression.

I believe this boils down to a fear of showing vulnerability. And in the alpha culture of big business, vulnerability is often mistaken for weakness. Regrettably, I think the same is often true when it comes to stigma around physical disability or admitting to feeling bullied or harassed at work.

For our businesses to flourish we have to let our people know that it is okay to not be okay, and that admitting you need support won’t be held against you. Business leaders talking about mental health in the workplace wasn’t

just unimaginable when I started out in the City over 30 years ago, it was barely possible a few years ago.

Fortunately, we are starting to see the changes in attitudes as campaigners have begun discussing mental health issues in a curative and non-stigmatising way.

Events such as World Mental Health Day and Mental Health Awareness Week, organised

by Mental Health Foundation, play a significant role in a world that is opening up to mental health issues.

Within business and financial services specifically, credit should go to the wider efforts being made to tackle the problem, including the Lord Mayor’s ‘This is Me’ campaign and the Time to Change Pledge, which urge firms to change how they think about mental health and better support staff. But despite this, mental health at work is only just starting to be recognised for the silent scourge that it is.

To tackle this at Quilter, I have shared my own story openly with all 4,500 of our employees via video because I want them to know they work in a place where it is okay not to be okay – and it is also ok to talk about it.

This is not philanthropic, it’s hard business.

A healthy workforce equals a wealthy company.

Thrive At Quilter we have an initiative called ‘Thrive’ and its purpose is literally to create the environment where our people can thrive. It’s a holistic approach to enhancing four key aspects of mental health and well-being: physical; financial; social and emotional wellbeing.

There are a number of activities under each of these aspects to help support the wellbeing of employees including everything from mental health first aiders to the Quilter Choir, regular yoga sessions to wellbeing meetings and maps offering timed walking routes at lunchtime. The emotional aspect includes access to an Employee Assistance Programme, which

provides a range of services including confidential telephone support 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We have apps to help employees maintain work-life balance, including advice on mental wellbeing, lifestyle, family support and money issues.

There are services such as financial and legal telephone advice from an independent consultant and guidance on a range of every day issues like tax and debt.

We have trained employees right across the business and established a network of over 120 volunteer ambassadors across our various locations to help drive the initiative.

Each Thrive Ambassador received training facilitated by professional wellbeing consultants, designed to give them the tools necessary to have open and supportive conversations with their colleagues about well-being.

More recently we have been further developing the financial wellbeing element of the Thrive initiative by creating a toolkit of support and help for employees to combat financial stress.

There is a growing body of evidence that there’s a correlation between poor financial wellbeing and mental health issues.

But this is where the taboo comes back into focus, as typically we don’t tend to talk openly about money, and particularly when it’s affecting our mental health.

Instead, when faced with problems like problem debt or other financial worries, we tend to try to deal with it alone rather than seeking help and advice, and I think employers will increasingly have a role to play to help people, here.

Money and Mental Health The link between money and mental health is clear. Figures from the Money and Mental Policy Institute show that nearly half (46 percent) of people in problem debt also have a mental health problem and 86 percent said that their financial situation had made their mental health problems worse.

Progressive organisations need to take steps to address the financial wellbeing of their employees and the provision of money guidance and debt advice should become a standard feature of workplace support.

But the issue of money and mental health needs to reach beyond the responsibility of the City and employers. More needs to be done to raise awareness of financial wellbeing as a vital social concern.

It’s really important for people to seek advice and guidance to avoid a vicious circle of money worries causing mental health issues, and in turn those mental health issues exacerbating the financial issues.

And research shows this is not exclusive to people on low incomes or those struggling with problem debt, it can affect people

anywhere on the income spectrum This is often where financial advice and guidance comes in. Our research shows that those with a financial plan in place felt significantly more positive. Around 64 per cent of those with a plan felt positive about their financial security, compared to just 23 per cent of those without a plan.

Financial Resilience The relationship between money and mental health makes it even more important to improve the UK’s financial capability and resilience. Financial capability is a key driver of people’s financial wellbeing – that is the ability to meet all current commitments, without undue stress, and the resilience to cope with future income or expenditure shocks. It is a combination of behaviours, knowledge, skills and attitudes, which are often set at a young age.

Around half of young people (those aged 12 to 17 years old) and worse still, half of parents are not confident in their money management skills, according to the Money Advice Service.

That lack of confidence is playing a huge part in the nation’s financial resilience, or lack of it.

With this in mind we need to proactively teach the upcoming generations the life skills they need to manage their money well throughout their lifetime.

With the financial crisis still burning in people’s minds, inflation eroding people’s money, and housing costs at stratospheric levels, financial skills, confidence and behaviors to support general wellbeing are more important than ever.

And this is where the common phrase “knowledge is power” comes into play. It seems self-evident that education should be the solution to the unsustainable financial path we find ourselves on. We need to teach our children, the next generation of consumers, about good money habits.

In fact we – as parents, teachers, policymakers, economists, financial professionals – should be demanding loudly better financial education for children.

That’s why we’ve recently written to the Prime Minister, along with 20 other investment firms, calling on him to support compulsory primary financial education.

Last year the government stated that the revised maths curriculum for primary schools will provide children with financial education. Unfortunately, being proficient in maths doesn’t give you a fast track to financial wellbeing.

Maths alone doesn’t help cultivate healthy money habits and behaviors such as budgeting, savings and avoiding high cost credit.

Study after study has revealed disturbing statistics of the nation’s lack of financial capability. These should act as a very serious wakeup call and reveal just how financially vulnerable the average UK family is.

The FCA’s recent reports on the financial lives of UK adults revealed 4.1 million adults are in ‘difficulty’ because they missed bill payments or credit commitments with 3.1 million adults facing high cost loans. These difficulties start from a young age. In fact, a separate report from the OECD has found that an astonishing 96 percent of teenagers worry about money every day.

Leading Change I believe that we urgently need to create more financially engaged and resilient societies and workforces. The issues of money, mental health and wellbeing are heavily interwoven and increasingly, responsibility will rest with employers to lead the change.

This may mean embracing new measures, alongside financial performance, focused upon quality of life or wellbeing. It certainly means focusing greater resources on prevention and less on cure.

Much rests on embracing open and tolerant cultures and it is the job of leaders to make this happen by being the example of change that they want to see.

We all spend so much time in corporate life striving for what we can be. It’s time to strive for who we can be. Ultimately, it’s a choice that will define us all.

Paul Feeney is CEO of Quilter, an experienced, entrepreneurial leader, having held various senior business roles in large international financial services businesses, including as CEO of NatWest Private Bank, and NatWest Investments USA, Group Managing Director and Head of Distribution for Gartmore Investment Management, and Global Head of Distribution at BNY Mellon Asset Management International. During his career, Paul has developed a deep understanding of the challenges, risks and opportunities faced by the industry, thereby enabling him to create and develop the vision and strategy of the Group. Paul’s strong commercial acumen and dynamic leadership style allow him to effectively oversee the execution of our strategy.

Other appointments: Paul is a member of the FCA Practitioner Panel and was a Non-executive Trustee of Sense International until February 2019.

Quilter is a leading provider of advice, investments and wealth management both in the UK and internationally. Crucially we give customers and financial advisers choice and flexibility in how they choose to access our solutions and services. Managing £95.3 billion of investments on behalf of over 900,000 customers (as at 31 March 2020), we operate in one of the largest wealth markets in the world – and one that is growing.

Most importantly we are a business that puts good customer outcomes at its heart, helping to create prosperity for the generations of today and tomorrow. We continually strive to do this through quality face to face advice, through strong, long term investment management performance.

Lord Howell of Guildford PC President, Royal Commonwealth Society

Lord Howell was appointed minister of state at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in May 2010.

Here, he talks frankly about the benefits Britain receives from Commonwealth membership, the Rule of Law and Human Rights.

What benefits does Britain receive by being a member of the Commonwealth?

This is a big and very central ques on. What we get is renewed and invigorated links within a changing international landscape.

What do I mean by that? I mean that 60 percent of the world’s GNP now lies outside the OECD area. I mean that while we may remain good friends with the United States and good Europeans in the European Union, the wider world outside – what the Foreign Secretary calls “the beyond” – is becoming the great new area for our markets and our exports.

We have to have access to the gigantic emerging economies of Asia, Africa and Latin n America.

To get that access we need to use every conceivable linkage and network we can, and of course one of the wonderful readymade networks which we have to hand is the Commonwealth itself.

And what does Britain give to the Commonwealth?

We give a very sustainable aid programme.

We give foreign investment, although we also take foreign investment from the Commonwealth – it is a two-way process.

We give technical skills. We support the development of our core principles and values: building democracy and upholding human rights, upholding the rule of law and general social and economic and cultural development.

We give all that we can from our culture and language through the British Council, the World Service [and] the BBC. We have much to give, but it’s not all give, it’s take as well.

Some of the richest and fastest growing countries in the world are now members of the Commonwealth. Countries with vast sovereign funds are members of the Commonwealth – we’re going to need their funds, just as in the past they needed British funds.

With the Arab Spring, we’ve witnessed a flowering of democracy in North Africa.

Do you think the Commonwealth should be actively seeking to encourage the membership of countries like Tunisia and Egypt which could benefit from joining the association?

I think the Commonwealth should take a very sympathetic interest in those countries that say they want to join but it shouldn’t go out and solicit membership. It should say, “We are a group of countries with strong principles and a strong determination to uphold these principles.

If you are interested in joining, then we will certainly consider that matter sympathetically.”

The EPG has recommended the appointment of a Commissioner for Democracy, the Rule of Law and Human Rights. What is Britain’s position on this and do you think that it’s likely that there will be a Commissioner?

There are huge forces at work. In business, in civil society, in local government, amongst the youth of the Commonwealth – tens of millions of them – and amongst many other trans-Commonwealth organisations, [there is] a tremendous demand for reform and a stronger platform.

The message coming to all governments is let there be a stronger assertion of standards, a stronger pattern of advice and support for upholding democracy principles and the rule of law. Those standards are the ones that create the kind of trust and the kind of network of principles in which everything else is going to operate, including business.

It’s a bottom-up demand. Now the EPG understood that, made a thorough report and believed that these principles needed

strengthening. In this they were running parallel with the report from the Commonwealth Ministers Ac on Group (CMAG).

But the EPG went further and proposed some institutional changes – a Charter and a Commissioner for Democracy, Rule of Law and Human Rights. That has been debated, [but] exactly how this is going to be expressed I don’t know.

I do know that there’s universal acceptance that there needs to be a strengthening of the methods for maintaining standards in the Commonwealth.

That is agreed. In what way this is turned into institutional changes is yet to be agreed.

Commonwealth heads of government agreed to postpone the decision to appoint a Commission for Democracy, the Rule of Law and Human Rights pending a further evaluation of the role itself.

And Britain’s position on the Commissioner?

Our position is we think the further we can go on this the better. We like the EPG report and our ideal would be to get the institutional changes.

In Britain, we are not impatient and we see it’s necessary to go forward step by step.

If the recommendation for a Commissioner isn’t accepted would you support a strengthening of the Secretary General’s voice and a widening of CMAG’s mandate so that it can intervene to prevent countries violating Commonwealth values and principles?

I repeat my concept of a step-by-step advance. We think those are directionally the right moves, yes.

This doesn’t mean to say that we’ll be necessarily satisfied with it.

There are heads of government who are creating pressures for reform.

Baroness Helena Kennedy QC President, JUSTICE Brief Biography 1950: Born in Glasgow 1972: Called to the Bar 1988: Presented a programme called Hypotheticals for Granada - Television and co-wrote the award-winning TV drama Blind Justice 1989: Presented the BBC TV documentary Heart of the Matter 1991: Made QC 1997: Made a Labour peer and Bencher in the same year 1998: Appointed Chair of the British Council and Chair of the Human Genetics Commission 2008: Appointed Chair of the Justice’s council I was from a strong working class family, full of doughty women. My mother was a wonderful woman, who was very much her own person.

I am one of four girls but I was born after the war so was ‘special’. My two older sisters were nine and ten years older than me and were thrilled to have a new baby.

A boy had died before I was born so I was also a replacement son and my father had just come back from the war so I was really his first babe in arms. It meant I got a lot of loving and that gave me a strong sense of my own value.

My parents measured people by what they did and how they behaved and were never impressed with status or money.

They did want me to stay on at school and, I think, thought that it would be wonderful if I became a teacher. They did not know any women in any other professions.

However, there was no doubt that that they feared for me when I came to London to study law. It was so outside of what they knew. My teachers at school were

very encouraging and I think I was generally made to feel special. However, girls were not encouraged to think of doing anything other than teaching or nursing. And being a good Catholic mother was always held out as the highest achievement for a woman.

I feel embarrassed saying it but I liked being top of the class. My mother was the taskmaster. When I went home having got ‘nine out of ten’ she asked where the other one mark went. I think I spent my life wanting her to say, “You are terrific,” but she was careful with her praise. It kept my feet on the ground. Luckily my father constantly told me I was wonderful.

I never took, “No,” for an answer when it came to the Bar. I felt it had been so hard making that leap into the unknown of studying law in London that I could not admit defeat. That gave me my drive, I think.

I also felt that I had something to offer - I knew about the lives of ordinary people, whereas many of the privileged young men I studied with back in the ‘70s were unaware of what the reality of working class life was like.

I understood how women were excluded from law’s making - it was all made by men with men in mind. I clocked that early on and I wanted change.

The whole business of being myself has been important. I never tried to get rid of my Scottish accent. In a world in which your distinctiveness is going to matter, you hope that you are remembered for your professional skill. But being a woman, being a Scot, being from an usual background for an Upper-Middle class profession... all of those things that make you rare can be very helpful.

I learned how to harness the stuff that I knew, and instead of it weakening me, it became a strength.

I have never tried to do things like the guys. I never, ever call my client by his surname in the way that men in the profession often would, because they went to the sort of schools where you’d be called Smith or Brown... I’m very sensitive to the whole business of people being talked down to or patronised.

There are things about me that are quite adversarial, I enjoy the fight of the courtroom battle. Are those male traits? I don’t know, but I haven’t sought them out. I have all of that as part of who I am.

There has been a fallacy that professionalism at the bar requires distance. But the truth is that it just creates bad lawyering. Too many lawyers don’t understand the lives that their clients lead, or are forced to lead because of disadvantage or poverty.

There’s no doubt that women are better at being empathetic. But its partly because men have it hammered out of them, not because men can’t be empathetic.

I have witnessed the Queen Bee syndrome during my career and it is a rather ugly manifestation of competitiveness between women. Being the rare woman in a man’s world was something they rather relished and it made them hostile to the arrival of new generations of younger women. I’ve always championed opportunities for women to progress in male worlds.

It always disappoints me when I hear women saying, “I don’t want to be the token woman,” as though to be the first woman through because public demand is insisting on it is a diminution of their talents.

If they are being asked to bring women in, of course organisations are going to choose the best women possible. You’re going to see a better quality of women under those targets than the majority of the men who are in there.

We’ve had positive discrimination forever and a day. The beneficiaries of it have just been men.

We have to challenge the idea that merit is a value free zone. When people say, “We’re only going to appoint on the basis of merit”, you have to ask yourself, “Who is deciding what is meritorious?”

In our supreme court at the moment we have one woman, a wonderful woman. We waited ten years, and we still haven’t got a second one. Twenty-six opinions are sought

Baroness Altmann CBE, Were Not Yet Past It Former Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions

Our population is getting older. In the next 10 years the number of people aged between 50 and State Pension age will rise by 3.2 million, while the numbers aged 16 to 49 will fall – and amazingly, one in three babies born today is expected to live to 100.

It is of course great news that many of us are living longer, healthier lives. But it also means we need to rethink what ‘old’ means.

People are not ‘past it’ when they reach 50 or 60 so we must challenge these entrenched stereotypes – and that includes within the workplace.

To some extent, older workers themselves can internalise the social norms and write themselves off because they reach a certain age, but this helps no one. I would love to see older people who want to work having the chance to continue to hone their skills – we’re never too old to learn something new.

I also encourage employers to continue to invest in training for their staff, regardless of age. Some are already signing up for apprenticeship-type programmes and I hope many more will choose to in future.

Encouragingly, there is some evidence that old-fashioned attitudes are changing.

Recent figures show that older workers (aged 50-64) are more likely to be in employment than at any time since records began – with the employment rate for this group reaching 70%. Recent data also shows that the employment rate for those who are 65 and over is also rising sharply now reaching 10.6% per cent.

With 9.6 million people 50+ now working in the UK - an increase of over two million over the past decade – this suggests that we are all becoming more open-minded to the benefits of staying in work.

Although this is a move in the right direction, we must keep up the momentum – there is still a long way to go.

To harness the potential of older workers and I urge all employers to take this issue seriously and plan for an ageing workforce.

There are huge opportunities if we can do this. Enabling those who want to work longer has the power to make British businesses more competitive and increase our country’s economic activity significantly.

Indeed if people worked just one year longer, it would add 1% to the economy, boosting it by £17bn.

Also research shows that younger people’s employment prospects also rise as employment rates of older people increase. The fallacy that older workers steal younger workers’ jobs is harmful to the economy.

There is not a fixed number of jobs. Keeping more older people in work helps to increase their incomes and gives them more money to spend – and an increase in spending power leads to more jobs being created overall.

Conversely, if more older people stop work, they will have lower spending power and ultimately there will be fewer jobs for younger people.

This is not about forcing older workers to stay on, many actually want to keep working. Not only can this benefit their income and general wellbeing, it can also provide a significant boost to their pensions.

In fact, if an average earner retires at 65 instead of 55, they could earn over £200,000 extra income and increase their pension pot by up to 60 per cent.

In recent months, numerous employers have written to tell me what they are doing to break down the age barriers, including committing to mid-life career reviews for their workforce, and providing advice to line-managers on even how to support their female staff during the menopause.

And there are many more areas that employers are exploring, such as how to support older employees who may have caring responsibilities.

Flexible working, which, is well known to have benefits for young families, but there is more we can do to promote its use for older workers.

Action taken for older workers by the Government includes extending the right to request flexible working for all – and outlawing forced retirement.

A series of pilots exploring ways to help carers balance work with their caring responsibilities has been launched, which are to be completed in 2017.

And many mature people looking to keep working might benefit from finding out about the New Enterprise Allowance which provides money and support to help you start your own business if you’re on certain benefits.

We also introduced an Older Claimant Champion in each of our seven Jobcentre Plus regions and our Work Coaches help older people build up skills and confidence.

Support includes tailoring local digital training provision, helping to raise self-esteem amongst older jobseekers and working with local employers who are looking to recruit new staff.

Overcoming ageism and other barriers to encourage fuller working lives remains a priority for me. Nowadays, being over 50 does not necessarily mean you will soon stop work.

Employers who harness the talent, dedication, loyalty and enthusiasm of the over 50s will reap significant benefits in future.

Retaining, retraining and recruiting older staff can help everyone - it is good for us, our economy and our nation’s success.

Baroness Altmann, CBE is a British peer, leading UK pensions expert, and political campaigner.

She was appointed to the House of Lords following the 2015 general election as a Conservative, but describes her work both before and after the election as being politically independent, championing ordinary people and social justice. Altmann was strongly opposed to Brexit prior to the 2016 EU membership referendum.

Turkish Invasion of Syria The Background

By Lord Hylton

To understand this, it helps to know the origins of the Kurdish people and some recent history in Turkey, Syria and nearby.

ized unitary state, where all inhabitants were considered to be Turks, who must use and be educated in the national language.

The Kurds are an ancient national and cultural group, not Arab and not Turkish.

This attempted suppression of Kurdish identity led to frequent but unsuccessful revolts in the 1920s and 1930s. There was also a failed attempt to set up a republic of Madabah in western Iran in the late 1940s.

Kurdistan Peoples’ Party

They claim descent from the Medes, who were well-known to the classical Greeks and Israelites as allies of the Persians.

Their language is akin to modern Iranian or Dari, but divides into several main dialects.

Their traditional villages were built back to back against cliffs or mountains, with pale blue as the favourite house colour.

This is a physical reflection of the old saying “The mountain is the only friend of the Kurds.”The total Kurdish population of Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria may exceed 30 million. (There are no reliable census figures.) They constitute the world’s largest national group, without a state to protect them. Many émigré Kurds live in Germany and Scandinavia, with a substantial group in Britain, mainly in London and the south-east.

Ancient History: In history, the Kurds, along with the Armenians, often found themselves squeezed between the rival empires of Rome (later Byzantium) and Persia. This pressure continued after the Ottoman Turks came to power in Istanbul, and later Iranian dynasties ruled in Isfahan or Tehran. The Kurds never developed a royal family, but were ruled by powerful tribal chieftains.

Modern Era: The end of the First World War saw the emergence of a republican Turkey under Ataturk, with new artificial states in Syria and Iraq, under French and British short-term control. Iran fell under the sway of the new Pahlevi dynasty. In all of these countries the educated, commercial and ruling class was relatively small, with a large mainly illiterate rural population.

After 1945 secular Arab national governments emerged in Syria and Iraq, led by Baath parties, while Turkey swung between parliamentary and military rule. Ataturk had succeeded in establishing a central-

By 1980 a new player had appeared in the form of a left-wing, somewhat Marxist political party, the PKK, or Kurdish Workers’ Party, with a strong armed wing. When attempts at political progress failed, they took to physical force. With the connivance of President Assad senior, they mounted armed attacks from Syria into Turkey.

They established cells in mountain villages and in the main cities of south-east Turkey, where the bulk of the Kurdish population lived.

The Government responded with martial law in ten provinces, together with much alleged torture of prisoners. A brutal counter-insurgency policy included concentrating country people into villages protected by armed guards, barbed wire and land mines.

As a result many fled to Diyarbakir, Mardin and other towns, while large numbers moved to Ankara, Istanbul and Smyrna. Others were accepted as refugees in Western Europe.

Much of the countryside was left barren and fears were evident in the towns.

South-East Turkey When I first went with the late Lord Avebury to Turkish elections in 1994, the situation was quiescent, though with sporadic guerrilla fighting in spring, summer and autumn.

The PKK were guilty of murdering some Turkish teachers and other officials drafted into the south-east. They also set off bombs in Turkish sea-side tourist resorts. It was therefore not unreasonable to list them as a terrorist organization.

This label was all the more convincing, when the PKK attempted bank robberies and extortion from businesses in Europe.

Abdullah Oçalan In 1999 the situation changed again, when Abdullah Oçalan, the founder and leader of the PKK was captured in Nairobi and sent back to Turkey.

There he was sentenced to life imprisonment and held on Imrali, a small island in the sea of Marmara, usually in solitary confinement. In this harsh environment, he appears to have dropped his Marxism (which had by then lost power in the former Soviet Union). Instead he developed a new brand of political thought, based on local and regional communities, common citizenship and full rights and participation by women. To my mind this new thinking, sometimes called “democratic confederalism” is neither Marxist nor Islamist, even though the great majority of Kurds belong to the Sunni Muslim tradition. It could provide a model for the many mixed cultures and ethnicities of the Middle East.

Oçalan has clearly influenced the PKK. Between 2000 and 2010 they tried hard to achieve ceasefires inside Turkey, which would allow the return of their combatants, who had taken cover in the predominantly Kurdish area of the Candil mountains, in northern Iraq. Before and after 2000 the Turkish army launched cross-border attacks, in not very successful attempts to root out the would-be insurgents.

The fact that these attacks were hardly criticized by the outside world, may now encourage Turkey to expect that it can disregard the recognized frontiers of Syria, by setting up a so-called “buffer zone” on the south side of the international border.

Syria In Syria, Oçalan’s new thinking has had a major impact on the Kurdish people, concentrated in the north-east and north of the country.

They had suffered severely under the rule of the Assads, rather and son. Many had been deprived of full citizenship, while Arab families had been settled on some of the best farmland near the frontier with Turkey. There were restrictions on the Kurdish language,

‘‘For myself I am an optimist — it does not seem to be much use being anything else’’.

- Winston Churchill

Britain’s Future is in The Commonwealth

By Lord Marland

In December 2020 Britain had its r emaining ties with the European Union severed. As the world entered 2021, the UK left the post-Brexit implementation period and, unless a new treaty was signed before then, Britain would have been treated by the EU like every other non-member nation.

group. Britain’s bonds with the Commonwealth go far beyond geographical proximity. Most member states share similar legal systems based on common law, they also tend to have similar structures of parliamentary democracy, and English is a common language of business in almost all.

It has been hard to give Brexit the full attention it deserves while the COVID-19 pandemic still wreaks havoc on the world, but that withdrawal deadline hasn’t changed.

The result is something called the ‘Commonwealth Advantage’. This means that Commonwealth countries trade more with each other, and generate 10 per cent more investment than with non-member states.

Britain will emerge in the new year into what will be a very different world from that which saw the referendum in 2016. We will be in the midst of the greatest economic depression since the early 20th Century, practically starting afresh.

This prepackaged advantage will give Britain a great head start in streamlining trade as part of the worldwide recovery.

While it is an immense challenge for the country, it is also the chance for bold and innovative solutions to help recover. Britain will continue to remain friends with its European partners, maintaining the cooperation with our neighbours that existed long before the EU came into being and will continue to exist for many centuries to come.

But without the integrating ties, the UK will also be able to forge new and independent partnerships with some of the world’s most exciting nations and the natural template for that lies in the Commonwealth.

The Commonwealth of Nations is precisely that, a free association of independent countries with shared values and purpose. The 54 member nations have all committed to the Commonwealth Charter, agreeing to defend principles such as democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. Most have historical ties to Britain, some do not. But all share a vision of taking their place in a transforming world.

Member nations vary significantly, with the largest being India with a population of 1.3 billion down to the smallest in Tuvalu with their population of under 10,000. But both India and Tuvalu take equal seats at the Commonwealth table, a key principle of the

There has been a recent push for the adoption of ‘CANZUK’ where the UK, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia would make agreements on liberalised movement and free trade between them. While this is a step in the right direction, it doesn’t go far enough. Our relationships go further than these countries, and should also involve our allies and partners in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean.

The Commonwealth is so much more than Britain and ‘CANZUK’. The largest member is India, the Commonwealth’s ‘engine room.’

It sends almost 20 per cent of its exports to Commonwealth member states, with 15 per cent of its imports coming back the same way.

This will be worth more than £230 billion by 2030.

Indian companies employ more than 110,000 people in the UK, with their combined revenue growing by almost 90 per cent in the last five years. Just last month, a delegation from the Confederation of Indian Industry visited London beating the drum for the British Government to take full advantage of greater Commonwealth trade.

The building blocks are there as some Commonwealth countries already rely heavily on the UK market. Seven nations in the Commonwealth send over 10 per cent of their world exports to the UK, while 24 countries send more than 30 percent of their total European exports to the UK. No one in the EU imports more sugar than Britain,

which also buys 80 per cent of Kenya’s vegetable exports and almost all of Canada’s gold and precious metal exports.

For now much of that trade comes from Commonwealth states that are some of the world’s least developed countries and Sub-Saharan African nations. While the revenues from those countries are not huge, this will change.

The Commonwealth’s 2.4 billion residents makes up more than 30 per cent of the world’s population, with 60 per cent of them under the age of 30. As the demographics of the planet shift, and powerful economies continue to emerge from the developing world, the Commonwealth will be its hub.

Britain must be a part of that, helping those nations realise their potential.

We have started to see positive steps in the Government starting to take Commonwealth trade more seriously in the post-Brexit world. In September 2020, a new Board of Trade was formed. Advising it were people who are deeply connected to the Commonwealth, from Tony Abbott the former Prime Minister of Australia, to Dr Linda Yueh, the Chair of the Royal Commonwealth Society.

More must obviously be done. The British Government should focus on bringing down the bureaucratic barriers and red tape that prevent growing Commonwealth countries from wanting to do more trade with the UK. As we come out of the COVID-19 crisis, our focus should be on helping our Commonwealth partners across the world recover with us, or we may find ourselves alone.

The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of 54 independent and equal countries. It is home to 2.4 billion people, and includes both advanced economies and developing countries. 32 of our members are small states, including many island nations.

Its member governments have agreed to shared goals like development, democracy and peace. Its values and principles are expressed in the Commonwealth Charter.

The Earl of Home Former Chairman, Coutts & Co Interviewed by Vincent Abrams

You were Chairman of Coutts between 1999 and 2017. What attracted you to the company? What has changed over that time?

Anyone who knew anything about banks in the 1990s knew that Coutts had a supreme brand name.

I had contact with Coutts before because I had some clients in my then bank that also banked at Coutts and had been greatly impressed.

As I arrived, Coutts were embarking on “segmentation”, grouping the clients into categories depending on their time of life, profession etc. and over the years these groupings have been refined. In addition, Coutts has expanded both domestically and internationally out of all recognition.

What has been the most rewarding time of your life?

The most rewarding time was naturally my private life with my wife and children.

As far as my business is concerned, participating in Morgan Grenfell’s expansion in the 70s and 80s was fascinating and very satisfactory once businesses in the Middle and Far East had been established.

Were you in the media spotlight as a child when your father was Prime Minister?

My sisters and I were reported on a certain amount by the tabloid press when my father was in Government but the press was not as intrusive in those days as they are today and mobile phones didn’t exist.

Coutts is a venerable name in banking. When did it all start?

For instance, in 1999 we had only a handful of people in Singapore and Hong Kong; now there are over 200 in each centre.

Coutts was founded in 1692 but only came to prominence when the Bank acquired the Royal Family as clients in 1760.

How did you balance being Chairman of Coutts with your other roles?

Coutts is known across the world. Why is this?

Since I retired as a Trustee of the Grosvenor Estate, it had been easier to organise my workload, as Grosvenor was quite time-consuming.

The problem now revolves round the timetable of the House of Lords business and more particularly when votes are likely for business is often set weeks ahead whereas one doesn’t know what the House of Lords programme is until 2 weeks before and doesn’t know the timing of votes until the last minute Do you spend a lot of time travelling?

My travel has reduced considerably since retiring from Grosvenor, for Grosvenor had properties in Canada, the USA and Australia where Coutts do not have offices but which I visited regularly as Chairman of the Grosvenor Group. Overseas visits are mostly to the Middle and Far East and Switzerland.

There was a lot of publicity, particularly in the Far East, when RBS bought a stake in the Bank of China and it was thought that it would help the business, particularly in Hong Kong and Singapore but also worldwide if the two names were linked.

Were it not for the world-banking crisis, it was probably the right decision. We believe that in the current climate, it is appro- private to bring the names together as well as the businesses, which has resulted in a much better sense of family and common purpose.

is the core of the business but I understand they now intend to grow and develop the asset management side as well.

You have been a career banker for all of your working life. What have been the highlights?

For years I was involved in project finance internationally and bringing the financing of a complicated project to fruition was immensely satisfying.

An Aluminium Smelter in Canada, a hospital in Dubai and aircraft for Oman were but three examples. To finance such projects, however, had to be a team effort and it was great to be part of or leading a team.

Do you think London will continue to be an attractive financial centre?

London has a lot of advantages over other centres. It is everybody’s second home.

Most people’s second language is English so overseas banks and clients are more comfortable here than in countries where English is not the lingua franca.

Coutts and Co is a private bank and wealth manager, founded in 1692. It is the seventh oldest bank in the world and its international arm was sold to Union Bancaire Privée in March 2015.

It has been owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) since 2000, when RBS purchased its parent, NatWest.

Does Coutts position itself as a wealth manager rather than a private bank?

Coutts formed part of RBS’s private banking division. During its time with RBS, it acquired Zürich-based Bank von Ernst & Cie and in 2008, Coutts Bank von Ernst and other Coutts International subsidiaries became RBS Coutts Bank.

For many years Coutts has had a good asset management section but going back in history, clients usually had assets run by friends, who were stockbrokers.

These traded as RBS Coutts International to align them with the parent RBS Group until 2011, when RBS Coutts was renamed Coutts & Co. Limited.

That is changing as there are few stockbrokers now and we want to demonstrate capabilities in asset management. Nevertheless, banking

Douglas-Home, 15th Earl of Home, KT, CVO, CBE is a British businessman and Conservative politician.

Lord Green Former Chairman, HSBC Interviewed by Henry Hopwood Phillips

Henry Hopwood-Phillips talks to Lord (Stephen) Green, former head of HSBC and government minister, about his latest book The European Identity: Historical & Cultural Realities We Cannot Deny.

What’s your book’s elevator pitch?

It’s an exploration of what it means to be European. What do we have in common?

How do we differ from others? How will we project ourselves on the twenty-first century stage—which will be as the nineteenth century’s was—a concert of powers.

Isn’t the real reason Europeans are not happy to entangle themselves with the EU less about fuzzy identity-level reasons than the fact they cannot emotionally connect to a opaque institution with a democratic deficit?

First of all, it is clear that the EU is in bad need of reform. You don’t have to be a eurosceptic to believe that. But talk of leaving poses an existential threat to Britain.

France is relatively homogenous and boasts a strong statist tradition, Germany has always been primarily a cultural identity with political identities layered above it quite comfortably, and Britain has the most fragile identity of the three.

That’s not to say there aren’t smaller players on the same wavelength—Belgium, Spain and Italy are similar.

A vote to leave the EU would be a vote to break up the UK. Scotland would demand its independence if the UK did so.

The last time something of this magnitude happened was when Ireland left the union after WWI, an event I’m not sure most Britons have fully come to terms with yet. People are not making commercial decisions here, they are working out who they are.

ades, even generations, without asking them when others have settled the account for us, but eventually we must wonder what we stand for.

The philosophies Europe gave the world seem to have mutated in the hands of our rivals. Should a future EU stand by them or should we create hybrids?

It’s a profound question and one that I could write a big book on. But look at China and the Confucianism that forms its bedrock. The common ground it shares with Europe is interesting – take Confucius and Aristotle – they’re quite similar…

In being anti-metaphysical?

Something like that. They had a metaphysic, just not a very personalised one. But compromises are still being struck today: the Chinese know they must make their own accommodation with Western ways of thinking, most obviously pluralism, for instance.

To answer your question, I don’t think the EU will mutate – though I don’t want to paint too static a picture. Everybody’s on a journey here and we’re still learning from history that’s being made.

You’ve written “Trend data shows that culture is on the wane as an element in people’s understanding of identity”. Could you go a little into what you mean here. Usually the two are considered synonymous.

Culture meaning classical concerts, art and suchlike are becoming less important factor in forming a person’s identity.

Conversely, sport and other things are now more important. In parallel, Chinese intellectuals are bewailing the fact their youth cannot read the Classics any longer.

But if sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, is identity the lowest form of politics?

This may be part of a world trend in which urbanisation, globalisation and consumerism reduces interest in the past – if so I think that is dangerous.

SG: I don’t believe that. You have to ask the big questions. We can get away for dec-

Perhaps the creation of world culture results in an amnesia of what preceded it?

You’d think so wouldn’t you but then we see the rise of very regional consciousnesses.

The risk is that modern society increases (and satisfies) the appetite for immediate gratification, which is a mindset that stops in its tracks what you or I might have done, reading the Classics and immersing oneself in deep springs of knowledge and wisdom.

Doesn’t the typical ticklist of European values (compassion, rights, democracy etc.) look a tad superficial – have we lost a sense of identity as uniquely invested in the irrational?

Yes but the irrational aspects of identity don’t make a pretty sight. Identity has both the ability to create and to destroy. But it is there and cannot be ignored.

One way or the other, we are not social atoms, we all identify with things, people and values.

Finally, isn’t there a risk of the EU playing midwife to a world-citizenry rather than standing for anything in particular?

I’m all for it playing midwife. This process accelerates the consciousness involved in being on a planet that is fragile, that we need to care for.

But the ‘world citizen’ need not be an exclusive identity. Saying you’re European does not cancel out German-ness any more than being a Sussex man cancels out my Englishness.

Some of Lord Green’s prior directorships included The Bank of Bermuda Limited, HSBC Mexico, SA and The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited.

Deputy Chairman of HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt AG and was a board member of HSBC France. In 2005 he was appointed a Trustee of the British Museum, a position from which he resigned before his appointment as Minister of State.

In 2014 he was appointed a Trustee of the Natural History Museum by former Prime Minister David Cameron.

Calling All Business and Political Leaders By Daniel Bausor

Step back ten years and leaders from all walks of life, from those in business to party political leaders, were in a very different place: they were in control of their organisations and their customers. They were the ones to set the agenda with customers and constituents following swiftly behind. Fast forward to today and digital disruption has taken hold, bringing with it an avalanche of information and data. All power is with customers as they hold all the cards, while in contrast power has ebbed away from business leaders and politicians in the Customer Economy.

In today’s Customer Economy, even politics is being transformed by the power of the customer. Whatever your views on Brexit, everyone would agree that it has been a divisive issue that has transcended communities and political parties and has been fuelled by the power of the customer (i.e. the voter).

This has pitted voters against the will of a traditional, some would argue outdated, Parliament and political system. Now, there is a ‘C-change’ in business and politics where the ‘C’ firmly represents the customer. Those leaders who centre their organisations around the customer from ‘customer voice’ - where digital systems can instantly relay customer attitudes, online interests and buying behaviour – through to a customer-led culture which co-creates innovative products and services with customers are the ones which will drive sustainable growth and success.

But if the benefits of prioritising the customer are so clear, why are all companies not following the example of organisations like US videoconferencing company, Zoom?

The current leadership make-up of many corporate organisations represents an obstacle for growth. According to the Global Accounting Network in 2018, 51% of the FTSE 100 CEOs had a background in finance, meaning that many leaders have limited exposure to existing and prospective customers, focusing instead on the finances of the business. This theory is supported further by Peter Cheese, CEO of global professional body The Chartered

Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), who argues that “Part of the problem is that too many businesses have lost sight of their purpose and their customers with a singular focus on financial outcomes and the financial stakeholder. Understanding all of the organisation’s stakeholders is critical, and in particular, their employees who ultimately are responsible for delivery of the value to customers.”

It is important to note that the view of what a customer is has completely changed from the traditional, siloed view of a paying customer.

In order to succeed, organisations in the Customer Economy need to think holistically of a customer as an employee and partner too, blurring boundaries of the past.

Employees are central to a customer-led culture. This is where leaders must nurture an army of employee advocates who put customers front and the centre of everything they do.

A good example of an organisation with a customer-led culture is the Ritz Carlton hotel chain. Its founder, Horst Schulze is the godfather of customer experience in the hospitality sector and shares an inspirational leadership story for CEOs. He famously coined the phrase for Ritz-Carlton staff to pride themselves on the mission, ‘we are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen’. Horst Schulze is a customer-led leader who created a C-change in fostering a guest-led culture which resulted in great service and sustainable growth. He honed in on the roles that the extended hotel team played.

For example, Horst told employees that they were empowered to make any decision up to the value of $2,000 which really shocked staff. However, his thinking was simple – it was worth spending $2000 to keep a customer.

The Ritz-Carlton culture was all about creating customers for life and driving customer lifetime value.

Times are changing as businesses and CEOs realise that traditional priorities such as shareholders, quarterly profits and corporate structure just aren’t sustainable in the new Customer Economy. In August 2019, The Business Roundtable, made up of CEOs from

nearly 200 major US businesses including Apple, Amazon and Bank of America, issued a statement committing to a more customer-centric focus. In this statement, they redefined the ‘purpose of a corporation’ as investing in employees and delivering value to customers, rather than serving shareholders and maximising profit, underlining the new customer-centric direction in which the business world is moving. This is a significant shift in a more customer-led attitude from this influential group of global organisations.

As part of this shift, many companies are moving to smaller, cross-functional agile working teams that are more collaborative.

Such teams are characterised by open-lines of communication, allowing them to move faster and adapt more quickly to achieve customer-led company and individual objectives. Engaged employees need to have a clear understanding of the customer and how their individual and company-wide roles contribute to the customer-led mission, values and objectives of the organisation. It is these engaged employees who are wedded culturally to the customer who will co-create the successful and sustainable, customer-led organisations in the Customer Economy.

Signify (formerly Phillips Lighting) recognised the influence of its customers, collaborating with them on the research, development and design of the Philips Hue Outdoor Light strip, a completely new smart lighting product, in 2018. This consumer lighting innovation proved a worthy investment, winning numerous design awards and garnering Signify its highest ever rating on Amazon.

And this revolution is not isolated to the tech industry; even traditionally profit-focused sectors such as finance are reinventing themselves to prioritise the customer. Starling Bank set itself apart from its competition with an innovative, digital platform which provided an intuitive customer journey, based on their actual usage. This approach proved to be highly effective, with Starling Bank gaining just under a million customers within three years and being voted Best British Bank by the public at the British Bank Awards in 2018.

Similarly, in the world of Politics, there is much to learn from companies like Zoom and Starling Bank which are customer-led and integrate customer data in every pore of their organisation to satisfy the needs of their customers.

According to Clive Humby, the famous creator of the Tesco loyalty card, ‘data is new oil’. In politics, even the terminology isn’t customer friendly. For example, take the word ‘constituent’ for voters sounds like a clinical procedure rather than voting customers. However, now there is a direct contact between MPs and their customers i.e. voters.

This is epitomised by the website www.theyworkforyou.com where you can instantly connect with your MP, know exactly which way they’ve voted. To Clive Humby’s point on the importance of customer data, now there are highly sophisticated voter database programs. These programs can visualise voter data such as maps and charts or campaigning tools that leverage the data, exemplified by the successful campaign of Emmanuel Macron who used the services of the French company Liegey Muller Pons.

This transparency of information has changed the game. And yet, there’s still a remarkable lack of understanding and willingness of some MPs to acknowledge that they are serving voting customers. The traditional two party, siloed system no longer fits in the Customer Economy as a hard and fast segmentation of customers.

For example, you may be a Conservative in terms of values with free market economics but have an affiliation with the Green Party on sustainability highlighting the blurring of customer boundaries. In essence, customers in any walk of like don’t fit into discrete boxes which is perhaps a good argument for cross-party consensus on key issues. A successful example is in Colombian cities such as Medellin where political coalitions have been instrumental in significantly reducing the violence that tore the city apart for many years.

Last but not least in terms in the political spectrum, behaviour from MPs has shown to be lacking in terms of language and treatment of one another – which has alienated voters from Parliament. Certainly, such behaviour would not be tolerated in the business world. The workplaces of customer-led companies from US video conferencing firm Zoom to John Lewis Partnership represent a good benchmark of what Parliament should aspire to.

Zoom has created a corporate culture centred entirely around the customer. The San Jose based tech company is constantly adapting its business model based on customer feedback.

It uses systems designed to be intuitive and simple too, and invests heavily in its Customer Success team to improve user experience and resolve issues. This approach hasn’t just boosted customer loyalty, with annual revenues in the last year of over US$330 million, also, it has had a positive impact on employees. Zoom’s CEO Eric Yuan has been named as the highest-rated CEO on employee review site Glassdoor, with an employee approval rating of 99%.

So what skills do the CEO and leader of today need to possess now?

The nature of the Customer Economy means that leaders must be far better communicators. They have to hone their listening skills, face-to-face and online, and be able to respond directly to internal customers, that is, employees as well as external customers. This must be done with genuine empathy, insight and authentic leadership to create the ‘C-change’ to be a successful customer-led organisation. Another driver for leaders to be customer-led is that millennial employees who are fast becoming the dominant customer bloc, want to work for customer-led organisations with a clear purpose linked to customer needs. Leaders need to be far more human and essentially more authentic replacing the corporate leadership bravado of the past with a vision to nurture employee advocates as part of a customer-led culture.

Furthermore, it’s important for leaders to be customer-led in every aspect and lead by example with customer-led key performance indicators (KPIs) for themselves and employees which are directly linked to needs of customers. A good example is a KPI on net revenue retention where a company with high, net recurring revenue means that its existing customers are essentially less likely to defect when it comes to renewing their contracts with them. Also, the net amount of money (i.e. total money less expenditure) brought in from its existing customer base is less likely to shrink and might actually grow.

reported that customer-led companies which had invested heavily in improving and simplifying their customer experience outperformed those who had not. Those investing in the Dow Jones Index during the 10-year period from 2009 to 2018, would have seen their portfolio increase by 184%, those investing in the S&P would have experienced an increase of 207%.

In contrast, if you had invested in the 10 companies ranked in Siegel+Gale’s World’s Simplest Brands report, you would have outperformed the average of the major indexes by a staggering 679%. Putting the customer first is no longer a ‘nice to have’, it makes business sense and drives sustainable, profitable growth.

In order to share in the benefits of the Customer Economy, businesses and indeed political parties must genuinely understand the needs and expectations of the customer, and be willing to centre their organisations around them, with no areas off limits. Prioritising customers includes removing rigid departmental siloes in order for customer journeys to be made easier.

This includes providing effective digital channels and creating customer-led cultures that empower employees to assist customers directly without unnecessary complications. Ultimately, it is up to individual businesses, political parties and their leaders as to how they choose to ride the rising wave of customer influence.

Those that adapt and make real changes to how their organisations run are finding themselves reaping the rewards of the Customer Economy: improving customer experience and loyalty; and achieving sustainable growth as a result.

Such leadership across these areas demonstrates living proof of the organisational value of being ‘customer first’ rather than pure lip service which customers of all genres are quick to see through with such availability of data.

Those leaders keen to focus on short-term profit and stick to the traditional business models of a bygone age risk losing their customer base to more progressive, rival organisations. Consequently, there needs to be a C-change in CEOs being customer-led to move away from the short-term, one-dimensional, financially-led goals which are just not going to cut it in the Customer Economy. The takeover by customers cannot be ignored so business leaders and politicians need to listen properly to them and act on what customers are telling them. Otherwise they risk becoming obsolete and the latest victim of the customer revolution.

Clearly a customer-centric approach not only benefits the customer; also, it allows businesses to thrive. Recently, Forbes

Daniel Bausor, Co-author of ‘The Customer Catalyst: how to drive sustainable business growth in the Customer Economy’

The Changing Face of Cardiff

By Jerald Solis Business Development and Acquisitions Director, Experience Invest

‘The face of Cardiff has changed dramatically in the past thirty-two years.

From Lord Crickhowell leading charge with the creation of the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation (CBDC) in 1987, to the ambitious new-build projects in the city centre, Cardiff appears to be in a constant state of change.

Whilst the priorities of Cardiff’s regeneration have realigned themselves over the previous three decades, the objectives have remained consistent; to create an environment, which promotes job creation and consequently a better quality of life for residents. Indeed, as the years have progressed, the drivers of change have adjusted with the times, from redeveloping the former bay and driving new business development, to the construction of accommodation complexes.

Consequently, by the 1980s, what was once a vibrant and prosperous city, was a bleak wasteland.

With high unemployment and the standard of living dipping, the innovative mind of Lord Crickhowell saw an opportunity to drive change in the city, placing specific focus on the regeneration of Cardiff Bay. His proposals were dramatic; from marine engineering to create greater opportunities for businesses to grow in Cardiff Bay, to an overhaul of the city’s infrastructure in order to reconnect the city with the bay itself, his ambition was to encourage locals, and even tourists, to visit the area.

This is indeed an exciting time for Cardiff, with a multitude of employment, education and investment opportunities presenting themselves in recent years. However, this has not always been the case.

However, the proposals did have to overcome numerous obstacles. Concerns that marine engineering would flood the local area proved to be the greatest objection. This was swiftly followed by protestations that the project was too costly and would not offer any real value to Cardiff. Yet despite opposition, Crickhowell finally gained permission to commence with his regeneration project; work began in 1994.

Where It All Began Cardiff has not always been such a vibrant city, which offers a plethora of opportunities for locals and students alike. Like many industrial towns after the Second World War, its dependence on just one or two trades, coal and wool, proved to be detrimental.

The results of Crickhowell’s work speaks for itself. In 2000, work around the Bay was completed and the area was almost unrecognisable. New bars, restaurants and shops had opened, and locals and tourists were able to visit the area thanks to improved transportation links; money began to flow into the bay.

Before the Second World War, Cardiff was a prosperous city; jobs were plentiful, and the city’s economy was booming. The majority of coal and wool factories were based in Cardiff Bay, then a bustling area of activity.

In later years, the regeneration project refocussed its attention to standard of living for locals, with a multitude of new flats being built in the city centre. Indeed, the standard of living for residents has improved dramatically within the past thirty-two years.

However, there appears to be one group, whose needs have not been adequately met, despite their growing numbers. This group I refer to, is the city’s ever-increasing student population.

With traders from all over the world being able to obtain Cardiff’s materials, thanks to an easily accessible harbour, income was flowing into the thriving city.

However, after the Second World War, global trade fell, and Cardiff Bay began to lose out to the more competitive ports across the UK. What’s more, the decline of the UK’s coal and wool industries, meant that Cardiff’s income and employment opportunities decreased dramatically.

A Shift In Focus Indeed, Cardiff has experienced a rapid increase in its student population in recent decades. With three prestigious universities in the city, it is inevitable that students across the UK have flocked to the area within the past

two decades. An influx of students presents an excellent opportunity for Cardiff’s regeneration project. Not only do new students offer the promise of additional income for local businesses, from the local corner shop by the university to an independent fashion boutique in the city centre, they also present a new wave of prospective employees. Indeed, organisations across Cardiff will likely want to attract educated young talent to the area, to boost their productivity and profitability.

It would seem logical, therefore, to draw students in from the moment they begin considering university options. Whilst Cardiff has a sterling reputation for its nightlife, as well as academic rigor, it seems fitting that the universities provide the accommodation to match. Afterall, a pleasant experience at university would provide ample motivation for students to stay in the area.

Falling Through The Cracks However, evidence suggests that this is not the case. The universities themselves are struggling to keep up with increasing demand for student accommodation.

Thus, they are relying on external sources to fill the accommodation gap. Universities have been particularly reliant on HMOs; former residential properties, which have been converted into student accommodation. Whilst this is a sensible option to ensure all students have living quarters throughout their studies, such spaces are quite simply inadequate.

Recent figures from Cardiff Council expose the extent of the problem. The council’s figures revealed that 80 HMOs have fallen below licensing standards since 2014, posing a significant risk to their occupants.

Fire risks appear to be the greatest area of concern, with 67 of the 80 uninhabitable HMOs being affected, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service. It was also reported that 44 homes suffered from damp and mould issues, whilst 35 were said to be vulnerable to entry by intruders and 33 faced major electrical hazards.

Unbelievably, 11 of the 80 problematic

HMOs were at a significant risk of structural collapse. With accommodation in Cardiff failing to meet an adequate living standard, this increases the likelihood of students turning to other cities to provide good quality living spaces, whilst simultaneously offering a vibrant nightlife and academic excellence. After all, students are no longer afraid to vocalise their dissatisfaction at sub-standard accommodation, and with the rise of social media, negative reputations spread very quickly. Until this issue is addressed, Cardiff could be at risk of losing its strong student reputation, scuppering hopes of future regeneration.

An Opportunity For Change Encouragingly, however, the council and property developers appear to have found a solution to this problem; purpose build student accommodation (PBSA).

Private sector PBSA projects are proving to be a viable solution to meet the demand of a more vocal student population. Instead, PBSA not only offers students a high standard of living, it is raising the bar. PBSA complexes now offer state of the art facilities, including gyms, study rooms and even roof gardens. Additionally, developers ensure the complexes are in prime locations, usually a short walk from the town centre and offering easy access to universities.

The figures here speak for themselves.

Between 2010/11 and 2015/16, the number of students who actively wanted to live in PBSA increased by 137%. In stark contrast, the number of those who wanted to live in HMOs increased by a mere 4%. However, the issue of supply versus demand remains pivotal; it’s one thing to meet the demand of students but delivering the high quality that PBSA promises is vital to the success of regeneration.

Quality, Not Just Quantity To successfully meet the demand of students for PBSA complexes, whilst ensuring they deliver the high-quality living spaces promised, it is absolutely vital that private sector developers and Cardiff Council work together.

Indeed, Cardiff Council has introduced HMO regulations, however simply setting new guidelines does not seem to be improving living standards.

It is therefore imperative that Cardiff City Council forms close partnerships with the city’s developers to make sure that new-builds are safe and offer students a comfortable living space. The majority of

these developers are determined to offer accommodation that is not only of the highest quality, but also meets the changing needs of the modern student. Therefore, cooperation between the two stakeholders will pave the way to higher standards across the board.

Experience Invest has first-hand experience of working closely with the council throughout construction projects. In October 2019, the organisation worked closely with its sister company, Opto Property Group, to launch their latest PBSA project, Opto Student Cardiff.

Working with the council provides developers with the opportunity to ensure the project is in keeping with regulations and standards throughout the process; realising at the end of a completed project that the complex does not meet the set standards benefits no one.

In addition to the developer’s peace of mind, it also provides an element of reassurance for investors, whose financial commitment to the complex is absolutely vital to its success.

A City Of Opportunity Whilst PBSA is not the only element driving Cardiff’s current regeneration project, one could argue that it is a determining factor to the ongoing success of regeneration in Cardiff. What’s more, its success could drive further investment into the area.

After all, developers are beginning to see themselves priced out of London. With government figures revealing that land in London is 3.2 times more expensive than industrial land in other UK regions, developers and indeed property investors are looking elsewhere to get better value for their money.

Therefore, we see more and more development projects moving outside of London, and Cardiff is perfectly positioned to swoop in and claim investors. With land at a cheaper price than London, and a clear demand for PBSA, there is a perfect opportunity to increase investment in the area, whilst attracting new students.

Additionally, it also brings the prospect of generous returns to any property investment.

There is an opportunity for all to reap the rewards, whilst also contributing to regeneration in the area.

Will Change Continue?

The key question now, however, is whether all these factors will be capable of driving sustainable change in Cardiff. It is likely that continuous investment will be dependent on the PBSA projects, due to be completed over the next few years. Indeed, projects such as

Opto Student Cardiff will be a driving force to encourage greater investment, hence why the aforementioned relationships with Cardiff Council are so important. Much like the doubt cast on Lord Crickhowell’s regeneration proposal in 1987, politicians and residents alike demand reassurance that not only will the construction projects bring monetary rewards to the area but will not hinder their way of life.

However, if developers can prove they are capable of meeting the demand for student accommodation, whilst improving the student standard of living, confidence with inevitably be raised in the area.

Thus, further projects will continue, thereby increasing the opportunities available for locals and students.

The Future Is Bright This task will not be without its challenges.

For example, Brexit uncertainty has inevitably paused numerous construction projects, both within and outside of Cardiff.

However, there is emphasis on the term “pause”.

Despite uncertainty, reports suggest that property investors remain optimistic about the future of the market and remain poised to pounce on upcoming development projects.

It should also be noted that, despite the uncertainty, PBSA projects such as Opto Student Cardiff remain on schedule for construction to begin in January 2020, suggesting that the regeneration of Cardiff will continue to progress, despite a temporary slowdown in building projects.

Whilst it will prove to be a challenge for Cardiff Council and developers, the future does look bright for Cardiff. With PBSA projects presenting an opportunity for property investors to invest their money in reasonably priced off-plan property and make a generous profit from it, it is almost certain that the success of these projects will drive further investment into Cardiff.

Therefore, whilst there are challenging months and years ahead, the future remains bright in Cardiff. In the long term, I anticipate that the city will go from strength to strength, much to the delight of students, locals and investors alike.

Experience Invest provides specialist services to UK and overseas investors, corporate buyers and property developers.

Winds of Change, The Case For New Digital Currency

By Christine Lagarde, Chairwoman of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)

“Change is the only constant,” wrote the ancient Greek philosopher, Heraclitus of Ephesus.

We know this. You know this. It is the true spirit of fintech —opening doors to new digital futures; hoisting sails to the winds of change.

And yet change can appear daunting, destabilizing, even threatening. This is especially true for technological change, which disrupts our habits, jobs, and social interactions.

The key is to harness the benefits while managing the risks.

When it comes to fintech, areas like Singapore have shown exceptional vision—think of its regulatory sandbox where new ideas can be tested.

Think of its Fintech Innovation Lab, and its collaboration with major central banks on cross-border payments.

In this context, I would like to explain three things • First, frame the issue in terms of the changing nature of money and the fintech revolution.

• Second, evaluate the role for central banks in this new financial landscape— especially in providing digital currency.

• Third, look at some downsides, and consider how they can be minimized 1. The Changing Nature of Money.

When commerce was local, centered around the town square, money in the form of tokens— metal coins—was sufficient. And it was efficient.

The exchange of coins from one hand to another settled transactions. So long as the coins were valid—determined by glancing, scratching, or even biting into them—it did not matter which hands held them. But as commerce moved to ships, like those that passed through Singapore, and covered

increasingly greater distances, carrying coins became expensive, risky, and cumbersome.

Chinese paper money—introduced in the 9th century—helped, but not enough. Innovation produced bills of exchange—pieces of paper allowing merchants with a bank account in their home city to draw money from a bank at their destination.

The Arabs called these Sakks, the origin of our word “check” today. These checks, and the banks that went along with them, spread around the world, spearheaded by the Italian bankers and merchants of the Renaissance.

Other examples are the Chinese Shansi and Indian Hundi bills.

Suddenly, it mattered whom you dealt with.

Was this Persian merchant the rightful owner of that bill? Was the bill trustworthy? Was that Shanxi bank going to accept it? Trust became essential—and the state became the guarantor of that trust, by offering liquidity backstops, and supervision.

Why is this brief tour of history relevant?

Because the fintech revolution questions the two forms of money we just discussed—coins and commercial bank deposits. And it questions the role of the state in providing money.

We are at a historic turning point. You—young and bold entrepreneurs gathered here today— are not just inventing services; you are potentially reinventing history. And we are all in the process of adapting.

A new wind is blowing, that of digitalization.

In this new world, we meet anywhere, any time. The town square is back—virtually, on our smartphones. We exchange information, services, even emojis, instantly... peer to peer, person to person.

We float through a world of information, where data is the “new gold”—despite growing concerns over privacy, and cyber-security. A world in which millennials are reinventing how our economy works, phone in hand.

And this is key: money itself is changing. We expect it to become more convenient and user- friendly, perhaps even less serious-looking.

We expect it to be integrated with social media, readily available for online and person-to- person use, including micro-payments. And of course, we expect it to be cheap and safe, protected against criminals and prying eyes.

What role will remain for cash in this digital world? Already signs in store windows read “cash not accepted.” Not just in Scandinavia, the poster child of a cashless world. In various other countries too, demand for cash is decreasing—as shown in recent IMF work. And in ten, twenty, thirty years, who will still be exchanging pieces of paper?

Bank deposits too are feeling pressure from new forms of money. Think of the new specialized payment providers that offer e-money—from AliPay and WeChat in China, to PayTM in India, to M-Pesa in Kenya. These forms of money are designed with the digital economy in mind. They respond to what people demand, and what the economy requires.

Even cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple are vying for a spot in the cashless world, constantly reinventing themselves in the hope of offering more stable value, and quicker, cheaper settlement.

2. A case for Central Bank Digital Currencies Let me now turn to my second issue: the role of the state—of central banks—in this new monetary landscape. Some suggest the state should back down.

Providers of e-money argue that they are less risky than banks, because they do not lend money. Instead, they hold client funds in custodian accounts, and simply settle payments within their networks.

For their part, cryptocurrencies seek to anchor trust in technology. So long as they are transparent—and if you are tech savvy—you might trust their services.

Still, I am not entirely convinced. Proper regulation of these entities will remain a pillar of trust. Should we go further? Beyond regulation, should the state remain an active player in the market for money? Should it fill

Business, Human After All

By Rita Clifton Addressing Trust In Business

I received an email from Harvard Business Review recently. They were offering a series of books called ‘How to be human at work’.

A six-volume HBR Emotional Intelligence Boxed Set. And a snip at just $99.99.

I am not making this up.

A lot of people are at it. In fact, you get over a thousand results when you search for books on being ‘human at work’ on Amazon.

Of course, an easier (and cheaper) way to be human at work would be, well, to do just that. Be human. And providing everyone can be persuaded to manage their particular ‘id’, coming out as the human beings we all are might just be one of the best things that business – and indeed, politics – can do to help their respective reputations.

Clearly, ‘brand business’ has got a problem in terms of perception and trust.

We have a media and public climate, particularly in the UK, where we have elevated cynicism to a fine art, and a particular way of characterising and caricaturing people in business and political life. Sometimes, of course, people can ask for it. Business people as a group have not exactly helped themselves by too often behaving like an Alien Nation.

Despite many workplaces becoming more informal, so many senior business people still tend to wear a working uniform of suits and ties that set them apart from normal day to day lives. We can speak in stiff business jargon; appear in TV interviews like nervous corporate press releases; sometimes look and sound as though we’re on a different planet from our consumers and broader public. And executive pay has truly travelled out of this world.

Trust me…

The declining trust in business and institutions has been an intense research debate and provoked a fair amount of soul searching amongst business leaders Businesses only succeed by the grace of

the customer and the public and we need to serve them properly, to behave responsibly, to get their ongoing support.

Despite the well-meaning of many of these gatherings about how to address ‘trust in business’, I cannot help but notice that many of the conversations revolve around senior leaders’ view that business just needs to be ‘better at communicating’ what it does and what it brings to society. ie. jobs, innovation to improve people’s lives, and of course, wealth.

Quite a lot of people might even agree with those benefits in theory, but the problem is, they also believe that too much of the wealth stays in the hands of senior executives.

No equal….

There is a growing consensus that inequality is truly out of control and yes, something has had to give. That has shown up in the usual suspects of events like Brexit, Trump and the rise of angry nationalism (and even the return of Marxism). But what do business leaders expect when the differential pay package ratio between a CEO and the average member of staff can be over 200? And when so much of the economic and employment risk is pushed down to those who can least afford it, whilst the employment and financial advantages of senior executives are better protected and where wealth is increasingly sucked up to the top? You get populism, governments that want to be seen to control the bad beasts of unfettered capitalism through more overt regulation – even if that’s counter-productive.

It’s a source of shame and frustration for business that politicians know that they’ll get more votes from giving (usually big) business a good kicking, and introducing more controls, more regulation and more public criticism.

Human after all…

All of this matters because it adds up to a public perception of business as an inhuman place. Pantomime business programmes like The Apprentice and Dragon’s Den don’t help. And frankly, as we all know, if people really behaved like that in business you’d be in employment tribunals before you could say you’re fired, as well as the loss of morale and goodwill. You can’t buy people’s enthusiasm, optimism and personal commitment if you scare and bully them senseless.

So, I think we need business to be more human. To be and to be seen as more human. Something positive that all human beings either work in or get paid by - and so should encourage and support. Not an ugly phenomenon that might be a necessary evil, but populated by Dr Evils who can’t wait to rip the public off, despoil the environment and defy democracy. And we really need businesses to be successful – sustainably successful – if we’re to generate the kind of money we need to pay for schools, hospitals and civil society.

That often means bad news for businesses, let alone bad news for its beneficial effects on society which get downplayed or under-valued.

As part of this, businesses and business people themselves have got to behave as though the rest of the world matters. It’s all very well to say that a business is only responsible to shareholders, and treat that as a proxy for making as much profit as it can in the short term. But the longer-term responsibilities of business, to generate sustainable wealth that employs people reliably and looks after customers are as fundamentally important – and shareholders themselves aren’t just faceless institutions.

They can be staff, pensioners, ordinary people with savings and a stake in society.

And if we don’t have clean air to breathe, if there are no resources left and the majority lead miserable lives, who cares what the quarterly results say?

People pick up their cues and clues about reality from what people do rather than what they say. Reputation is reality with a lag effect.

If you want people to think something different about you, you usually have to do something different. Behaviour is communication.

It’s interesting that successful people who at least tend to look and sound more human vs the corporate suit brigade tend to have a more sympathetic hearing. Think Richard Branson, post-Strictly Ed Balls and ditto Deborah Meaden. People even got to like her when she showed her vulnerable, funny,

self-deprecating side on Strictly Come Dancing vs her grumpy frowny caricature on Dragon’s Den. Better futures?

The world needs changing, business runs the world, so we need to change business.

To me, that means being more human, acting like human beings and more like people who have families, partners, pets, consciences, pulses. Even a sense of humour.

It is a bit better now than when I started in business, but looking at some of the PR gaffs, the disdain with which some business leaders are perceived to have treated staff and customers (you know who you/they are), there’s still a long way to go.

There’s an added imperative on doing the right thing in the digital world. If in the pre-digital days a business was full of a**holes behaving badly, there was a chance you could get away with it if you had a decent PR department and lots of money to spend on good marketing. Now, you get found out with a scale and speed that takes your breath away. Social media and sites like Glassdoor ensure whatever happens inside gets outside PDQ. There’s no substitute for being a great business, where people care about their work, who like and believe in what they do, are prepared to tell others (and of course, this is very cheap and effective marketing too). Big, bad, lazy businesses have a lot to sweat about.

So I guess what I’m saying is, people in business shouldn’t be afraid to come out as the human beings they are, to stop pretending they know everything and that they eat concrete blocks for breakfast, admit that they are kind to animals and children (even their own), care for the planet and would ideally like to do good if they could just convince their shareholders….And frankly, if they have a real problem in behaving well, to get help to sort it out and stop visiting their anger issues on others around them. I’m not suggesting that people let it all hang out at all times in ‘being themselves’. I prefer the term being your ‘best self’ - i.e. a normal human being, with

human emotions, trying to do the right thing, even if you’re not always certain whether something is absolutely the right answer. Sharing something honest about yourself and/or what you may have got wrong can also help people understand and at least try to do the right thing in their own case. In the end, the aim is obviously to try and do what’s best to make the most of your (good) self and those around you.

Oh what a lovely war…

This ‘human’ philosophy contrasts indeed with old business textbooks like ‘Marketing Warfare’, which used to be recommended MBA reading, and which suggested ‘ambushing’ the customer, doing ‘guerrilla warfare’ on consumers and which had a battle tank illustration on several pages. If the key to successful and sustainably valuable businesses is to build good, long term and reliable relationships with customers, it might be a good idea to start using the language and behaviour involved in good and respectful human relationships vs sharp and exploitative practice.

This also reminded me of a great talk by the late, great Anita Roddick, founder of Body Shop. When asked to talk about the original success of the business, she said ‘We advertised for employees, but people turned up instead’. She knew that to build a sustainably successful business you had to care for the people who worked for you, and recognise them as sentient beings with messy feelings, emotions and needs. John Lewis, Unilever and Patagonia and some of the ‘new paradigm’ global brands also have these priorities. Similarly, I have become allergic to the term ‘The Consumer’. I don’t know about you, but I don’t know this entity called ‘The Consumer’. I do know different kinds of people who consume different brands. None of these terms like ‘The Staff’, ‘The Consumer’, ‘The Public’ are likely to engender a sense of humanity and connection. They can reduce people to ‘third party’ specimens to be observed and exploited, and that’s not what’s needed in business or the wider world.

I’m struck by how many people are fabulously human, funny, caring and self-deprecating in private, but as soon as they put a business suit

on, or have the cameras rolling, up go the shoulders, on goes the ‘professional’ face and language…and there we are again.

Chain reaction…

To achieve all this change as well as it could be done, we need a change of chemistry at the top of organisations – literally and emotionally. Which yes, is not very subtle code for having many more women running our major businesses and institutions.

This is not to say that men can’t ‘do human’, or that women have the monopoly on EQ. But rather, things work better when they’re balanced. I won’t repeat here all the excellent studies and research from McKinsey and others that demonstrate that having more women on boards and at senior management levels leads to greater sustainable performance and less risk.

A new world…

So, I would like good business and businesses of all kinds, shapes and sizes, to succeed. Because we all need that to pay for and support – and be part of - the kind of humane and civilised society we all want.

A lot of us seem to spend most of our waking moments at work (and increasingly, being ‘digitally on’ means that a part of us is always there), so it seems like a true waste that we don’t all deliberately set out to make sure work works for us and our human well-being.

In the end, I’m not sure we should talk about ‘business and society’ as though these are two separate concepts. It’s business in society, playing its role of providing interesting and productive work that helps people and helps society. And yes, provides proportionate wealth for those prepared to take risks and take responsibility for starting and leading successful businesses.

It honestly doesn’t seem that hard. We all just need to be prepared to do our bit.

Rita Clifton CBE is a Portfolio Chairman, Director and a brand expert.

Make, Think, Imagine Lord Browne of Madingley Engineering The Future of Civilization

Several years ago, a friend took me to an auction of old watches in Switzerland. He told me he was keen to buy one made by Breguet; I had no idea what he was talking about, but I went with him to the pre-sale exhibition, and what I saw opened my eyes to a branch of bespoke manufacturing that I had never seen before.

France was in the throes of bloody revolution; it had an urgent need for affordable and reliable weapons. So the crux of Blanc’s sales pitch was clear; it did not take a highly skilled craftsman to build a musket – if the gun parts were designed by an engineer and machined to meet pre-specified criteria, they could be assembled by almost anyone.

of the space era were dominated by a few superpowers who alone possessed the knowledge and budgets to undertake the enormous technical and programmatic challenges posed.’ That has changed dramatically during this century.

Sweeting shows me a range of micro-satellites under construction.

Here were masterpieces of ingenuity – small worlds of gears, springs, wheels and ratchets, all in the service of telling the time.

Some were so elaborate that they were called ‘grande complications’. I fell in love with the idea that such effort had gone into achieving a simple objective of measurement, which can now be achieved by an inexpensive digital watch.

Blanc’s approach delivered guns that were not only cheaper than the competition, but also far more reliable. By the time he died in 1801, his factory at Roanne in central France was turning out more than ten thousand identical muskets a year for Napoleon’s armies. This was a new way to manufacture that demonstrated the efficiency gained by using interchangeable parts to make exact copies.

These have altered the economics of space profoundly; the key to reducing costs has been the enormous advances in the manufacture of microelectronics.

The watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet was a master of the handmade and introduced a series of innovations that revolutionised the reliability and accuracy of the pocket watch during the late eighteenth century.

Blanc’s mass production of guns and Breguet’s bespoke crafting of pocket watches were very different ways of making things, but both would change our world profoundly.

Breguet’s watches paved the way to the accurate timekeeping that rely on to run our lives and our economies, and Blanc’s gun-assembly technique pointed the way to modern mass production, which has been the engine of global economic progress for the last two centuries. In both developed and developing countries, manufacturing contributes disproportionately to exports, investment in innovation and productivity growth.

Napoleon bought three of Breguet’s watches and used them to coordinate his army’s actions on the battlefield. Throughout his long career, Breguet’s quest was to perfect the pocket watch and, as a result, every one of his timepieces was unique. His most famous watch, commissioned by French queen Marie Antoinette in 1783, was so complex that it took forty-four years to c omplete and left Breguet’s workshop only after both queen and watchmaker were dead. When it was finally finished, the Breguet No. 160 was a masterpiece of mechanical complexity. It kept track of the date (including the ability to accommodate leap years), chimed the hour, had a power reserve indicator, a stopwatch and even incorporated a thermometer.

Breguet’s approach to making was the antithesis of his contemporary, the French engineer Honoré Blanc. In November 1790, Blanc put on a dramatic demonstration for a group of politicians and generals. By selecting components, apparently at random, from bins arranged in front of him, he quickly assembled several working muskets. .

Mass Customisation: Efficient, Personalised and On-Demand In the eighteenth century Blanc, the mass-producer, and Breguet, the master craftsman occupied opposite ends of the manufacturing spectrum. Had they been alive today, their work would have been much more closely aligned.

To make his bespoke watches, Breguet had to make many of the components by hand.

Today, makers have access to huge catalogues of standardised parts, an idea pioneered by the industrial manufacturer Blanc.

I saw the power of this approach when I visited Surrey Satellite Technology. Its CEO, Martin Sweeting, explains that ‘the first four decades

Most of these small satellites are made from off-the-shelf components that are also used in consumer electronic devices. Some of them use a smartphone to navigate and take images of Earth. ‘Space is now within the reach of small companies, universities and even high schools,’ says Sweeting. The falling cost and improving capabilities of constellations of small satellites will stimulate new applications in communications, Earth observation and more.

The makers of small satellites solved the challenge of integrating and adapting existing technologies to create new and powerful capabilities, bridging the difference between the bespoke and the mass-produced.

Nanotechnology and synthetic biology promise to bridge this same gap by, for example, creating materials and cells that can self-heal and adapt themselves to changing environments. These technologies are moving forward in parallel with great advances in 3D printing, robotics, artificial intelligence and other forms of automation.

Together, these different of engineering herald a revolution in the way we make and consume.

The team of young makers in a London start-up called Unmade provide a glimpse of the possibilities created by the new world of mass-customisation. In a studio beneath London’s Somerset House, Ben AlunJones points to one of the grey automatic knitting machines that is controlled by his company’s software. It is the length of a small automobile, with spools of brightly

coloured yarn lined up along the top. ‘That one probably has 30,000 moving parts. It’s far more complex than any 3D printer,’ says Alun-Jones. He describes how the machine is entirely computer-controlled, although the proprietary software that comes with it is frustratingly inflexible.

Alun-Jones and his co-founders have set about adjusting the machine’s code to develop new capabilities. Some of the results are displayed on a nearby rack that holds an eclectic mix of colourful knitted sweaters.

One bears a four-colour portrait of Ernest Hemingway, while another disturbs the neat blue stripes of a classic Breton sweater with a chaotic series of swirls and vortices.

Unmade’s new code gives customers a role in the design of their clothes and, at almost no cost to efficiency, every garment made by the machines that are controlled by the company’s software is unique. ‘You could do what we’re doing by manually programming each one. We do it on an automatic industrial scale now,’ says Alun-Jones, who hopes that this new approach will soon expand to tailoring. ‘Fit is much harder than what we’re doing at the minute… But it’s on our road map. When we solve that, it will be a big deal.’

Alun-Jones is also committed to helping to reduce the extraordinary waste created by today’s fashion industry. ‘It’s a $2.4 trillion industry and there is $250 billion a year in wasted stock,’ he explains incredulously.

The mass-customisation processes pioneered by organisations such as Unmade parallel those recently established by car manufacturers like Mercedes-Benz, which now allow customers to specify one of up to a million combinations of customisable options.

These advances show us that manufacturing will increasingly shift to an ‘on-demand’ process, which can supply products that are tailored to individual requirements and made only when they are required, in a way that minimises waste and maximises efficiency.

Speaking to many engineers and business leaders who are pioneering these developments, they were all at pains to emphasise that total automation of manufacturing processes is not a desirable or a realistic ambition. Rather, they emphasised the immense potential of human makers working in collaboration with the very best tools from robotics, artificial intelligence and other branches of automation. Clearly, we are not on the verge of massive technological unemployment, a fact reflected by today’s high employment rates in Britain, the US.

Physical Things in a Digital World In 2011 the web pioneer Marc Andreessen announced that ‘software is eating the world’.

His argument was that every part of our lives and every corner of our economies is being reduced to bits and bytes, which are then manipulated by computer algorithms.

The implication was that the physical world, populated by the tangible objects that we make, build and exchange, will gradually recede in importance. While it is true that inventions such as the smartphone collapse multiple functions into a single form (nobody need carry a separate camera, diary, typewriter, pocket radio and book with them these days), these positive trends towards ‘dematerialisation’ and ‘digitisation’ can only go so far.

As John Hennessy, Turing Prize winner and Chairman of Alphabet, puts it, ‘If we’re really going to invent a better world … there’s got to be more than just digitisation.’ We cannot eat software and nor will it heal us, clothe us or provide us with shelter. Just as we will rely on the ingenuity and flexibility of a human workforce, we will still need such basic things as steel pipes and optical fibres, as well as the more complex technological devices that support all our digital tools.

Tony Fadell, one of the principal inventors of the iPod and the iPhone is adamant that innovation in hardware still represents the way forward. ‘Software can only eat the world after a hardware disruption has been created. If the hardware wasn’t there, none of the software would have been created.’ And in his view, getting the devices right so they can unshackle new potential is critically important, and often much more challenging than software engineering.

‘It takes a radical way of thinking about the entire system to create the explosion of new opportunities, new businesses, new industries and new verticals that can be created [after a transformative new device or platform is invented].’ The successful launch of constellations of GPS satellites is a clear illustration of this point – only after the physical satellites were in orbit and fully operational could the crucial applications upon which we all now depend be born.

The European Space Agency’s Paul Verhoef echoed Fadell’s central message when he said that, as hardware innovators, ‘we need to look ahead, often a lot further ahead than where the IT folks are looking’.

Many of the biggest challenges facing humankind can only be tackled by making physical objects and systems. The crucial goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions in order to tackle climate change demands that we innovate and deploy new energy sources and distribution networks. Relieving energy poverty and securing supplies of water, food,

sanitation and other basic necessities in the developing world requires physical engineering. As health care improves and populations get older, we will need better and more affordable medical devices that we can deploy ubiquitously. And, as cities grow, we must make physical infrastructure and transport systems that maintain cities as functional and pleasant places to live.

Digital tools can certainly help us make solutions in more inventive and efficient ways, but they cannot confront these problems alone.

The engineering of physical objects at higher and higher efficiencies is, however, the primary means through which the fruits of progress can be shared most widely. 3D printing and related fabrication techniques will take this to a new level, allowing for more on-demand, localised and customised manufacturing, with less wastage of material and energy.

Despite repeated claims that software will ‘eat the world’, it is of no value without hardware to run on. The relatively slow pace of hardware development will always limit the rate of change in manufacturing and technological advance more generally; often this is a good thing, since it gives us time to adapt, to design effective regulation and to re-train and re-educate workers so they can get best out of new tools. In the years to come, manufacturing will increasingly be changed by robotics, data analytics, connected sensors, synthetic biology and nanotechnology, but society will use these new tools to continue the decades-long trend of reducing average working hours.

If our basic needs can be met with less effort, we will be able to invest more energy in improving the world around us.

The human urge to make is at the heart of all progress; it is implicit in every new work of art, every attempt at DIY and every patch that is coded for a piece of open-source software. It is a universal activity and the products of engineering allow us all to tinker, refine and choose how we want to make our lives better and more enjoyable.

At the most fundamental level, making things is at the root of all of progress.

As the late Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development at Harvard University, put it to me so clearly, ‘Society advances because we make things.

It’s just so obvious.’

This is a modified extract from John Browne’s new book Make, Think, Imagine: Engineering the Future of Civilisation, published by Bloomsbury, £25 hardback.

Impact Of Referendums Lord Soley The Impact of the Increased Use of Referendums

The following article is my edited version based on a debate I initiated in the House of Lords on Thursday 13th June 2019. The debate can be read in full by going to the ‘House of Lords Hansard’ site and tracking back to the 13th June 2019.

weak or dishonest or because of immigration.

There were many reasons and the strapline ‘Take back control’ went to the heart of what many British people felt about being able to make their own laws and sack their own Governments.

The debate was entitled, “To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the increased use of referendums on the functioning of representative democracy in the United Kingdom.”

The British had bought into the EU as a supermarket – not a super state.

I have been increasingly concerned over the use of referendums in the United Kingdom.

I do not like referendums. I think Britain functions much better under Edmund Burke’s representative democracy model, where MPs and Governments can be thrown out if the electorate so wish.

By and large, referendums do more harm than good. There are, of course, exceptions.

If you have a position where you want to reinforce a constitutional change that has been widely discussed and then largely agreed it can make sense, but it is always worth reminding people that dictators often use referendums to reinforce their position.

Fortunately, we have not been in that position and I do not think we will be.

Referendums can be incredibly divisive. The mess we are in on Brexit is a classic example. It was called on an issue that, frankly, had not been one of the top political issues in the United Kingdom.

One of the key lessons here is that if you do decide to have a referendum make sure you have a policy if you get a result that you did not want. David Cameron had no policy when he lost so, the EU was in a position to negotiate and we weren’t. That was the beginning of the current crisis.

I voted remain but, I was not surprised that ‘Leave’ won. The Brexiteers’ strapline “Take back control” is very powerful. I do not take the view that people who voted leave did so simply because they had not thought it through or because the arguments were

One can argue the toss about what caused the majority ‘Leave’ vote, but one thing we cannot argue about is the fact that the BREXIT referendum has done enormous damage to this country, both here and overseas. It has damaged us politically and economically.

Suddenly Britain which had always been seen as a stable political union looked confused and unstable.

Choosing between leaving or remaining in the EU is a very complex question. The question was simple but, it was on a very complex argument that had many different strands to it, which made it very difficult for people to decide. One neighbour said to me “I looked at all the arguments on both sides but couldn’t decide so I didn’t vote and thought I would leave it to the politicians as they knew more about it”.

My view remains that if MPs are able to debate an issue widely and come to a conclusion, the public can then make their views known with their votes in an election and by lobbying their MP’s.

There have been two referendums on Britain’s membership of the EU. In 1974 under Harold Wilson Government the referendum was on whether we should join what was then the European Community. Now we have had the 2016 referendum called by David Cameron..

They were both called because the political parties in government were divided and could not agree a policy.

What the second one did, which the first did not, was to aggravate the splits, so the divisions in the country now run deep between political parties, organisations, companies and families. Younger people tend to support ‘remain’ while the older generation tend to support ‘leave’. That is not a hard and fast rule, but there is a generational difference in voting

patterns. So, are we going to hold another referendum and if we do, will that finally settle the question? Not necessarily. I have tended to the view that we should not have another referendum, but I am driven to the position that, because of the mess we are in, we might have to hold one to get us out of it.

But I would add this cautionary note: I am by no means convinced that the answer we get will be very different.

It might come to the same conclusion, or it might conclude that we should stay in perhaps by an equally small margin. If that happens, the divisions within the country remain.

Moving that argument forward to one that has concerned me deeply from the beginning is, what happens in Scotland?

The Scottish independence referendum was well debated and there was a great deal of information about it. Everybody agreed that the debate was good and the case for an independent Scotland was lost with a big majority. Did that mean that the argument went away? No, it did not. It has come right back, and the same argument will happen again. The danger is that we go on having referendums without having a solution to the problems that led to them.

That is why I think representative democracy is better than referendums. And if anyone thinks I am saying that because I am afraid that Scotland would vote to break away from the UK, I have to say that in my judgement it is unlikely not least because of the experience of BREXIT. If coming out of the European Union has been a problem after just 40 years membership, think how much more difficult it will be if Scotland chooses to come out of the United Kingdom after 300 years and where the bulk of its ‘exports’ will need go to the rest of the UK. Imagine if that was somehow decided on a narrow majority either way. It would be a disastrous situation for Scotland and for the rest of the United Kingdom. We might

argue now about a hard border between the UK and the EU so how about a hard border between the UK and Scotland! And that is just one of the obvious questions to ask after the example of BREXIT. I think people do realise that leaving these transnational and international bodies is more complex than many nationalists argue.

I always say that if you think nationalism is the answer to the worlds problems then you are asking the wrong question. Nationalism is on the rise and we see it here, in Europe and in the US. It is not a pretty sight!

I will not go into it now, but there is a much stronger case for the United Kingdom to develop a more federal structure. One of the interesting things about our history is that the UK adopted a federalist approach before modern federalism was invented.

We called it the Act of Union and it allowed for different legal systems, church state relations and other differences but we have not developed that into a more coherent and modern federal system – something that I think we should give serious thought to.

There are other important questions about referendums. The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 lays down several conditions in which a referendum could take place, for example, on constitutional issues but there has not been a significant discussion about whether there should be a certain percentage of votes cast in order to make it a legitimate referendum.

Think what happens if you have a referendum on an issue such as Scottish independence or BREXIT and the numbers turning out are only 40% of the electorate.

Think also what happens—this troubles me greatly—if there is not a clear majority.

If there had been a clear majority with the EU referendum in 2016—by that, I mean a majority of 5 million or more we would have far fewer problems than we have now.

I hope people will look at the question of a minimum turnout and whether there should be a maximum vote for or against

as happens in many other countries. The final argument that carries great weight is one that was put by others in the debate in the House.

It is that the public might vote but they then have no responsibility for putting the decision into effect. So, the country decides one way and MP’s think the country ‘Got it wrong’ so what happens? That is one of the reasons Parliament struggles to find a way out of the BREXIT mess.

So, I make a plea for the British system to rely on representative democracy and let MPs and governments be thrown out if they get it wrong. That is a tried-and-tested procedure and had we stayed with it we would not be in the mess that has so damaged our national unity and our reputation.

What Is a Referendum?

The name and use of the ‘referendum’ is thought to have originated in the Swiss canton of Graubünden as early as the 16th century.

The term ‘plebiscite’ has a generally similar meaning in modern usage, and comes from the Latin plebiscita, which originally meant a decree of the Concilium Plebis (Plebeian Council), the popular assembly of the Roman Republic.

Today, a referendum can also often be referred to as a plebiscite, but in some countries the two terms are used differently to refer to votes with differing types of legal consequences.

For example, Australia defines ‘referendum’ as a vote to change the constitution, and ‘plebiscite’ as a vote that does not affect the constitution.

In contrast, Ireland has only ever held one plebiscite, which was the vote to adopt its constitution, and every other vote has been called a referendum.

Plebiscite has also been used to denote a non-binding vote count such as the one held

by Nazi Germany to ‘approve’ in retrospect the so-called Anschluss with Austria, the question being not ‘Do you permit?’ but rather ‘Do you approve?’

Making The UK Fit For Purpose In The 21st Century

By Lord Digby Jones

It is at a time of enormous domestic & international geopolitical flux that I reflect on how the UK might become fit for purpose in the 21st Century.

One has to be careful distinguishing between what is hoped for & what is likely to happen. For example, wouldn’t it be marvellous if the Korean Peninsula was one united & nuclear-free country again?

Likelihood: zilch. But then, who’d have thought Potus & Kim would have had three meetings in as many years already?

A United Kingdom, unshackled from the EU & its competitiveness-destroying regulation, the Germany-favouring (especially economic) policies & its tolerance to rule-ignoring (some would call it cheating)

by France, Italy, Greece et al, can really pick the pearl out of the oyster of the globalised economy.

This is Asia’s Century; we bossed the 19th, the USA made the 20th their own, but this one belongs to Asia. The UK was made for International Trade; it’s in our DNA. From Financial Services to Universities, from design & culture to cars & planes we export & invest like no other. We make good partners. We are an excellent home for inward investment (provided our international reputation isn’t fatally damaged by the share confiscation, exchange controls & a rapacious fiscal regime threatened by some politicians).

Obviously, we need to become more productive as a population; abolishing adult illiteracy & innumeracy by 2030 (to address at school the issue in the new scholastic generation as well) would go a long way to dealing with this & also help reduce crime & health issues.

Imagine what could be achieved if crafted onto these foundations was a regime of less stifling regulation & lower taxes!! What on Earth is wrong with delivering more & better-paid jobs, more economic stability, fatter tax receipts & better schools & hospitals through a regime that stimulates investment, rewards risk-taking, removes reliance on the State & advertises the UK as THE place to come (or stay!) & build a

future? The top 5% of UK taxpayers pay 56% of all income tax. We want them to stay & pay more by volume even if the rate is reduced.

A growing economy enables that to happen.

I look forward to a 21st Century UK that will have reduced tax rates in order to deliver more actual cash for public services.

Whatever Marxists might spout from their ideology, it is (to them) an inconvenient truth that the lower the rates at the top end the more tax cash is collected.

A bonfire of regulation in the next ten years would be so useful in the battle to get (especially) SMEs to be globally competitive.

Whether they’ve come from the unaccountable & unelected Eurocrats in Brussels (whose diktats are followed by some countries & ignored by many others) or gold-plated by The Sales Prevention Team aka the UK Civil Service, a Brexited UK can forge a new regulatory road forward in the 21st Century.

It is typical of an EU marching valiantly towards 1970 that in the Brexit negotiations they were far more concerned about the UK being able to create its own regulatory framework & thus becoming more globally competitive than looking into their own backyard & putting right their own regime.

“The broken leg theory” in the EU is alive & well in the 21st Century. Q: Does Member State A have an advantage over Member State B due to being fitter & better equipped for the race that is globalisation? A: Yes, Conclusion: Don’t try & mend the broken legs of the other competitors in the team; just break the leg of the winning member. Then everyone can be the same… & mediocre!

I also want to see Great Britain & Northern Ireland by the midpoint of this Century free of the internal combustion engine. More charging points & a fiscal regime to encourage, but also a changed mindset in all of us. And that goes for the abolition of single-use plastic as well. Pressure on Business (& the Public Sector as well, please) is important but the real change will come when every one of us makes the change in our hearts. This is our problem!

But my last two reflections on what would my 21st Century UK would look like touch on the body politic. Sadly they might be more in the “wish” than the “will happen” category.

Let us do away with safe seats at General Elections. Constituencies where you could put a sheep up in blue or red & get it in.

Where the winning number of ballot papers are weighed not counted. Rotten boroughs that allow an MP who keeps her or his nose clean to have a job for life & as a bag-carrier of the brand, be lobby fodder for the Party Elite for .....er.....ever! The time has come for some kind of Proportional Representation.

The stultifying omnipotence of two parties, the hijacking of the proud brand of one of them by wealth-destroying Marxists with anti-Semites in their ranks, the growth of smaller parties tapping into a vein of people with frustration & the feeling of being distanced from those who make decisions about their lives .......all this has rendered the way we elect those who govern us not fit for purpose in the 21st Century. Oh! & while the whiff of reform becomes a gale of change, let’s reduce the number of MPs from 650 to 300.

Technology, communication & mobility enable an MP to serve larger constituencies; getting round on a horse to address people from a stage in the Town Square is as anachronistic as the Commons is fast becoming.

Finally, talking of reducing the numbers in Parliament, let this Century, indeed the next decade, be the one when “Reform” & “House of Lords” go together effectively & quickly.

A democratically elected Second Chamber will not enable the place to be full of experts who can advise, revise & speak truth to the Power of the Commons. The Lords should be the Conscience of the Nation, not a place where Party hacks are rewarded, MPs past their sell-by-date are put out to pasture & arcane procedure assumes a disproportionate importance

over holding a proper debate about the real issues of the day. With a number of over 800 (!!) there are also far too many!

Here are a few suggestions how to change things quickly (& there’s no special pleading here; I might well be one of the Peers who fail the test on attendance & I would therefore have to go; so be it. The urgent need for reform is more important than any single one of us):- No one over 80 should be a Member - Those who don’t attend according to an agreed set of rules would never have to attend again; they’d be gone - Those convicted of an indictable offence would be disqualified - The 92 remaining Hereditary Peers would have to go - The power of patronage in the Party Leaders would be removed & appointments would emerge from an Independent Board, thus over time depoliticising the Chamber tribally.

We’d probably reduce the numbers to some 350 overnight; all it requires is Political Will in the Other Place, & given that they are currently busy in the self-obsession of letting down the voters left, right & centre I guess there’s a slim chance of that.

Getting our Country fit for purpose in Asia’s Century is vital; letting Business & democratic capitalism thrive so as to generate the wealth which creates the jobs, delivers the tax which pays for the public sector & allows the Fifth largest economy on Earth to fulfil its huge potential; that’s the task in hand. If only…

About Digby Jones Digby Jones was born into business. Some of his earliest memories are of life in a busy corner shop where he lived with his Mother and Father and older Sister. The shop was, he says, “within a spanner’s throw of the Austin” in Alvechurch, just outside Birmingham, He remembers fondly pressing his nose against the shop window watching the new Minis as they left the factory, destined for showrooms across the UK and the world. It was here he learnt the first rudiments of business and its role in society – important values that were never to

leave him. Digby discovered the importance of good customer care at an early age and the concept of cash flow and profit and loss – the very essence of good business management became an everyday reality for the young boy.

And, when the supermarkets began to move into the area in the mid-sixties, he also learned about the vulnerability of business.

transactions, but he was intimately involved in all aspects of business from “running the firm as a business” to recruiting and managing several hundred employees.

It was here that he developed a vision of business and its role in society, and began to believe firmly in socially inclusive wealth creation.

When he was 10 his parents sold the shop and his Father became a full-time student. The family lived off a grant while he studied, before he finally qualified as a Probation Officer. His Mother worked as an Assistant Physiotherapist at the local hospital.

In 2000 Digby was appointed Director-General of the Confederation of British Industry, the UK’s ‘Voice of Business’, and was able to put some of his ideas and beliefs into action. During his six and a half years as DG of the CBI, he became well-known in the public arena, particularly for his candid, forthright attitude in his many media appearances.

It was at this period of his life when Digby first became aware of two very different aspects of the public sector.

The young Digby showed early promise. He attended Alvechurch Primary School from where he won a scholarship to Bromsgrove School, a Public School for boys.

He enjoyed his school life and worked hard.

He played rugby and hockey for the school and ultimately became Head Boy. Ambitious and full of life, he was not averse to the occasional prank, but this cost him dearly a few days before he was due to leave school when he was expelled for “streaking around the quadrangle for a bet”.

For much of his childhood money was scarce, but the Jones children had a good life with “much love and lots of laughter and fun”. This, he says, made him appreciate the importance of family values as well as good money management.

Life in the corner shop had also made him very aware of community as where he lived almost everyone relied on “The Austin” in some way or other. On payday, families would come into the shop and spend their hard-earned cash.

When times were hard they spent less, which taught him how this affected everyone, not least his own family.

Digby’s graduation with an Upper Second Honours Degree in Law from University College London was followed by 20 years with Edge & Ellison, a Birmingham-based Corporate Law firm, where he worked his way up from Articled Clerk to Senior Partner.

During these years, not only was he involved in many major corporate

He campaigned relentlessly on a range of issues including the move from traditional manufacturing of commodities to value-added, innovative products and the development of globally competitive services.

He also lobbied against protectionism protesting that “it is a scourge which may well find short term popularity but inhibits growth, reduces tax-producing wealth-creation, deters productivity-enhancing competition, prevents social advancement through upskilling and oppresses the weak”.

Digby’s views on the Public Sector remain a subject of great debate. He has stressed that, “if fundamental reform does not take place, from working practices right through to pension provision, we will end up with an ever-diminishing private sector trying to pay for, and provide pensions for, an ever-increasing and inefficient, unproductive, self-interested public sector.

As a getting older population puts a greater strain on the NHS just giving it more money is not the answer. Reform is overdue but sadly politically impossible”.

Digby is married to Pat and they live in Warwickshire from where they enjoy the theatre (he is a member of the Artists’ Circle at the Royal Shakespeare Company), The Birmingham Royal Ballet and The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (where he is a major patron). Digby skis and has more than a passing interest in military history. He is an avid Leicester Tigers and Aston Villa supporter.

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The Elusive Art of Great Judgement By Michael Nicholas

There is no doubt that the quality of our decisions impacts practically every aspect of our lives. Professionally, it is arguably the factor that makes the greatest difference to the level of success that we will achieve, because it determines how well every other talent or capability we have can be applied.

Our proficiency in making those difficult judgment calls also governs the size of problem we can solve, and is therefore strongly related to how far we will progress and how much we will thrive.

The challenge is that making decisions, whether relating to strategy, operational crises, people, or even our health, cannot reliably be boiled down to pure reasoning in a process that will provide all the answers, though it has become common practice to try. Imagine, for example, a recruitment decision where the final two candidates can hardly be separated overall, though they have strengths in different areas. The trade-offs in such a case are highly ambiguous and no amount of data can offer an answer. Therefore, the final decision will always involve an element of “gut instinct”.

The unavoidable interplay between our sequential, slow, logical thinking, and those fast, automatic, intuitive reactions has prompted a long debate about whether rational analysis or intuition offers the most reliable and effective approach to decision making.

Should we favour the fast, intuitive and seemingly effortless conclusion that somehow just feels right, or a slower, more thoughtful approach that requires much greater effort?

Gut Instinct vs. Logic – It’s Not a Case of Either/Or Even in the Harvard Business Review, a widely-acknowledged source of very high quality information we see evidence of this everyday decision making dilemma.

It has covered articles entitled Don’t Trust Your Gut, Learn to Trust Your Gut, Tell Your Gut to Please Shut Up, Intuition Isn’t Just about Trusting Your Gut, and more. And this is just from this one source!

This type of discussion is at best misleading, and could lead to significant errors. Rather than trying to boil such a complex issue down to an either/or conclusion, research indicates that the answer is much more nuanced. It suggests that to maximise successful outcomes, by far the most important dependency is to find the most appropriate balance between these two psychological modes of decision making: fast/intuitive and slow/rational.

If recent evidence is correct, finding that balance—one that is an appropriate match to the circumstances—may be six times more important than good analysis in determining how well we make decisions.

An effective starting point for achieving balance is to grow our awareness in two areas: • From an external perspective – to establish the level of complexity that exists in the environment within which the decision must be made.

• From an internal perspective – to build awareness of the huge impact that unconscious mental processes can have on the way we evaluate the circumstances we face.

Better understanding in each of these areas will assist anyone in improving their decision making, often remarkably quickly.

Complexity is a Game Changer When data is available that allows useful predictions of future outcomes to be produced, problems can be solved logically.

However, today, the conditions we face are increasingly becoming riddled with too many intangibles, complexities, unknowns and variables to allow every possibility to be identified, fully analysed and understood.

Order and predictability are breaking down, with the result that historical data can often now only explain how things happened after the event and help us to create scenarios for what might happen next. It no longer has the predictive value that it used to. Looking at this more deeply, every situation can be seen to sit somewhere on a continuum where the amount of order that exists is the variable:

• At one end are conditions which are inherently highly ordered. These can be dealt with using a problem-solving approach, because useful predictions relating to the future can be made and the cause/effect relationship between actions taken and results achieved is easy to understand. Reasoning can therefore be very effective in determining solutions.

• At the opposite extreme lies total chaos, such as may exist on a battlefield.

The type of situation where financial markets must temporarily close because they are in meltdown is another example.

At this extreme, projections relating to the future are meaningless, and even analysis conducted after the event may never fully unpick what happened.

Here, the only approach to decision making that works is one of “emergence”, where actions are largely intuitively guided and must be rapidly reassessed and changed as necessary based on how the event unfolds.

Somewhere around the middle of the continuum, the dominant characteristic of the environment switches from order to complexity.

This occurs at the point when historical data is no longer a useful predictor of the future, meaning that how the situation evolves can then only be fully understood with hindsight.

Which end of the continuum a decision-making challenge sits on has profound implications for decision makers, because at the complex end it can no longer be assumed that the solution that would have worked in the past will continue to be effective in the future.

Here, completely new solutions are required, so the creativity that stems from our intuitive leaps becomes essential.

Both capabilities - analytical reasoning and creativity - are always necessary, but to different degrees at different points on the continuum. Thus, the ability to recog-

nise the point where order and complexity switch dominance is the key to achieving the optimal balance between rationality and creativity in the decision-making process.

breakthrough strategies which others often rationalise as unviable. And there is very likely some truth in this belief, but it doesn’t come without risks.

The Balance is Changing That the complex end of the continuum is becoming increasingly important is reflected in the World Economic Forum’s 2016 list of the top 10 skills it believes will be needed in the workplace by 2020.

Feeling “Right” when we are “Wrong” Unfortunately, as we all know, instincts can also have a strong tendency to be wrong. The complex mental processes that underlie decisions have been studied for several decades, and this research has found that we all use many unconscious preferences and short-cuts, even as we deal with the routine challenges and decisions of day-to-day life.

The top three are “complex problem solving,” “critical thinking” and “creativity”: all vital elements of the mental capabilities necessary to make effective decisions when faced with rapid change and great uncertainty. Furthermore, “judgment and decision making” was on the list explicitly at number 6, and “cognitive flexibility,” which underpins creativity, was number 10.

Until relatively recently, good judgment was possible much of the time by adopting analytical reasoning processes, so it is perhaps unsurprising that this has tended to be adopted as people’s default mode.

However, assuming the World Economic Forum’s forecast is even broadly accurate, achieving ongoing success will very soon require many of us to think again about how we approach our decision making.

Getting Creative So, does this mean that intuition is now the magic ingredient in good judgment? It is certainly easy to find evidence to support such a belief.

“The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery. There comes a leap in consciousness, call it intuition or what you will, and the solution comes to you, and you don’t know how or why.”

This statement by Albert Einstein, who is widely recognised as one of the most influential scientists of all time, appears to attribute his discoveries to… “intuition or what you will.” In fact, for the mathematical reasoning needed to validate his ideas, he often relied on others.

I have no doubt that you have had such flashes of insight—the aha! moments, when solutions just pop into the mind. Research has found that they happen most often when the conscious mind is relaxed, or involved in another task entirely, which demonstrates just how important the unconscious is to this process.

Many shrewd top executives are recognised for precisely this ability, where intuitive judgments that cannot be explained by reason or logic, prove to be highly reliable.

They get a sense of “knowing” what the solution to a problem is, without fully being able to articulate why. Such executives commonly believe that intuition differentiates them, giving them the ability to see significance in information which others overlook, to spot invalid assumptions, and to have faith in the sort of

Our brains never stop working and the processes involved naturally introduce biases and traps to catch anyone who is unaware of them.

Because of the ease with which intuitive answers or solutions come to us, we tend to feel confident of them, irrespective of their source. We like to hang on to the evidence of our conscious experience, which suggests that our experience of the world is “accurate” and then we form beliefs and opinions based on that perception.

But when mental challenges that are hard seem easy—like recognising the emotion behind a facial expression or reacting almost instantly to an emergency while driving—it is because a huge amount of unconscious brain capacity has been allocated to them. This results in an important paradox: Those times when we have access to our greatest mental capabilities coincide with when we have the least ability to recognise any errors we make.

No mental ‘warning bell’ will ring when you are running on automatic and on the brink of a serious error—because we will still feel as though we are right even when time proves that we were wrong.

that punctuate our lives, and increasing our capacity to respond in new ways to challenges. This is not a passive process, but rather one that we need to actively engage in.

For example, such awareness allows us to put our emotions in better perspective, to slow down enough to remember and assess the results we got from using similar emotions in the past, or to develop the empathy necessary to consider the impact of an emotion on others.

This is the first step in regaining control over our emotions, which will immediately empower us to make new and improved choices.

Growing self-awareness, above any other approach that I’m aware of, has the power to transform decision-making. It enables us to become alert to the biases and traps of the unconscious mind and to compensate accordingly.

Even though these biases cannot be fully overcome, there are many highly effective protective measures that can be taken once these limitations have been understood.

Forewarned is forearmed.

So, to summarise, effective decision-making is a dynamic process, involving our logical/ rational and intuitive/creative capabilities. It cannot be reduced to a step-by-step process that will be reliable in all circumstances because of the importance of context, i.e. the level of complexity we face, in determining the most effective approach.

By actively considering how much uncertainty exists and becoming more aware of the unconscious mental processes involved, anyone can substantially improve their judgment. The rewards to be gained from doing so are considerable.

Because the mental processes involved are unconscious, our preferences and assumptions naturally introduce a lack of objectivity, introducing biases which will often be detrimental to effective decision making.

Self-Awareness: The Critical Enabler to Better Judgment Given that we can’t hope to improve or change anything that we are unaware of, and that, by definition, we must be unaware of activity in the unconscious mind, what can we do?

The answer to this question is simple, even though putting it into practice is definitely not easy: we must raise our level of awareness, gradually becoming more conscious of what is driving our choices. Carl Jung, the e steemed Swiss psychologist, put it this way: “Until we make the unconscious conscious, it will direct our lives and we will call it fate.”

By turning attention inward, we can profoundly change the way we see things, giving us the ability to recognise the habitual patterns of thoughts, emotions and actions

Michael Nicholas is an award-winning professional speaker and leadership coach, and author of The Little Black Book of Decision Making: Making Complex Decisions in a Fast-Moving World, (Capstone, 2017).

He helps people improve their performance by challenging them to revolutionise their thinking and behaviour.

His insightful, results-oriented training is grounded in 30 years of real-world experience gained through working with leaders from a wide variety of industries, holding senior business positions himself, and serving on active duty as a military officer.

He specialises in decision-making, emotional intelligence, and employee engagement.

Roberto Gavazzi CEO, BOFFI Interviewed by Laura Blakeman

Founded in 1934 with a focus on kitchens in its native Italy, Boffi is today recognized as a global design brand for the home and contract markets, known for its innovative blend of modern aesthetics and traditional craftsmanship. A conversation with Boffi CEO Roberto Gavazzi.

When you entered Boffi in 1989, the company was a traditional family business.

What key steps did you take to transform it into a contemporary design brand?

It was a multi-phase approach, focused on the offering and international expansion.

The starting point was to expand the offering and sell more than just kitchens – when I arrived, kitchens made up 96 percent of sales.

We diversified into bathrooms, wardrobes and now furniture after our acquisition of De Padova (a prestigious Milan furniture brand acquired by Boffi in 2015).

We moved away from a company that was simply selling “products” to one that was offering systems.

The idea was to create systems that could be adapted to meet the desires of a highend clientele.

Our range revolves today around three concepts: standard, modular and customized.

Take kitchens, for example. The main offering is a traditional setup with standard cabinets and different kinds of finishes; then there are technical pieces like the Salinas kitchen, where we have a wide offer of materials but a specific number of possibilities since you put your kitchen together with a configurator choosing from a series of modules; lastly, we have Boffi Code, which is based on a totally customized solution for those who want to stand out from the crowd. The same concept is applied to our entire product offering.

What are the key elements of your brand strategy in terms of marketing and communications?

A key role was and is played by the monobrand showrooms we have in major cities like Milan, London, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, to mention just a few. It’s a vehicle that other successful brands, such as those in fashion, have used. Showrooms played a key role in our successful internationalization – today, 85 percent of our business is done abroad.

What challenges do you see for the brand?

The Boffi brand and style are recognizable here. The interior design is clean but emotional. They are places that attract developers, press and VIPs. It’s where clients meet our network of architects who can work with them.

Online things become flat, you don’t experience the products in the same way.

Clients need to feel special and see they are getting the best treatment. A Boffi showroom must be in a strong, charismatic location. It should surprise customers, make them want to come inside and learn more. And the know-how of showroom staff must meet the same high standards as our products: staff are trained and regularly updated at our factory headquarters in Italy.

How would you describe the brand’s personality? What keywords do you want people to associate with Boffi?

We want to be seen as a solution provider not a furniture seller and be associated with sophisticated, contemporary, long-lasting design. It’s the same with De Padova, which has always promoted timeless products. You are certain that our products will still be appreciated 20 years from now.

For Boffi and De Padova, it’s about creating something that has a clean look but that is not minimalist: solutions can be combined with different styles and materials that can fit together in harmony.

How has the industry changed?

Apartments are now much more open. Walls are falling in the kitchen and bathroom. Space is an added value.

Homes integrate the kitchen with the living room and dining area. People want to show off the kitchen.

It’s about creating a pleasurable environment.

We have to pay more attention to digital technology, web and social media, but we will also need to be careful since too much tends to be accessible online. We try to create mystery and intimacy around our brand and we communicate this via our showrooms.

We want people to enjoy the atmosphere in our showroom and make them feel secure.

It’s not just about showing a nice product but introducing them to our world.

It shouldn’t be so attainable or accessible, but itshouldn’t be snobbish either. It’s about sophistication. Boffi is globally renowned as a brand linked to the world of design kitchen and bathrooms, with collections of a unique style and a strong personality that transform a kitchen or a bathroom into the centre of a home and of our daily life. In its history the brand can boast three very famous art directors namely Luigi Massoni, Antonio Citterio e Piero Lissoni. Together with them, Boffi has developed a sophisticate array of products that has been able to conquer the international market over the years.

The 60 single brand showrooms located across the world and the various retails guarantee the customers a qualified personnel, able to transform any aesthetic requirements in ideal and bespoke solutions in line with Boffi strategy and through the customization of shapes, dimensions and materials.

The History of Boffi In the Italian Design The first Boffi artisan business was founded in 1934 by Piero Boffi. However, it was only in 1947, when his three sons joined the company that the real factory was born.

In the ‘60s under the guidance of the first art director Luigi Massoni revolutionary projects took shape, among which Joe Colombo’s Minikitchen, exhibited at the Moma museum in New York. The launching of the collection dedicated to the

Rosewood Hotel Holborn, London Brief History Housed in the original headquarters of the Pearl Assurance Company, Rosewood London opened in October 2013, marking the presence of the Rosewood Hotel & Resorts® brand in Europe.

Within only a year, Rosewood London became the pioneering five-star luxury hotel in Midtown, winning eight prominent accolades, including “Best Business Hotel 2016” at the Condé Nast Traveller Readers’ Awards UK and “Best Hotel Suite: Manor House Suite 2016” at The European Hospitality Awards 2016.

Following a £85 million renovation to sensitively transform the 1914 Edwardian Belle Époque building, the original architectural features were painstakingly restored by an expert team of craftsmen, including the magnificent Grade II-listed street frontage and dome, and the grand Pavonazzo marble staircase which rises up through all seven storeys of the hotel beneath the 166-foot cupola. Guests enter via a grand carriageway which leads to a distinctive courtyard giving a sense of arrival more akin to a private manor house than a hotel.

Accommodations The 263 rooms and 45 suites including nine signature suites, referred to as “houses,” have been crafted from the finest materials and appointed to the highest standard to convey the feel of stylish London residences. The Grand Manor House Wing, one of London’s most exclusive residences, welcomes guests via its own private entrance and is the only suite in the world to possess its own postcode.

Meetings & Events The facilities encompass 11 event spaces accommodating groups of 10 to 555 and including one Grand Ballroom, three heritage boardrooms, the Living Room, the Dining Room which includes a show kitchen, five flexible meeting rooms and the Event Studio, a tactile showcase of event accessories unique to London.

Restaurants & Bars A strikingly elegant salon with floor to ceiling mirrors, the Mirror Room, serving elegant, innovative cuisine and afternoon tea.

The Martin Brudnizki-designed Holborn Dining Room, with outdoor terrace, offers British classics with a twist whilst Scarfes Bar serves creative cocktails alongside jazz.

Sense® , A Rosewood Spa Rosewood London’s Sense®, a Rosewood Spa and fitness suite is the epitome of style and tranquillity. Available to hotel and non-hotel guests, this urban retreat bamboo walls, soft lighting and wooden walkways over rippling water and pebble stones leading to seven treatment rooms, one of which is an exclusive couple’s suite.

The ladies and gentlemen’s changing rooms offer a sauna, steam room and large sensory showers. The shimmering gold leaf and teak relaxation lounge is the centrepiece of the spa and provides a tranquil and restorative hideaway in the heart of London. At Sense®, a Rosewood Spa we offer an array of treatments and products from our spa brands; EviDens de Beauté, Sodashi, Maison Caulières and Face Place to relax and soothe guests and visitors.

Experience five-star hair treatments from award-winning and celebrity stylist Matthew Curtis within an intimate and boutique style salon at Sense spa.

The Gin Bar Holborn Dining Room features the Gin Bar offering London’s largest collection of Gin. The Gin Bar features over 500 Gins and 20 tonics, which are perfectly paired in the Gin Book offering over 10,000 varieties of G&T’s as well as gin based cocktails.

Management Rosewood Hotels & Resorts® manages 28 one-of-a-kind luxury hotels, resorts and residences in 16 countries, with 19 new properties under development. Each Rosewood property embraces the brand’s A Sense of Place® philosophy to reflect the individual location’s history, culture and sensibilities.

The Rosewood collection includes some of the world’s most legendary hotels and resorts, including The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel in New York, Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas and Hôtel de Crillon, A Rosewood Hotel in Paris, as well as new classics such as Rosewood Hong Kong. For those who wish to stay a little longer, Rosewood Residences offer a distinct opportunity for ownership or rent in extraordinary destinations within the brand’s wide-ranging portfolio.

Managing Director Michael Bonsor Starting from an early age Michael worked alongside his parents at their hotels in Scotland before venturing to the US to work with Four Seasons & Resorts for 10 years in Boston, Toronto and New York. Working at

iconic hotels such as The Pierre and the Four Seasons in New York and opening restaurants including L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon. On returning to London, Michael began his British career at Claridge’s as the Food & Beverage Manager then becoming the Hotel Manager of this iconic hotel. After four years at Claridge’s, Michael opened Rosewood London, a highly anticipated opening of this ultra-luxury hotel brand.Currently managing director of Rosewood London, Michael looks after the hotel’s 306 rooms and suites, 11 event spaces and 3 restaurants and bars, which include internationally recognised Scarfes Bar and Holborn Dining Room. The hotel has garnered impressive awards under Michael’s management, including Best Hotel in London by Conde Nast Traveller, Best Hotel by GQ and Hotel of the Year by The Caterer, but to name a few.

Executive Chef Simon Young Rosewood London is pleased to welcome Simon Young as Executive Chef at Rosewood London. Simon Young oversee’s the luxury hotel’s kitchens and restaurants including the popular Scarfes Bar and elegant Mirror Room.

Simon has over 25 years’ experience in the hospitality industry, having worked most recently as Executive Chef at Jumeirah Carlton Tower where he oversaw the entire Culinary division. Well-established within his sector, Simon boasts a number of esteemed accolades attached to his name, including Hotel Cateys Chef of the Year and Craft Guild of Chefs’ Banqueting Chef of the Year.

Simon is responsible for the daily operations and management within Rosewood London’s kitchens, and will oversee the team in his typically professional and passionate manner. He comments: “I have watched Rosewood London with great interest since it opened; it has built such a strong reputation and I am delighted to become part of its ongoing journey. I am looking forward to maintaining and improving the great F&B offerings throughout the hotel, and working alongside the amazing culinary team”.

Calum Franklin remains Executive Chef at Holborn Dining Room, and Mark Perkins continues as Rosewood London’s Executive Pastry Chef.

Pictured right, Rosewood CEO Sonia Cheng and colleagues.

Rise Of The ‘Youpreneur’ Chris Ducker Building a Business Around Yourself

In 2009, Chris Ducker was working an 84hour week as a highly successful entrepreneur in the Philippines, running several businesses and employing 350 people around the world.

Then he had a breakdown that landed him in the hospital for ten days and eventually led to back surgery from all those deskbound hours.

Now he works an average of six hours a day and always takes Friday off. What happened? Chris discovered the power of building a personal brand. In 2015, he decided to share his business breakthroughs with other entrepreneurs.

He founded Youpreneur.com, the fastest-growing personal brand business education company in the world and wrote the business bestseller ‘Rise of the Youpreneur: The Definitive Guide to Becoming the Go - To Leader in Your Industry and Building a Futureproof Business’. sat down with I-MAGAZINE to tell us how he squeezes so much into his twenty four hour work week.

You coined the term ‘Youpreneur’, which is also the title of your recent book ‘Rise of the Youpreneur: The Definitive Guide to Becoming the Go-To Leader in Your Industry and Building a Futureproof Business’. What does ‘Youpreneur’ mean?

A Youpreneur is someone who builds a profitable business based around themselves, their experience, their personality, and their unique customer base. To give you some examples, this includes consultants, speakers, experts, financial advisors, thought leaders, coaches, mumpreneurs building businesses around their passions, authors, content creators, bloggers, podcast hosts, YouTubers.

Basically anyone in any industry building a business and offering products based around their experience and personality.

The Youpreneur concept grew naturally from my own work blogging and podcasting, which I started in 2010. It became evident to me that people were relating to me more than to the brand name

of the podcast. They were saying, “Hey, listen to Chris’s podcast”. Eventually I realised that I had a personal brand myself. It wasn’t s omething I set out to do, but it came about with speaking, then the first book deal, then the second, and so on, until I realised I had built a business around myself. The term, Youpreneur, itself was born over a cup of coffee, with a mate.

You are an extremely successful serial entrepreneur who now mentors, supports and inspires other entrepreneurs. Tell us about the transition between running your own businesses to launching Youpreneur.

The transition for me was a relatively easy one because I hadn’t been involved in the day to day of running my businesses for several years. I hit burnout big time in 2009 and had to make a change. By the end of 2010, we had hired eight people to replace me – which gives you an idea of why I was burned out.

I launched Youpreneur in 2015, and the transition from burnout in 2009 to Youprenuer in 2015 came about gradually. The blog had been growing, and the podcast had grown exponentially. We’re now at 7 million downloads, which is just incredible. People were coming to me to ask for help and coaching. So, we started with an online membership community for mentoring, and this was hugely successful, and we just kept building with the book, the live Summit, the coaching.

The issue here more than anything else and why Youpreneur has done so well is that not only do we provide quality information in a convenient library – we provide community.

Being an entrepreneur can be quite lonely.

When you put yourself into a situation where you’re surrounded by people who get you, it all becomes so much easier. It’s important not just for when you stumble, but also for when you hit your goals and are looking for that high-five.

How has entrepreneurship changed since you launched your first successful businesses?

It’s all become so much more personal. Now building a business is all about what I call

‘P2P’ or People to People. People want to do business with other people more so today than ever. People want to do business with people they know, love and trust – not just like, but love, feel passionate about.

We’re all now operating in a very fast-moving, crowded, noisy space that is constantly changing and will never stop evolving. So, the way to stand out is not to be better, but to be different – being different is better than being better!

You are a champion for future-proofing businesses. What recommendations can you give to help entrepreneurs and individuals to futureproof their careers and businesses?

I’ve started and built a number of different businesses. You come up with an idea, you launch it, you get clients, you lose clients, you pivot, you get more clients, and on it goes. But when you build a business built on your personal brand, it will be the last business pivot that you’ll ever make because you’re building your business around your uniqueness.

Because you’ve built the brand around you and your audience’s trust in you - your audience, your clients, your tribe, these people will follow you. Because they want to do business with YOU, they will pivot with you, as you yourself evolve. Because of that you become futureproof.

Tell us a little about the process of developing a personal brand.

How long have you got? There’s 300 pages in my book about it! But, I’d say it really comes down at the very core, to what do you want to be known for. So, the first step is to define who you are.

Understanding who you are – your strengths and weaknesses – is key. A very easy exercise I give everyone at the beginning of working with them is the self-assessment test. I ask them to write down the ‘flatter yourself’ list and then the ‘keep it real’ list.

That list tends to be a slightly tougher one, especially for the Type A entrepreneurs we work with.

It’s actually the more important one because once you know what your weaknesses are, you know what to avoid. Some people say you should work on your weaknesses, but I’m a big believer in avoiding your weaknesses, delegating your weaknesses.

Instead, lean into the things you excel at; that’s how you find success.

How do you see the personal brand trend developing in the UK and abroad?

It’s going to become more and more important. Personal branding is going to become more and more mainstream.

Seventy percent of kids today will say they want to be YouTuber when they grow up – and of course they can tell you who their favourite YouTubers are. These kids can also tell you who their favourite actors are, their favourite Instagrammers and so on – that’s the next generation and that’s personal branding. And you look around and see that even Richard Branson has his own blog and is on social media because he wants to influence and sees the importance of being seen as the leader of his business.

So, yes, I think it’s going to be incredibly important and even more mainstream and across every industry and platform – across the board.

You’ve recently moved with your family back to the UK from the Philippines. What brought you back?

I love the Philippines and the people there.

It’s an incredible country with so much going for it. But when your kids get to a certain age, it’s time to come home. There are incredible schools in the Philippines, and the kids got a superb education.

They’re very academic - but no cake sales and none of the sport I grew up with.

Youpreneur is a family business and not only does my wife work with me, but our children attend all the events, with full conference badges, the whole experience.

They may decide they don’t want to be entrepreneurs themselves, but they will have the opportunity and the exposure. In

addition, we decided as a family to come back to be able to better serve our primary markets, which are here in the UK and Europe.

You have an intense schedule that includes speaking and presenting around the world.

How do you stay connected with your family, and what recommendations do you give to personal brand entrepreneurs to help them maintain their important relationships when building their own businesses?

There isn’t a magic pill you can pop, but I do think boundaries are key.

I work from 10am – 4pm Monday to Thursday.

I don’t work Fridays and haven’t for six or seven years now. There is never anything on my schedule on a Friday. I start at 10am so I get to be there for the kids in the morning, and I stop at 4pm so I can be there when they get home.

My family always takes top priority over anything I do in business. That said, I don’t think work-life balance is a genuine thing. It’s an invented thing that makes a good sound bite, but it just isn’t real.

You have a hugely successful podcast. What kind of content do you consume?

I actually don’t consume much business content. Except for books. I’m an avid reader, usually consuming 2-3 non-fiction books a month.

I’m also a big Star Wars fan. I deep dive into a lot of the literature not related to the movies. As a family we’re huge Disney fans.

We’re also a Pokémon family! My son and I play Pokémon Go most weekends.

I mentioned this when I was speaking recently at a conference in San Diego, and someone came up to me afterwards and said he played Pokémon Go with his son most weekends, too. The next thing we knew, we had a group having lunch and then playing Pokémon Go together, around San Diego - without any kids! That’s what it’s all about – being in the moment, connecting with people. That’s why I love what I do.

If you run your own business, it will always play a part in your personal life, and if you work from home as most Youpreneurs do, your personal life will always play a role in your business.

What’s the best business decision you’ve made in the past five years?

To double down on my own personal brand.

Looking back across my career, I see retrospectively that every deal I’ve landed and every success I’ve had came from my brand, from me, and from my relationships.

I hugely value relationships. So, yes, the best decision I’ve ever made, hands down, has been to focus on building the business around my personal brand. We’ve more than doubled our annual revenue and tripled our employee numbers since we made that decision, and it’s brought massive opportunities our way, too. Leaning into it, going all in on it, has been the best decision. other people do likewise.

Chris Ducker is a serial entrepreneur, keynote speaker and author of the bestseller, “Virtual Freedom”. He is known as the “Virtual CEO” and regarded as the No. 1 authority on the subject of virtual staffing and personal outsourcing.

Chris owns and operates three businesses in the Philippines, amounting to almost 300 employees - including a call centre, a recruitment consultancy and a co-working space to support local startup entrepreneurs.

Leadership And COVID 19 Alex Ellnis Founder and Director, Greater London Business School

As the world begins to come out of lockdown businesses from across the globe are beginning to reopen, readjusting to the new normal we all now face. Strong leadership has never been more important as companies look for that competitive edge that will help them navigate through all the uncertainty.

Alex Ellinis, Founder and Director of Global Online and executive education at the Greater London Business School, who has helped business leaders for over 20 years, examining the leadership techniques which will be vital for businesses to thrive after the covid crisis.

As we all know, nothing is going to be the same as it was before. So leaders need to realise this, embrace the change if they can, and then set out a plan on how their business is going to move forward. Now, of course, this is easier said than done, but it is possible.

At the Greater London Business School (GLBS) we focus on blending academic with experiential learning so that clients can quickly implement their new knowledge within their respective organisations to achieve the desired results.

After many years working in senior management and sales roles throughout the world I realised that many organisations and individuals were seeking training and qualifications which would have a real impact on their performance and success.

There are many sources of competitive advantage but I am going to examine three which focus on improving leadership and management.

Strategic leadership capabilities are needed in the competitive landscape of today.

Psychological, human and social capital are sources of sustainable competitive advantage for organisations and, therefore, should be carefully nurtured and developed 1. Positive Psychological Capital.

Positive psychology is the scientific study of the strengths that enable individuals and communities to thrive. The field is founded

on the belief that people want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives, to cultivate what is best within themselves, and to enhance their experiences of love, work, and play. The concept of psychological capital is made up of the four elements of hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism, with the commonality of appreciation and the positive appraisal of events.

Understanding positive emotions entails the study of contentment with the past, happiness in the present, and hope for the future. How do you develop this capital? There are a number of techniques: * Focus on past success (mastery experiences) Looking at past success is a robust way to increase levels of self-efficacy. *.Copy the traits and habits other people who are successful (social modeling). * Create situations for success (social persuasion). * Reframe negative experience (psychological responses). In addition to high performance, employees with high psychological capital also have better well-being.

One study found that when these employees have fewer work-life balance challenges, they are less likely to burnout. Researchers also found that psychological capital influences well-being over time.

2. Human Capital Human capital is an integral part of any organisation, it is an intangible asset as it includes all the competencies of the people within an organisation.. Investing in human capital is a real story of a successful businesses, Smart business leaders and managers recognise that human capital is one of the keys to competitive advantage.

If you’re a hiring manager for example, you know that developing and recruiting talent with the right mix of experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities is difficult. And, once you find the right people, training them is expensive, however once you have them they can also create a culture of innovation through experiential learning supporting the

companies life cycle, longevity and market position. Having resources that are Valuable , Rare, Costly to Imitate (VRIO) and having a company that is organised to take advantage of this can create a source of sustained competitive advantage.

It is also important to note that they can also create a disadvantage within an organisation, with the consistent changes in global demands and consumer trends, so more than ever there is an increasing need for enhanced human capital and more importantly continued investment in education, learning and self-development.

3 Social Capital Social Capital is important because it represents the productive benefits of sociability. Social capital is a modern concept playing an essential role in companies and societies. The role of social capital plays a pivotal role on the companies competitiveness through building relationships, networks, alliances, contacts and utilising friend networks for competitive advantage..

Nowadays, this concept is being used extensively in sociology and economics, and more recently in management. Social capital is associated with trustworthiness, civic norms, association membership, and voluntary activities. Strategic alliances are an important source of capabilities a firm may not otherwise possess.

Few firms on their own have all the capabilities needed to compete effectively in our world of fast-paced change. Despite the fact that an alliance is formed nearly every 90 seconds, failure rates appear to occur in nearly 60 percent of all alliances.

In most instances, failure is not a function of the alliance being a bad strategic option; rather, failure is attributable to managerial error. Consequently, successful strategic alliances can bring significant competitive advantage if properly managed.

Flow Methodology At GLBS we are proponents of the flow methodology developed by Professor Csikszentmihályi, one of the world’s leading

authorities on positive psychology and how it affects happiness in the workplace. In his seminal work, “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience”, he outlines his theory that people are happiest when they are in a state of flow -- a state of concentration or complete absorption with the activity.

Flow is a mental state in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment. Flow, creativity, and happiness are related.

A flow state can be entered while performing any activity, although it is most likely to occur when one is wholeheartedly performing a task or activity for intrinsic purposes.

Passive activities like taking a bath or even watching TV usually do not elicit flow experiences as individuals have to actively do something to enter a flow state. While the activities that induce flow may vary and be multifaceted, Csikszentmihályi asserts that the experience of flow is similar despite the activity.

Flow theory postulates three conditions that have to be met to achieve a flow state: 1. One must be involved in an activity with a clear set of goals and progress. This adds direction and structure to the task.

2. The task at hand must have clear and immediate feedback. This helps the person negotiate any changing demands and allows them to adjust their performance to maintain the flow state.

3. One must have a good balance between the perceived challenges of the task at hand and their own perceived skills. One must have confidence in one’s ability to complete the task at hand.

However, it was argued that the antecedent factors of flow are interrelated, as a perceived balance between challenges and skills requires that one knows what they have to do (clear goals) and how successful they are in doing it (immediate feedback).

Serious Business Gaming GLBS has been a pioneer in the use of serious business games and simulation as a teaching tool. A video-based business game is used by the school to assess 29 key management/ leadership competencies.

areas of management, leadership and sales.

For the manufacturing sector there is also a comprehensive range of Six Sigma Lean courses. Training is offered to companies, groups and individuals either face-to-face or via distance and online learning.

The lessons are built around a series of progressively complex workplace assignments or situations; players are required to make in excess of 150 decisions.

The game allows you to practice your responses to challenging business conditions whilst keeping you safe from the expensive (and sometimes irreversible) consequences of your decisions. This brings excitement and inspiration to the teaching of a wide span of leadership topics.

Training is accredited by organisations such as the Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM) and Institute of Sales Management (ISM and regulated by Ofqual.

This method employs real-life business simulation, in an interactive, movie-like setting giving players continuous feedback. Aspiring, as well as experienced managers/leaders, will identify with it and learn from it. At the conclusion of the game an individual report is given to each player on his/her skill set, with a range of bench-marking options available.

Players become totally absorbed into the story indicated by the fact that the global average actual playing time is 7.5 hours.

Since the player is completely unaware of how his or her decisions might affect the skill scores, the player unwittingly reveals his or her real self and their management/leadership attributes.

About The Author Alex has spent the last 20 years working in management and senior executive leadership roles across various diverse sectors including, travel and tourism, supply chain, transport and logistics, security and civil engineering.

He holds an MSc in Strategic management, an MPhil in Business research, a Level 8 Diploma in Leadership, a black belt in Lean six sigma and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in business strategy at Monarch University, Switzerland.

About the Greater London Business School The Greater London Business School (GLBS) is one of the UK’s leading private business schools. Established in 2018, GLBS offers a broad range of accredited courses in the

The school has assembled an expert team of eight teaching staff each of whom has a minimum of 15 years leadership and management experience plus education to at least a Masters degree level. The school also employs two quality assessors who ensure the highest academic standards are maintained.

About Greater London Business School Greater London Business School we are Passionate about creating learning material that enhances management and leadership capabilities, in addition to delivering excellent learning material, the school also offers a mentoring service to help learners with any additional educational and development matters.

We are Trusted in everything we design and deliver, this includes content within our blended courses and in-depth 1-2 day professional courses. Our prestigious students work books and exquisite leadership centres help to enhance the learning experience.

Quality programmes, content and delivery is assured when you enrol with Greater London Business School.

We aim to delver valuable content to help equip each student with the skills and knowledge they need to make a success both personally and professionally. Integrity in everything we do is a promise we keep at the Greater London Business School. Our staff, partners, lecturers and mentors will always give support and guidance while giving swift constructive feedback. Respect always and to everyone, this is important to us when you enrol.

Paul Bassi CBE Nothing Difficult About Success Chairman of Bond Wolfe

Where To Begin When I was first encouraged to write the book that would one day be Brick by Brick: Success in Business and Life, I was in my early 30’s and felt a bit embarrassed and uncomfortable with the idea.

I was busy building my businesses, investing in property and focusing on the future, and didn’t think that I had much wisdom to offer at that stage in my life. The subject reappeared once again in my mid-40’s, but I was still unsure. I certainly had more experience, but what could I share that had not been said before?

Fast forward to my mid 50’s and my attitude to the idea had shifted. I now managed a business portfolio of over £300 million, my children had flown the nest, I did charity work to help others in the community who faced the same difficulties I once did; I guess it was now time to write a book?

I felt that I had a responsibility to pass on the knowledge and experience I had gathered over the years to the next generation of my family, none of whom had any idea of where our family’s journey had started. I wondered if there might be others out there who were looking to get ahead in their own lives but did not know how, and who might benefit from the lessons I had learned in my 35-year working career.

The idea that my profits from the book might be used to help my charitable foundation, the Bond Wolfe Charitable Trust, clinched it for me; I would write a book about my life, and what I had learned about the nature of success.

When I sat down to actually write the book, I thought about what I wanted to share with the faceless reader I had in my mind. I knew that I wanted to begin with my own history, to share where my family had come from, to show how far success could take you, and how quickly.

Brick by Brick begins with my grandfather’s departure from the Punjab, and my father’s arrival in the UK, with just £2 in his pocket.

The book follows my family through uncertainty, race riots and years of hard

work and determination, all culminating in our attendance at Buckingham Palace where I received a CBE for services to business in the West Midlands. But this was not just an exercise in remembering the past or reminiscing over achievements; I wanted to use my story to share what I had learned about the nature of success and help others to reach their own goals.

What is the use of working hard and succeeding, if you can’t help others to do the same? It is a responsibility that comes with achievement and success.

As my career has unfolded, I have often been called ‘successful’, whether that be because of my job, my portfolio, my charitable work, family life or any other number of things.

And with this assumption has come a great number of questions; people often ask me “Am I good enough?”, “Am I worthy?”, or “Is it someone else’s right or domain?”. But these are not the right questions, and don’t scratch the surface of what success really is.

The main idea I wanted to convey with Brick

by Brick is that the concept of success is completely relative to each person’s circumstances. Ultimately, you define what success looks like to you and what it entails, which means that everyone has the potential to be successful, once they have decided how they define that standard.

Of course, then one has to question how you achieve your definition of success. As nice as it would be, there really is no secret formula that can guarantee success, no combination of career choices and life decisions that lead to prosperity. There are however certain disciplines and behaviours that I see displayed time and again by those people who succeed, who get to the top of their game.

In my experience, one of the common misconceptions is that successful people follow a cryptic code that only they can read, and that ordinary people can never access.

While obviously a fortunate beginning helps people to a quick start in life, the majority of successful people get to the top by following disciplines that are available to everybody.

Golden Rules for Success The most important idea that successful people commit themselves to is also one of the simplest; mindset is everything. To me, desire and attitude is more important than circumstances or ability. If you believe you can succeed, are dedicated to working hard and avoid taking shortcuts or quitting, you will succeed. As Henry Ford famously said: “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, either way you’re right”.

There are many talented people who do not reach their goal; it is the determined who make it to the top.

Once you have the mindset that you have it in you to be successful, I believe in the importance of having a concept of success.

I have always had a vision of a ‘big picture’ in the front of my mind, an image of what success means for me that has kept me driven. On the way to this end target, I imagined smaller goals, dotted along the journey, allowing me to benchmark my progress and keeping me motivated as I drew closer to my dream. In my case, the ‘big picture’ was an asset-rich business with a great management team, this objective is now achieved, and I have now shifted my ‘big picture’ accordingly, bringing a new goal to mind. It is this adaptability, this constant focus on a goal that keeps you looking forward and trying to achieve.

If a positive mindset and the all-important ‘big picture’ are two sides of a triangle, the final piece of the puzzle has to be understanding your motivations. You have your goal, but you need to know why you want to achieve it. Think about what makes that final target so important to you; why is this the journey you want to take, the path you want to focus on? Once you find your true reason to work hard, your real purpose in life, you will be able to fully believe in your journey. With faith in your goals and your ability to achieve them, there is nothing holding you back.

Whether you are at the beginning of your journey, imagining your ‘big picture’, or busy working your way to the end goal, it is easy to see problems ahead and be dis-

heartened, assuming that those that succeed must have no such obstacles. I have worked with some incredibly successful individuals from all walks of life – politicians, businessmen and athletes - and they are almost all very normal and ordinary.

They work hard, true, but they are just like you or I. The limitations that stop us from reaching our goals are set by ourselves, not other people. These limitations can be those that make us believe we cannot achieve our goal or can make us stop once we reach a certain point.

Truly successful people do not set restrictions on their ability to achieve; as Bill Gates once said “If I knew the finish line, don’t you think I would have crossed it by now?”

It is very tempting when you are ambitious to compare yourself to others. There will always be others working hard but remember that they are striving for their own goal, not yours. Success is relative. By all means, watch how others work and learn from it, respect and admire them, but be true to yourself, dance to your own beat and measure your success by your own definitions.

I have left the final discipline until last because it’s the hardest one to explain and the most difficult to believe; money is a by-product of success, not the goal. It is easy to scoff at that idea when the people saying it are already successful, but it is true. Nobody chases money; they chase the things it brings.

People chase financial freedom, security, material possessions, and while money can help obtain these objectives, it is not in itself the goal. Instead of having money as your yardstick, strive for other forms of success and don’t chase the money. If you are successful, the money will come, but other aims should always be the focus.

What do successful people have in common?

The successful people I know assign to most, if not all, of the disciplines I have mentioned. They also tend to share some common personality traits.

It is not a surprising fact that people with drive and a strong work ethic tend to be successful. If you are relentless in pursuing a goal, you will succeed in it eventually. As I

said, mindset is always the key and perseverance is a by-product of this thinking.

In any industry, there will be critics and those who try to put you off your path. A thick skin is essential if you want to progress. Believe you can do anything that is thrown at you, and ignore those who say you can’t. This applies to everything; do not believe in glass ceilings or accept obstacles in front of you. To avoid being a critic yourself, focus on solutions, rather than be dragged into problems, and see obstacles as opportunities, not as chances to stop and fail.

To be successful, you need to adapt; times change and the ways to success change with them. Everyone I know who has achieved their goals is able to think differently and embrace change, rather than fear it. Being able to slip out of your comfort zone is an important trait if you want to push yourself and reach the top of the ladder.

Of course, no man is an island and your relationships play a part in your success.

Successful people learn from those around them who are high achievers; usually you find that these people tend to be in networks of likeminded individuals, drawing lessons from each other’s experiences. Similarly, those who do well in any area of life tend to not be easily impressed, refusing to suffer fools or timewasters.

The Big Picture As I finished the final words of Brick by Brick, it dawned on me that the lessons I had shared throughout the chapters really do apply to everything I do in life, even writing a book.

I always advise people to jot down their ‘big picture’, to think of what they want and how they define success for themselves. Writing this book, and looking back on my career, has been an amazing exercise in doing just that.

opportunity, and that is what I hope that Brick by Brick helps others to do too.

Everyone has it in them to be a success; they just need to back themselves and their desires, rather than derail their goals with doubt.

So best of luck to anybody working towards their own ‘big picture’; I hope that the lessons I have learned and the advice I have shared help you on your path.

Success may be a long road, but it’s also a great adventure and an incredibly fulfilling journey.

About Paul Bassi CBE A leading businessman and author, Paul Bassi is Chief Executive of property group Real Estate Investors Plc and Chairman of Bond Wolfe, which he co-founded in 1983 and Likewise Plc. Paul served as President of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and was formerly the Regional Chairman to Coutts Bank (West Midlands) and former Director of the Birmingham Hippodrome.

He was appointed High Sheriff for the County of West Midlands for 2009, received Honorary Doctorates from both Birmingham City and Aston University, and was awarded a CBE in the 2010 New Year’s Honours List.

Bassi has interests in a £300 million plus property and business portfolio, which includes estate agency, investment property, development land, hospitality, finance and care homes, employing hundreds of staff.

All of Paul’s profits from Brick by Brick: Success in Business and Life will go to the Bond Wolfe Charitable Trust.

I realise that so many of the habits that have helped me in life have come from understanding the ‘big picture’, and from striving for this goal.

I realised how true it is that people neither succeed by accident or fail by chance. I look back at the determination of my grandfather and my parents who had nothing but dreams to urge them on, and the confidence I had as a young man going into business, and realise that it was these innate personality traits which drove all of us to get where we wanted to go.

Each of us faced obstacles, as we all do in life, but at every turn we believed we could and would succeed. We ignored critics and embraced change to make the most of every

Brick by Brick: Success in Business and Life is published by Bloomsbury Business, and will be available online and in bookshops from 25th July 2019. All of Paul’s profits from Brick by Brick: Success in Business and Life will go to Bond Wolfe Trust.

B O O D LES. CO M / W I S T ER I A

Upon entering the Castille Paris – Starhotels Collezione for the first time, surrounded by pastel hues and soft lights, guests immediately perceive that special mix of elegance, warmth and relaxed atmosphere that only the best Italian hospitality can master so exceptionally well, combining eclectic taste, classical style and contemporary flair in a truly timeless charm.

The Castille incorporates 3 different buildings. At the beginning of the 20th century, the owner, heir of a royal Spanish family and refugee in France, named the hotel “Castille” in homage to its origins and commissioned a fresco representing the conquest of the New World by the Spaniards for the inner courtyard, that today hosts the hotel’s patio restaurant.

In 2005, Starhotels acquired the buildings and opened the doors of its first hotel in France, which then became Castille Paris – Starhotels Collezione.

“The choice of the location in Rue Cambon, one of the most delightful streets in the city center, in the district between Place de la Concorde, la Madeleine and Place Vendôme, is no coincidence. A hotel’s personality can only develop properly if it’s immersed in the history of its surroundings and has something to say for itself,” claims Elisabetta Fabri, President and CEO of Starhotels.

The central location, within the 1st arrondissement, close to the “Maison Chanel” flagship store, where Mademoiselle Coco opened her first atelier, and to all the most exclusive boutiques in the world, plus the Champs Elysées, Louvre Museum, Jardin des Tuileries, Notre-Dame and many other Parisian landmarks, is ideal for tourists and business clients alike. It grants access to airports and railway stations and it is the perfect starting point for those who wish to explore the town by foot.

furniture. A composition of opposites that is singularly Mediterranean, an irresistible whirl of colour and unpredictable furnishings that immediately underscore the Castille strong personality.

The lounge is an artful play of interlocking box shapes, an incredibly refined kaleidoscope of bold colours, where the walls play a fundamental role in the definition of volumes. Eclectic sofas and armchairs sit beside modern-classic coffee tables, antique paintings and prints conjuring a luxurious atmosphere that is at the same time highly classical and contemporary.

Starhotels’s signature hospitality takes the Italian flair for style and service to a whole other level, through a well calibrated blend of professionalism, elegance and Mediterranean warmth, and at the Castille it is imbued with the unmistakable touch of French charm.

The hotel’s “Les Clefs d’Or” concierge is at guests’ disposal between 7:00 am and 10:30 pm to help them in organizing sightseeing itineraries, booking tickets for cultural venues and taking care of restaurant and meeting spaces reservations.

Castille offers a wide range of services designed to make each stay enjoyable and relaxing. Guests will have at their disposal all the services of a 5-star hotel, including a 24/7 room service, a free Wi-fi connection and the possibility to book a baby-sitting service.

Rooms & Suites The hotel’s 82 rooms and 26 Junior Suites and Suites occupy two wings of the building, each with a character of its own: the “Opera” wing exudes contemporary elegance and boasts breathtaking views, while the “Rivoli” wing oozes classic 30s French style. A faultless recreation of the Parisian timeless atmosphere at its most evocative, imbued with the warmth of the southern European soul.

Reception and Hospitality Following a renovation the most distinctive features of this boutique hotel have been artfully brought out introducing, at the same time, new stylistic elements that accentuate the antique soul of this prestigious location.

For those on a leisure trip, the hotel’s rooms are an oasis of relax after a day spent walking around the superb museums of Paris or shopping. On the other hand, business guests will find a quiet environment, perfect for catching up on work or simply for taking some well-deserved time off.

The reception area is a pleasant surprise for first-time guests: strong hues set off the warm tones of the wood, suddenly evolving into soft shades of beige and green, in contrast with the eccentricity of opulent lounge sofas and exquisite period

Each room is furnished down to the smallest detail: soft, ergonomic Starbed mattresses and a pillows menu allow guests to curate their own perfect sleep experience, while Illy coffee machines and a carefully selected teas make every awakening special.

The rooms also feature wireless Internet, satellite TV, a comprehensive film menu and an elegant desk equipped with state-of-the art ports. At guests’ disposal, the Handy Smartphone service which offers them the possibility to have a free and unlimited Internet connection and international calls, as well as useful information on means of transport, events not to be missed during their stay, and to be always in contact with the hotel.

L’Assaggio Restaurant A fine dining experience awaits guests of L’Assaggio, the hotel’s restaurant, where the purest simplicity meets culinary technique and the richness of French tradition combines with Mediterranean warmth, resulting in dishes as delectable for the palate as they are for the eyes, a feast of ingredients, aromas and flavours.

Famous over the years for its chefs’ personal interpretations of the rich French culinary tradition with a dash of Italian brio, today L’Assaggio restaurant offers local and international guests the unprecedented opportunity to familiarize with the dishes and the philosophy of one of Piedmont’s most representative chefs.

Starting in June 2017, in fact, the L’Assaggio menu bears the signature of Ugo Alciati, Michelin-starred Chef at the helm of the historic “Guido Ristorante” in Serralunga d’Alba and Eataly ambassador, landmark of Italian cuisine throughout the world.

Praised for his creative “clarity” and essential approach to enhancing ingredients, Ugo Alciati comes from a celebrated family of Italian culinary masters.

In his cooking philosophy, the starting point of a dish is always the ingredient, exalted by adding very few elements and processed through non invasive cooking techniques, to maintain it as pure as possible.

The menu, designed by Ugo Alciati and prepared by the Executive Chef Pablo Sabariego with his team, is a compendium of traditional culinary culture with creative accents, where Piedmontese specialties and high-quality seasonal ingredients are showcased thanks to the Chef’s extraordinary skills and command of the ingredient.

Castille Paris 33-37 Rue Cambon 75001 Paris France - +33 1 44 58 44 58

Elisabetta Fabri, President and CEO of Starhotels

Ken Miller, Chairman of Saikou Security Being an Entreprenuer in Later Life

Whilst most people, aged XX would be slowing down the pace and heading for the golf course, Ken Miller has taken a different approach.

He has invested his 40 years’ experience in technology into a new venture that protects personal data for both individuals and businesses. He developed and launched SaikouSecurity.com - an advanced encrypted cloud storage system – to give consumers and businesses the assurance of safety without compromising their personal data. In fact, the only information that’s needed to set up an account is an email address. Here, he shares what drove him to turn his passion into a reality and how life is treating him as an entrepreneur in later life.

Having spent a lot of my time travelling around the world as a Solutions Architect at Carnival Group, I wasn’t too interested in spending my leisure time in retirement doing the same thing.

Instead, I had a great passion to actively pursue, and that passion was about protecting people’s personal information.

In the GDPR age, we should feel safe in the knowledge that our rights and identities are protected.

But, sadly there’s a loophole in the system.

Having the knowledge, expertise, life skills and contacts to address this issue, I felt a responsibility to do something about it.

I’m clearly not your stereotypical entrepreneur, but I do believe that my decades of experience give me a deeper and broader level of understanding.

How it Began As my career developed and technology did too, I began to understand that whilst data could be protected within a building, it’s impossible to know how people will behave around it. It’s not possible to predict human behaviour.

Unfortunately, every piece of data is susceptible to ‘sell, use, abuse or lose’ depending on who gets hold of it and

when. There were a couple of real-life experiences that really made this fact hit home for me. The first was a lady who went through a particularly complicated divorce and was required to take out a restraining order against her husband.

Due to ‘sharing’ of information, her ex-husband was able to access where she was living. The second example is when I’ve been booking holidays and each time, I’ve been asked by the same tour operator several times for my address.

Why? This data is already stored, so they should just be able to pull it up using my postcode. Plus, once I’ve booked my holiday, how can I be sure that someone hasn’t passed information on that I will be away on certain dates and therefore my property will be empty. It’s a worrying notion and not one that’s unique to me, just because I’m in the industry.

Consumers are increasingly aware and alarmed by the threat of cybersecurity. Some of our research showed that 81% of consumers are concerned about the security of their personal data online.

Given the news headlines we’ve seen in the last couple of years, it’s really no surprise. The media has been awash with shocking headlines, many of which mirror my own fears, with travel companies at the centre; Delta Airlines. British Airway and Butlins.

We use AES 256 encryption which is the highest level of encryption used by the military, banks and the federal government.

All that’s needed by the user is an email address and a password; monthly payment is processed anonymously through one of the world’s most trusted banks.

Our two-factor authentication, which we recommend, only enables the user to log on in to their account if they know their safe password and have their mobile phone at hand.

And, let’s face it, everyone has their mobile phone to hand these days. Given that payment details go through a trusted bank, we never see people’s details.

You cannot use, lose, or abuse anything if you don’t have it in the first place.

We don’t hold the physical content that users upload either. This is via a third party supplier, meaning there is no trail back to the individual. So, essentially Saikou is about data controlling.

As soon as a company starts sharing data, they become data processors and that’s most definitely not what we’re about.

The big question on most people’s lips is how are we going to compete with the big players like Dropbox and OneDrive. Well, the simple answer is we’re not.

Most recently it was reported that Marriott Hotel Group admitted, at the beginning of December 2018, that 60,000,000 customers’ personal details had been hacked.

And we don’t want to. We offer a different product. They cannot copy our model; collectively they have half a billion customers’ data.

I needed to do something about it and it sounded a lot more interesting and challenging than retirement!

Saikou doesn’t hold any data and never will, so for a customer coming on board, it’s not about entering a huge data pool. It’s about starting with a blank canvas and owning that canvas; safe in the knowledge that no-one else can paint on it. It’s about giving people ownership of their property and ultimately, their identity.

So, my three business partners and I set about creating something that would give all those concerned consumers, and businesses alike, the reassurance that their data and photographs can be safely stored without the very current, real risk of having their personal data hacked or stolen. Meaning the ‘ultimate’ or ‘supreme’ in Japanese and Korean, Saikou offers the highest level of security.

So, we’re establishing our marketplace; we’re looking at individuals, small businesses and SMEs with a particular focus on the creative industries. Ownership of

Gary Tinterow, Director MFA, Houston The Metropolitan Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

How did you first become involved in the art sector? And are you as passionate about art now as you were back then?

My father was a professional violinist and my mother an amateur artist, so the visual and performing arts were fundamental, but oddly, always very special in our home.

I have strong memories of my first visits to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, to Bayou Bend, and to the house of John and Dominique de Menil.

By the time I was in high school I was devouring art magazines and haunting the Rothko Chapel. Those early experiences were transformative. Fortunately, as easy as it would be to become jaded in my profession, I can still experience a rush of pleasure and excitement at new discoveries and even repeat visits to favorite places.

What is your favorite piece of art – or the one piece you would love to have on your wall at home?

It’s an impossible question, one that I never answer. The great delight is to learn about realms that I had previously ignored. These days it is an odd combo: Achaemenid art, the art of Byzantium, and the arts of Mogul India. But I am always attracted to 15th-century European painting—both in Flanders and in Italy.

Of course, 19th-century French painting and early Modernism—especially Cubism—are areas in which I have published and these fields remain home territory for me. At my museum we have a strong program in modern Latin American art that has opened my eyes to exciting new vistas. And the vast, global, world of contemporary art is endlessly fascinating.

What do you think the fundamentals of leadership are? / What is your leadership style?

That is an easy one. In order to be a leader, one must have followers, and the leader must be constantly aware of the mood and movement of the troops; if not, one will turn around and find oneself alone.

One must listen, listen again, do one’s own research and then communicate a position effectively so that the team knows where the leader stands. Vacillation is deadly; direct communication, and to the extent possible, transparency, are key.

Above all, honesty, consistency and reliability are essential.

I understand you are currently undergoing (or undergone) a $450 million (£297 million) refurbishment at the MFAH, what do you hope to achieve with the plans?

It’s impossible to summarize the many aspirations we have for the campus expansion plan: a new art school, a new building for modern and contemporary art, a new conservation center, new public plazas, a rooftop sculpture garden, new auditoriums and an amphitheater, indoor and outdoor restaurants and cafes.

All to be realized with outstanding architecture and extraordinary works of art.

We hope to become the regional hub for all things cultural, a magnet for tourism, a place of discovery, wonder and inspiration for our visitors, a place for innovation and creativity for our staff.

But even this description is inadequate to characterize our plans. My trustees think big, and the generosity of our donors is the envy of my colleagues.

Could you describe what you get up to on a typical working day.

I get up, let the dogs out, and fire up the coffee maker and the computer. After an hour at the gym, it’s emails, phone calls, and coffee before the office; then coffee, meetings, emails, lunch with a donor; phone calls, emails, meetings, coffee; then drinks at one reception, drinks at another, dinner with donors, dog walking with my partner, and so to bed.

What book are you currently reading?

Christopher Rothko, Rothko Inside Out; Doris K Goodwin, Mithraic Societies.

Are you a fan of modern architecture? Or do you have more classic tastes? If classic, which of the architectural periods do you prefer i.e. Georgian, Victorian etc.

I do follow contemporary architecture: I began my professional studies as an architectural historian, and I flirted with the possibility of becoming an architect.

But a lecture by Philip Johnson at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where I spent most of my time the first year of graduate school, put me off that course: Johnson said that the only hope for any architect in the audience was to marry well.

That wasn’t an option for me, then, and anyway I was quickly seduced by the study of European Modernism.

Which third or second world areas in the world do you think are ripe for expansion (growth) economically, culturally, socially and or politically?

I am just beginning to discover India, and what a marvelous, inexhaustible civilization that is.

I-MAGAZINE is all about promoting British values, politics, lifestyle and brands, who is your favorite ‘British’ clothing designer and why?

It won’t be obvious to your readers, but Southern culture is Anglophilic, so once I started traveling to London regularly I began to buy my kit on Jermyn Street and Savile Row. While I still prefer British cloth, cuts, and shoes, nothing beats Neapolitan workmanship.

Of course the Neapolitan tailors look back to Savile Row and the London drape cut, but they add their inimitable sprezzatura, and an admirable attention to detail. London tailors, watch your back!

What is your favorite cuisine?

Italian and Indian. And goodMexican food.

Andy Palmer, CEO at Aston Martin Interviewd by Vincent Abrams

What plans do you have to grow the brand going forward?

To some extent it is covered in the practical execution of the six year Second Century plan.

First of all let’s put it on to three pillar/ legs of a stool and a plate on top.

The first pillar is the sports cars. Renew the exciting range of luxury sports cars which means renew the DB9 with DB11 but also the Vantage and the Vanquish.

So that’s the first thing that we do. Our attention is to come back to a sales volume continuously capped at 7,000 units per year, which I believe we can do since we have done that in the past.

It is just a question of keeping the product fresh. The second pillar is then adding what we call the DBX which is a new segment, it is an evolving segment in the luxury arena and basically competes with the luxury SUVs something like the Bentley Bentayga.

But what is important it that we don’t simply make an SUV. Our brand ethos is ‘Power, Beauty and Soul’, so we have to develop a beautiful crossover. For us it is a crossover between a GT sports tourer and a SUV. And we have to imagine here what that might be.

The third leg of the stool is the revival of the Lagonda brand which is the competitor to the likes of Rolls Royce and Bentley but done in its own way. We try therefore to revive the spirit of the Lagonda brand which is the finest of fast cars.

On top of that if you see the seat of the stool, is that every year we will bring two small series products to market.

This year we did the Aston Martin Vantage GT12 and the Vulcan. Next year we will do another two.

If you think about the future, the future is that you have 7,000 sports car, plus we have DBX, plus we have Lagonda. We are no longer the very small hundreds per year.

I-MAGAZINE focuses on business and politics and brings them together. In what ways can business affect politics to see through global and local change in a way you would be happy with?

cars in China, you reach to a generation that - for example their decision making is driven by pear group opinion and not through believing a corporate on an advertising.

Well, businesses generally speaking don’t like playing politics and I guess the other ways may also be true. But they are unavoidable and obviously business and politics undoubtedly link hands at some moments.

Pure TV advertising for example becomes less meaningful because nobody believes it whereas a like on Facebook or retweet on Twitter is a validation or an advocation of a brand and therefore it is taken much more seriously.

Let me give you an example. We need, as a result of bringing DBX to market, we need extra factory capacity,- because our current facility isn’t capable of sustaining the volumes that we need in the future.

The obvious way would be to build extra capacity here. But that’s unaffordable for us because we haven’t got enough space.

So you get into the discussion of where should we build that factory capacity.

Given that we are potentially in collaboration with Daimler utilizing one of their vehicles which is built in America, you have got this difficult discussion about do you built the car in America, or in the UK or in a place where there is a very willing Government to help bankroll the venture.

That is where business and politics obviously cross. Because through the experience of looking for sites for DBX, 19 different countries and states knocked on our door asking why don’t you built your new car here.

These are the merits, both fiscal and non-fiscal that go along with that and then you go into the discussion not only about this is the money but the importance to the UK, or the importance to Alabama, or the importance to Wales, whereabouts you place the factory.

The good news is that everyone wants Aston Martin in their country.

How important is social media to the modern business?

It is increasingly vital. It comes not through the evolvement of business but because of the change of the customer. As you start to sell

As that millennial generation come through and starts to become part of our buying public in the future, then how you address those people? Then you obviously address those people through social media.

It becomes more and more important. To that end, I am also a Tweeter, I like Twitter, I use it and I won’t let my PR people anywhere near my Twitter account. For me, it crosses two fusions between personal and business.

But I think it puts a kind of human side on both Aston Martin and me because everything I tweet is my own.

How important is PR to the business?

For all the same reasons we talked about social media. Traditional above the line advertising becomes instantly an important part of the business.

It is not going away but it becomes not compulsive by itself. Certainly as I was growing up, if ITV put an advert on the television, and it was a bit funny and it stood out, then there was a really good chance that you would be influenced to buying it, because we believed what was on TV. We become more cynical over a period of time and therefore viral is much more important to us. How do you reach the viral environment? It is PR. So PR is vital. It is so vital that I combined Marketing & PR when I came to Aston Martin to putting it under one division called Marcomms. That division reports directly to me rather than through the Sales function which traditionally would have been done in a car company.

What do you get up to in your spare time?

I don’t have much spare time to be honest. I regret to say that I am a workaholic. But anyway, I love the car business so what I get up to in my spare time is probably somewhere associated either with the car business or somehow rather with my family.

But even if this is time with the family, it probably involves cars. I would probably be driving my classic car around (1981 V8 Vantage) or driving my motorbike around.

I have a BMW K1600, which I like to ride when I can. It doesn’t get used that much.

If not, I am probably ferrying the kids around somewhere or try to spend some time with the family in general.

And if there is any time left on the top of that, then I read. I like to read history, so historical events, either in historical format or in historical novel format as long as the history is broadly speaking correct then I enjoy when I have the opportunity normally on an airplane. I like to sit down with a pair of air plugs on and listen to some Punk Rock - which is my youth - and read a book.

Would you describe yourself as a creative?

I think I would describe myself as an engineer and therefore to some extend logical fact driven looking at history somehow to plot the future.

I am maths and engineering based and I am a great believer that you should root yourself in the mathematics but when you execute you need to be creative.

I am not the most creative person in the world but I’d like to think that I can come up some times with things from an odd angle.

And I can sometimes come up with some crazy ideas that appear to work.

I am neither the most rational engineer nor the most creative creator in the world but somehow try to be a blend of both.

What is important is that you have people around you that represent both sides of the

spectrum and whilst sometimes a real nerdy engineer or a real wild creative can be hard to manage, as part of my management style, I try to let those people coexist within my management team and embrace the diversity.

What do you think the fundamentals of leadership are?

There is a big difference between management and leadership. I think leadership is about that. It is basically not asking people to do things that you would not be prepared to do yourself.

When we go through painful restructure, for example, don’t ask people to say things you are not prepared to say yourself. That’s why I didn’t inspire to the fact that I didn’t like it when we started the restructuring program.

I stood up in front of everybody and announced it- even though I would have been much more comfortable if had sat in my office and ordered someone else to do it. I think leadership is about leading from the front.

And of course, you need the vision, you need the strategy.

The analogy I would make is that of Wellington at Waterloo. I love historical novels. Napoleon was a great strategist- may be one of the best. He played chess amazingly and had amazing success on the battlefield as a result. But when it came to Waterloo it was an event fight.

Frankly speaking it could have gone either way. He based himself at the back of the battlefield and he essentially moved the pawns into position. So you could argue that he was strategizing and he was sending the orders and had an overview of the battle and he moved the pieces around. Wellington probably should have lost because he was late to get into position and Waterloo wasn’t necessarily the place of his choosing for the battle.

Some moments without the help of the Persians, the Belgiums and the Dutch he probably would not have won. But the reality is that what probably gave him the final advantage is when he had people on various fronts, right at the age of losing, he personally went to the front and stood by them

alongside and took the risk. So many times, you are in the battle of basically dyeing on the front line.

Because he put himself into danger, he made himself vulnerable and lead from the front. For me, one of the icons of historical leadership is actually the way that Wellington performed his duty at the battle of Waterloo What is your leadership style?

I told you what I aspire to. I work maybe too hard. I am a workaholic but I hope this is true that basically I lead from the front and try and work harder than anybody else.

Hopefully strategize above anybody else. I am not the highest IQ person in the building but hopefully I compensate with hard work.

What is your favorite piece of art – or the one piece you would love to have on your wall or at home?

I like art - which is functional. My idea of a job in my retirement is making watches and clocks. I love the art of the transmission. I am a transmission engineer originally so I love looking at mechanisms. In terms of my favorite piece of art at home, of course it is my Vantage V8. In terms of a piece I’d like to have on my wall at home, it will have to be a DB5 or maybe a DB4 GT but it will have to be something to do with automotive.

Who are your political (if applicable) business role models?

Business leaders would be people like Damien - I have a great admiration for what he did for quality after the war. I have a great admiration for Mr Honda for example and Mr Suzuki in the more present day.

I am not a great follower of one political party or the other. I am not a political person. I don’t hang my colors to any particular party.

But if I look back in history, my greatest admiration goes to somebody like Sir Winston Churchill who put together a rather fabulous strategy in adversity and demonstrated huge leadership capabilities through a really difficult period.

Savile Row Tailor Alexandra Wood Interviewd by Vincent Abrams

When did you first realize you wanted to be a tailor?

I tend to class myself as a Designer and Visionary over being a Tailor specifically.

Style, cut and fabrics have always been my obsession. My Father used to say: ‘’Alexandra, it’s not a Fashion show’’ to which of course I would dispute. When I was younger I would shop my Father and advise him on what looked best. I like to have an overall understanding with everything I do.

What I do is rounded, I can pattern cut, design and make clothing. I also understand colours and fabrics and how they perform.

Some of it instinctive, some trained.

In answer to your question when I was 14 I decided that one day I would start my own business in Fashion and it just so happened that I fell in love with Tailoring; the precision, the detail and the history that surrounds it and most of all how it can truly transform a man’s image and ultimately his success..

Does being known as the first female tailor on Savile Row has its benefits? And do you feel responsible as an example for young women who might want to take up the profession.

It certainly interests people. Like most professions, you remain unknown for an incredibly long time, it takes perseverance and resilience to become well known.

My customers like the eye I have with being a female and are very open about that.

There’s a high level of trust there. My clothing does have a feminine touch, with elements of cut and colour that aren’t always the norm and I would say those were the main benefits.

Being a female with no clients whatsoever when I started 13 years ago wasn’t particularly welcomed and I was told directly to my face that I would never make it and that suppliers wouldn’t touch me if I had no database.

I took it as a compliment, I love a challenge, so I have them to thank for never taking no for an answer.

I welcome and encourage women to enter the industry, I think we offer a different edge that is part of the future of Savile Row. I’d happily offer guidance should anyone need it. I love business as a whole and if someone’s passionate and has a talent, I think that’s fantastic. I hope I’m setting an example. I like to do business with integrity, kindness and passion.

I love making the most out of my days and have to keep them varied to keep myself energised. I start the day off with breakfast with my three children, then it’s the school run and at 9am my work day begins. I try and do a lot of exercise to keep my mind sharp so tend to start most days with some sort of activity whether it be running or Pilates.

How do you think you would have felt growing up if you had other women who had come before you?

I have a default diary, so I’m always goal focussed each day, one day may be designing new collections, the other may be looking at how we can make our processes sharper. At the end of the day, my focus is always on ‘how can we make this really fun, engaging and appealing to our customer.

It’s a strange thing, as I never saw myself as a woman going into a ‘man’s industry’. I just saw it as something I loved. I’ve never been mindful of any barriers in my way. I just always knew what I wanted to do and would just get on with it. It was only when I had an older customer in the early days who said – ‘’Oh, you’re a woman!’’ and before I said anything, he’d already told himself off. Rather than be irritated by it, I choose to be amused by it.

Did you have any tailoring role models growing up or even now? Be they individuals or businesses.

I had a bizarre obsession of endlessly looking through books about the fashion and style of the Royal family. My grandparents had left my parents many books on the way the royals dressed and I was completely absorbed.

I’ve always loved the fact that clothing can transport you into another world, it makes you feel things and it’s clever how clothing can do that. I’ve always seen that.

I admire Ralph Lauren for the incredible empire he’s built. He always says that he’s not a Designer, he just creates, he knows how to place things together so that they just work and I completely relate to that. You really do just have it, or you just don’t.

I admire Edward Sexton when it comes to Tailoring. He bought that cool, sexy edge to tailoring. He’s certainly more ‘far out’ than me but I like that he clearly stands from that and isn’t afraid to shy away from it.

Describe a typical, but busy day at Alexandra Wood.

As a business owner your day never really starts or ends, it’s what I think about most of the time. I’m not sure if it’s normal but I absolutely love it!

What two or three books would you say have had the biggest impact on who you are today, if not books, people?

I have to admit that I’ve ready hundreds of business books but find a lot of them are click bait and really don’t offer the depths I was hoping for. The e-myth I think is a really great book to understand how streamlining processes can make your business more effective. I wrote my entire company manual on a holiday in Greece after reading it. A book should inspire you to take action.

I’m actually yet to find a book that really guides someone in the fashion industry to reach their dreams with practical, goal driven moves. Maybe, I’ll just write it but I have another one to complete first…

My business coach John has been phenomenal, he knows my strengths and weaknesses and has guided me through to reach higher successes.

What aspirations do you have for the Alexandra Wood brand? For example, would you like to have international offices in New York?

I’m currently designing limited edition ranges that are in keeping with the bespoke

ethos of what we stand for. I don’t want to mass produce clothing and short change the customer by not giving them what they’re paying for – it’s insulting. I want our customers to feel special and valued and we’ve got some really great pieces coming out this Autumn. My business has always been orientated towards the made to measure and bespoke tailoring but I am starting to expand our ready to wear collections online now that we have tested and proved that people really enjoy wearing our designs and that they fit and are flattering.

I’m obsessed with New York, I think it’s such a vibrant and incredibly exciting City. I feel my brand would fit so well there. We have a great following of US customers who not only love the Savile Row/British element but also that I’m a woman who’s offering something a little more exciting. I’m not afraid to say that I have successes in making men look sexy. I have a real hunch that we will open some kind of experimental, tailoring store there one day.

You have some well - known clients such as Chuka Umunna and Tony Parsons, who would be your dream client?

Harrison Ford. He’s great looking, has a charismatic charm and style about him and most colours and styles would look fantastic on him. He’s timeless and I like that.

If you could have a permanent brand ambassador for the Alexandra Wood brand, who would he be and why?

Alexander Armstrong would be a great fit.

My brand is very British; stylish and fun with a serious eye for detail. He’s multi-talented, slightly quirky with a kind personality. I think he would work really well.

How would you describe the state of the industry and what do you see the future being?

It’s always evolving and that’s to some people’s dislikes and to some – it’s welcomed. I’m with the latter, things must evolve, it keeps things exciting. I see the industry being much more inviting. My aim

is to make Savile Row less stuffy. It’s still very much a ‘man’s world’ it needs more sass and I’m happy to contribute. I think there will be (and should be) a balance of e-commerce, events and education in order to make it more experiential.

Seasonal collections should be banished. It’s never made sense to me, we have all seasons available at all times. People are shopping around the world, so where its Winter somewhere, it’s summer elsewhere and just causes frustrations plus is incredibly bad for the planet. I do believe colour and men being more experimental has come a long way but still more work is needed. I believe customer feedback is crucial, not for a company to be led by its own ego.

How important is it to be linked to Savile Row? It definitely adds clout to what I do. If you say you’re associated with Savile Row you’re respected far more than if you said you operated elsewhere which we do also, (Bishop’s Stortford) but that makes it alluring too so its beneficial for sure.

Describe your natural customer. My typical customer is over 40, successful and has come to the point in his life where he wants to invest in himself. It’s that turning point in life when the kids have grown up, they’re getting older and want to spend some time thinking about the clothes they wear. I’m pleased this is my market, it has been from the beginning really.

It means a lot to me to transform someone’s image where they feel proud when they’re going to important events or to a meeting.

Age comes with a certain right of passage. To invest in looking and feeling great. My customers are also very nice people. I care about them and they care about me, my family and my business. It’s a two way street and they also have a wicked sense of humour.

This delights me as I’m well known for not being too serious and always being up for a laugh to lighten the mood, it helps customers feel relaxed. I find my customers come to me not only for my designs but because it’s relaxed and welcoming. A customer actually googled ‘non stuffy Savile Row tailoring’ and I came up!

In what ways does politics affect your business?

Dressing politicians in one party to another I’m happy to say doesn’t affect my business.

I design all of Chuka Umunna’s suits who as everyone I’m sure knows was a Labour MP, who then moved to create his own party then into The Liberal Democrats before ultimately leaving to take another path. I have also dressed Tori constituents but who are less well known.

If my customers only chose me by what could seemingly be my take on politics, my business life would be tricky. Thankfully, what they see is a well-dressed politician where they aren’t the go to people for style inspiration and are not seen to be particularly ‘cool’. A lot of customers then think – if she can make a politician look that good then I’m in! Everyone wants me to desperately dress Boris, but I’d much rather make a suit for Rishi Sunak and that’s as far as my view on politics will go.

As a tailor, I would be interested to know who your favourite clothing designer is and why?

My favourite designer is Ralph Lauren. His ability to create an entire way of life that is aspirational. I do feel it’s gone a bit downhill with its certain off spins. A brand can be stretched too far and it then loses meaning.

However, the core of what he does is definitely alluring. I also loved Christian Dior, the cut of their clothing is incredible and the way their clothes transform the body is inspiring.

Do you have a favourite restaurant in London?

La Gavroche for the décor, the food and the relaxed atmosphere. I’ve been lucky enough to have lunch there when Michel Roux Jr was in the kitchen. He came out and told my mother off for not having her raspberry chocolate mousse at the same time as her red wine. Clos Marjorie is a close runner up, its breathtakingly pretty, relaxed with fantastic food and service.

Emma Kane CEO SEC Newgate UK Interviewed by Vincent Abrams

You are currently CEO of Newgate Communications, part of SEC Newgate S.p.A., the world’s fastest growing global communications consultancy which you are Deputy Group CEO of. What challenges did you face in your previous position or positions which made you a success in your current role as you occupy today?

The negative experiences that shaped my approach were ones around poor culture and rigid/siloed approaches to meeting client needs. These were the catalyst for launching my own agency, Redleaf Communications, in January 2000 after 15 years in in-house positions and agencies.

My vision was to build a brand that became synonymous with great service, that delivered measurable results, and was truly viewed as an integral part of the success of its clients’ businesses – all elements I have sought to replicate in my current role.

Over the next 14 years, I created my dream agency and that led to it receiving many accolades.

I have witnessed in former roles what happens when businesses fail to evolve and in 2014 decided that boutique, specialist agencies would struggle in an increasingly global, digital world. So, I embarked on a plan to pivot the business and started the stepped sale of the business in 2014 to an international group, a process which completed in 2018; that group is now known as SEC Newgate which was formed in 2018.

My previous experience of integrating teams I acquired and creating a consistent culture has been invaluable. When I took on the role of CEO of the enlarged business, I inherited a culture and a team based on two previous CEOs’ ways of doing things.

Implementing a programme to transform the culture and create one that was positive, collegiate and based on a strong set of values was core to the turnaround plan I implemented.

Having an entrepreneurial spirit is also an essential quality because our entire group is run by people who have founded their own agencies – it is that entrepreneurial spirit

which guides the research, advocacy and communication skills that we employ to assist our clients with their own corporate entrepreneurial aims.

Which industries have you collaborated in most?

My personal passions and experience lie primarily in real estate, professional and financial services, retail and leisure, consumer industries, TMT and charities. My roles as Chair of Target Ovarian Cancer, Chair of the Barbican Centre Trust and as a trustee of Nightingale Hammerson have given me a particularly in-depth understanding of the charity sector. In my day to day roles with Newgate Communications and SEC Newgate, the string that runs through the counsel we provide, no matter what the sector, is the fact that we help business better understand what their audiences want from them, and vice versa, and help them apply this – it is all about helping achieve positive change.

What would you argue is your biggest success at Newgate Communications?

My biggest success is naturally linked to my biggest challenge - the merger of Newgate and Redleaf and then becoming CEO of the enlarged agency. Using the great foundations of two agencies, we’ve added more expertise and can now deliver seamless communications locally, national and internationally.

The success can be measured by recently being ranked in the UK’s top 30 PR consultancies for 2020 by PR Week and our group, SEC Newgate S.p.A, being ranked as the fastest growing agency group in the world as well as the 26th largest in the Top 250 Global Agency Rankings 2020.

None of what we have achieved could be possible without the team and I am incredibly proud of the level of expertise, innovation, and drive that we have to offer our clients today.

As a leader yourself, what advice would you give burgeoning business leaders, in your field of business?

Surround yourself with the very best people.

Ensure you have someone as part of that

team who is prepared to tell you when you are wrong and whose views you respect.

Treat everyone with respect and celebrate difference – the best team is one that has balanced skills and views – consider who you want to be in the bunker with; it’s easy when times are good but when the going gets tough you need to have the best people in it with you.

Listen – it is only by listening to people that you get the nuances of what they actually think and feel (often expressed in the last five minutes of a meeting) – encourage your team to talk to people too, not just hide behind electronic communication. Understand the needs of your different stakeholders – they are not the same. Celebrate success.

Don’t try to protect people’s feelings by ignoring mistakes – people get better and stronger by learning how to improve and difficult decisions are made easier if you explain the context in which they are made.

Lead from the front which means set examples and be generous with your time. Use the data that exists around your business to be the best you can – a great management information system is a very good investment.

Issues and initiatives of wider interest to Emma Kane?

Much of my time is taken up by my pro-bono commitments; which make up most of my wider interests. Any extra-curricular time (if there is such a thing today) is predominately taken up by my leadership of non-profit, fundraising organisations focused on solving issues that are dear to my heart.

These are roles that I take great pride in having and involve me collaborating with a cross-section of corporate and cultural leaders to produce solutions in the face of modest resources. Two simultaneous roles that stand out, and of which I am immensely proud, are being Chair of Target Ovarian Cancer, and Chair for the Barbican Centre Trust – organisations working tirelessly to improve outcomes for both communities and individuals. I am also passionate about

sculpting, primarily in stone. I have a studio at home, but I also try to fit in escaping to Marina di Carrara in Italy twice a year to source materials and have some intensive time with my hammer, chisel and angle-grinder.

What’s next for Emma Kane in 2024 and beyond, and where, do you see the business in twenty years’ time?

As a group we have been working on a very exciting artificial intelligence (AI) tool which we think will supercharge the insights and intelligence we are able to bring to projects for our clients. This is currently being trialled and I am very excited about the formal launch of this product. We are also expanding the reach of Newgate Research across Europe. We are very ambitious for our group and our vision is that we will be the most desired communications agency in the world.

Looking ahead, I hope to continue to be at the vanguard of progress and best practice in ourindustry and to help organisations to communicate strategically, and in the most effective way to influence all their multiple stakeholders.

Which industries have you consulted in most, and what has been the outcome, of that time in industry?

There’s no better place to start than the business sector as-a-whole, and the emergence, and now ubiquity of digital platforms. To say there was reticence on the part of corporates to communicate with their stakeholders on platforms like Twitter, or even LinkedIn for that matter, would be an understatement. Initially business underestimated how symptomatic social and digital platforms would be in terms of the way individuals wanted to engage with them... and it is a two-way dialogue they are now demanding. Having capabilities in this area was never a ‘want’ it was always a ‘need’.

In the space of under five years we have seen a near 360-transformation. The pace of change has been dizzying. The integrated communications model has naturally benefited from this and I dare say I’m proud to have been privy to some companies genuinely scaling their sectors by simply adapting to the communication demands of the increasingly digitalised world.

About Newgate Communications, what growth have you seen, and what are some of your key near-term objectives for the business in the future?

The key focus when we embarked on our turnaround programme 18 months ago was to grow the bottom line. That mission has been achieved and our margins transformed – of course there is room for improvement so that will remain an ongoing focus. However, we are now moving to the next phase of our three year strategic plan with a near-term focus on raising our profile among all our key stakeholders to ensure that everyone is aware of the scale and scope of our offering and our ability to offer a one P&L approach, bringing in all the different disciplines required to help clients build and protect their brands and reputations.

Clearly the Covid-19 environment has thrown a large number of challenges for the business to respond to. In this respect, I see a huge opportunity to fast-track some of the key innovations we had been working on, to transform the way we work so we provide our team with more creative, safe collaborative spaces and reconsider the way in which we work, communicate and evolve. At the end of the day it is about providing best-in-class service to our clients and creating a lovely place to work.

Do you see communications in general, on this, growing in importance, over time, or is a lack of general intelligence or back up of communication and organisation necessary at all, in whichever department?

Effective communications are fundamental in business, politics and all walks of life. There are very few great leaders who are not also great communicators. Poor communications impact on brand equity and make it far harder to recover from a crisis.

All stakeholders are impacted positively and negatively by communications, in particular an organisation’s ability to attract and retain the very best people. As we move into a new decade, the defining challenge facing business will be how to reinvent the brand to show social and ESG purpose. Delivering this will be essential to securing investment, recruiting new generations, engaging with consumers who will buy brand as much as they buy product and ensuring that the organisation is ‘future proofed’ without future risk of being legislated out of business. If the 2010s was the decade of the compliance officer, the 2020s will be the decade of the purpose driven communicator.

Why are independent communications or branding counsel so important to business, we know it matters but can you explain why?

Reputation is everything in business. The intangible ‘brand’ has overtaken the tangible ‘product’ as the litmus test for corporate suc-

cess. Today there is a razor-sharp focus on materially important factors such as corporate purpose and responsibility, employer brand, environment, social and corporate governance (ESG) and leadership vision which are as critical in determining how a company is perceived as its products or services.

Companies operating this way will naturally have an advantage over those that don’t place value on their brand.

The independence of that counsel ensures that an organization is able to benefit from best practice and insights beyond its own gene pool and without any agenda other than what is best for the organization in question.

How has the coronavirus affected business?

The group had an excellent start to the current year and continues to operate successfully amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

We had tried and tested business continuity plans in place and had invested in our systems to allow every member of the team to work remotely. The team is working extremely efficiently and effectively despite working from home.

We have also been extremely busy as the reliance on communications has been heavy as organisations have had to communicate with internal and external stakeholders on a far more regular basis.

We have adapted with our clients’ needs and this pandemic is a challenge for businesses, but a greater challenge for humanity, therefore we find that constructive dialogue, support and counsel, both on and offline, is valued during times of stress.

Many businesses have been significantly impacted by the virus and some have reacted by cutting all expenditure including communications. I may have a vested interest, but these are the businesses that will take the longest to come out of the crisis and rebuild. There is a significant opportunity for those who are bold to invest and in doing so build market share and share of voice.

Emma Kane is Chief Executive of SEC Newgate UK and Deputy CEO of the Group, SEC Newgate S.p.A. Emma specialises in creating positive change through communications. She has 30 years’ experience in the communications industry.

How to Succeed in Your Newly Chosen Dream Career

By Natalie Ekberg

You have found your dream career. You are fully determined to succeed—preferably to succeed fast. But how can you succeed quickly, especially if your chosen career is in a completely new field?

Here are a few tips that will help you along (and remember you are taking inspired action towards your success every single day): 1. You absolutely, unequivocally believe in your success.

Please don’t confuse ‘believing in your success’ with a know-it-all attitude. There will be many situations when you will have no clue about your next step.

Your job is to dive in and figure it out. Your job is to find the ways and resources to make your success happen. Your job is to keep going when nobody else believes you can make your dreams come true.

Your job is to turn all the odds around and prove the non-believers wrong. Once you are sure about yourself and develop a positive attitude, you can focus on the practical aspects of your speedy but sustainable success.

2. Know you are and what you want.

Share this knowledge with anybody who is willing to listen. For example, if you want to publish a book (especially if you have already managed to write one), don’t keep this information in the drawer. (Remember point 1: you believe in your book, right?)

Mention your desire to your friends, talk about it at dinner parties, and write about it on Facebook.

Ask for suggestions, connections, and advice. You might be surprised how quickly this approach can connect you to the right people. Maintain this clarity in all business related situations, especially networking opportunities, and you will succeed.

Somebody who is clear about his direction and confident he will succeed is such a rare commodity that coming across this way will make you stand out in any crowd. This approach can be applied in

your own business, as well as in a new position as an employee. Surely you always know what is your next desired step? If not, go and figure it out!

in you, and provide a different perspective when needed! What Is Your Biggest Challenge on the Journey Toward a Career Change?

3. Keep your message simple and ALWAYS include the benefits you bring to your customer, whether the customer is an internal customer within your organisation or a private client.

The fears surrounding a career change are the same fears that surround any other big change. The only difference is that our ability to make a steady income might be compromised or so we are made to believe.

If your customers do not understand what exactly it is you are doing, they are likely to lose interest really fast. Make the way you talk about your business/job enticing, exciting, and personal. People love hearing personal stories. If you have transitioned from doing something you didn’t like to something you love and took many risks in doing so, you will have people’s vote in no time!

But putting the money issue aside, what are the biggest worry triggers for us when looking into a career change?

Most people dream about having the courage to change their lives but never get around to making changes. You might become their hero just by being honest and sincere and sharing with them the changes you made.

4.) Concentrate on your priorities. When starting in a new field or job, dealing with all the new information can be overwhelming.

You may feel that you “ought to” do more and keep all your options open by moving in many directions at once. While not closing doors is certainly important, make sure you remind yourself what your priorities are. Is it the income? Is it the brand recognition? Is it the perfect outcome of your new project?

Is it successful people management?

Whatever your priorities are at the moment, focus on those. You can manage the rest, but never allow yourself to be driven by details and miscellaneous activities. If at all possible, delegate those and remain faithful to your ‘big picture’. Allow your priorities to guide you as they shift.

Starting in a new job or business can be exciting. Inevitably, though, there will be many bumps and detours on your journey. If you ever feel that you can’t cope on your own as you manoeuvre through those, hiring a coach is the best thing you can do for yourself. Your coach will be there to support you, believe

1. The fear of failure: What if I make a change and I don’t become successful?

Theoretically, if you choose wisely and make a career transition toward something you really want and like, I have to assume you will enjoy doing it, right? And how could you ever not succeed in something you do with love, passion and enthusiasm?

Of course, the ride to what you define as success might be bumpy, but if you do something you feel strongly about, even those obstacles will become something you overcome with ease. Often, we underestimate the power of our emotional connection to a new career, since we dislike our current one. If you pick something you like and put your heart into it, you will succeed sooner or later.

2. The lack of motivation: Is it really worth it? Only you can say whether the career change you desire is worth fighting for.

From my experience, just the sheer fact that the idea occurred to you means that not all is well in your current working situation.

If you lack motivation, imagine yourself having the same job as today in five years. Is that thought enough to spur some action?

If the motivation is not quite there, start by just doing your “homework”: explore the possibilities and check what is happening in the field of your interest.

To enquire about Natalie’s coaching services, please contact her via e-mail: natalie@lbcareercoaching.com

Inspired Leadership

By Kevin Gaskell Investor, Author

According to the Office of National Statistics, Londoners work 100 hours a year more than the rest of the country. This wouldn’t be a bad thing if we all liked our work. But when the psychologist Daniel Kahneman researched how happy we feel by asking hundreds of employees to capture their experience during each day, he found that many of us found our time at work especially unpleasant. The only thing many people hated more was the time they spent travelling to the office.

And, of course, Londoners have the longest commutes too.

Why does work often make us miserable, and how can we change it? Many surveys show that toxic bosses are one of the strongest sources of strong negative feelings, but the time we spend working alongside our colleagues tended to make us happy.

Also, when researchers ask us to look back on projects after they are finished, we tend to be far more positive about the experience in hindsight than we were at the time.

The fact that research shows that teamwork, being close to our friends, and the feelings of achievement are the things we like about work probably isn’t a shock to you. But, for many of us, these positive emotions seem to occur in spite of our managers, rather than because of them.

We regularly hear about the negative impact of workplace stress, rewards for failure, bullying and sexism at work. On the other hand, some companies have tried to make work more pleasurable by installing slides between floors in their office (Google), encouraging employees to dress up as their favourite animal (Zappos), or creating chief happiness officers who schedule a regular hour of fun at 5pm on a Friday.

My experience of leading more than 20 companies of all sizes, across different countries and markets is that we don’t need to put on a costume to be happy at work.

I believe that inspired leaders should (and

do) reconnect us with the satisfaction of a job done well, working side-by-side with people we like and value. Flashy offices and compulsory fun give us a fleeting boost, but if we want long-term success, we need a shared sense of inspiration. And that flows from the team leader.

If you’re thinking: I’d like that, but we can’t all choose our bosses, that’s true. I’d argue that most of us can be inspired leaders in some small way, at some time. Even if you get to lead one project, or decide to change yourself, my experience is that it can make your life feel more successful and more fun.

And, if you inspire those around you to do the same, we can build a better workplace from the ground up as well as from the top down.

Team members might say: have you seen the news about the economy? It’s hard to take pleasure in a job when we’re worried whether it will still exist next week, and it’s hard to be inspired when you’re under constant pressure to deliver.

To that, I’d argue that this is the time when inspired leaders prove their worth. Some of the greatest team experiences in my life have involved working in companies that are on life support, when every decision and everyone’s contribution is vital. The testing times bring out the inspired leader inside us.

I divide inspired leadership into three categories, which I call Commit, Connect and Create. They capture what I have learned from my experience leading teams and being part of teams whose leaders at every level have been extraordinary.

Time and again I have learned from experience that ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things, if only we trust them with the tools and give them the opportunity to do it.

Commit When I speak at management conferences, one of the most frequent audience questions I get is: “what should I do to motivate people?”

My response is not to focus on motivation but rather ask what you can do to inspire people?

It sounds similar, but is entirely different.

External motivation, prizes, money or great speeches may work in the short term but, in my experience, long-term success begins when we commit to a common goal. Inspiration beats motivation, because inspiration comes from inside each of us.

Every successful businessperson is inspired by a dream, and the first step to your team achieving extraordinary things is when you personally commit to making that dream a reality. You cannot be an inspired leader unless you commit absolutely -- not just to do the job, but to realise a vision.

Inspiration can’t be faked. We’ve all made a vague, spontaneous commitment in a conversation, a meeting, or in a bar. Maybe we believed it for a moment, but by the time the words are out of our mouths we know, deep inside, that we don’t seriously intend to change anything.

The danger is that vision becomes cheapened in this way. It’s just another meaningless PowerPoint presentation, a slogan on a wall, or a fancy way to describe budget cuts. I am continually surprised by the number of companies where the “vision” is to grow by three percent.

It is almost impossible to commit meaningfully to this, because growing by three percent changes little: whether you succeed or fail, afterwards you will probably be doing the same job, in the same way, with the same sort of target.

So I challenge the teams I work with to imagine the changes that could create 30 percent, or 300 percent growth (I am currently working with two remarkable companies who have done even better than that).

The first reaction you may hear, of course, if to say that this type of improvement is impossible. But when they say this, what they really mean that we can’t do it without changing things.

I tell them: so change things - commit to this change, accept that most limitations are self-imposed, and imagine a world where we take the limitations away.

Forget the spreadsheets for moment, and let’s share an exciting journey to success.

How good do you want to be?

To give an example from a company that wouldn’t seem a prime candidate for radical upheaval, when I became the managing director of BMW GB in 1996, it was selling 45,000 cars a year.

I was handed a four year target to reach 54,000 cars a year.

I thought that wasn’t very inspiring: doing very well had stopped people from thinking what extraordinary things we might achieve.

Meanwhile, competition was eroding BMW’s traditional advantage in areas like engineering which was diminishing our brand perception, and so three percent thinking wouldn’t sustain us for ever.

Together we committed to create world-class service for our customers, and ripped out old the hierarchies, siloes and attitudes that were holding us back. Four years later, sales were up 80 percent, and profitability up 500 percent.

Most importantly, the team had discovered that they could think differently about the possibilities of their jobs when they committed to changing things that we all, deep down, knew we could do better.

Not everyone feels comfortable with change.

We are scared of what might happen, and that’s natural. But shared inspiration like this confronts that fear, because it makes us think about what we can gain, not what we are losing.

When was the last time that you felt truly inspired to go to work on Monday, because of what you might achieve?

Connect You’d be right to be scared, if the first you heard about your audacious new goal was when someone from head office announced it to you. Disconnect between leaders and other employees is a frequent problem that undermines a new vision right at the start.

Connecting is about helping everybody in the business discover the value of their role in creating change.

I have always tried to involve as many of the staff as possible in creating and describing our vision of success, because when you have taken part in creating it, you feel more committed to making it happen.

Leaders often have a habit of talking in vague abstracts, assuming that everyone will automatically understand what they mean. So, at BMW, “World class customer service” could have been just a concept if we didn’t describe what it would mean in real life.

I ask the team to think about what the dream means using their eyes, ears and heart. What will success look like to us, and to our customers? What will they say about us, and how will we describe ourselves?

And, importantly, how will we feel about ourselves that’s different, and how do we make our customers feel? What is the new experience that we will deliver?

This isn’t just a task for a few executives. It matters just as much what people in the warehouse, in the finance department, or in sales see, say and feel, and it matters that we can share common ground.

After this, connecting is about focusing on the projects that will make the vision real. This, too, can be fun. I invite the team to make their suggestions. We write them on sticky notes, and place them on a wall.

We prioritise, we remove and store the ones that aren’t urgent, and we prioritise again, and again. We take out the noise. We rigorously focus on only the most important priorities.

Eventually, we have a realistic, 1,000-day plan that everyone has helped to create. It is meticulously organised into smaller projects that will make the vision matter, to everyone, every day.

It’s not my plan, or the management plan: it belongs to the entire team. We draw it up and put it on the wall so that everyone can see it, so that everyone knows how we’re doing, and so that anyone can make suggestions.

I’ve done this for international companies and for small start-ups. Together, we track progress every day, we revise the plan when we need to, and we share the feeling of achievement. It works!

For a toxic manager – the very opposite of an inspired leader - this shared connection has consequences they won’t like. They will be obliged to stop thinking that they’re the smartest person in the room. Inspired leaders don’t aim to be a genius but rather create the culture which makes it possible for everyone to be a genius, because each team member knows their job and how to improve it. This way leaders are created at every level.

They become obsessive about relentlessly

building quality, rather than making big, meaningless pronouncements, because they know that if the product and service gets better first, bigger follows.

The most uncomfortable part for toxic managers may be accepting that the 1,000-day plan can only work if you devolve responsibility to the team members who are at the sharp end, and trust their inspiration.

Create When you do this, teams create magic. They may be working under pressure, but they are united and more likely to help each other. The team represents integrity, fairness and achievement.

But to unleash our creativity, an inspired leader also needs to understand that no one is an “only a…” Everyone’s contribution has value, from the cleaner to the CEO. Everyone deserves to be heard even if -especially if -- they have constructive home truths that are hard to hear.

Thousands of businesses fail because managers learn about what’s going wrong when it’s too late to fix it.

The hunt for scapegoats is one of the least attractive aspects of bad leadership. Amy Edmondson, a professor at Harvard Business School, spent 20 years talking to businesses about how they dealt with failure, and categorising the reasons.

She found that between two percent and five percent of failures were truly blameworthy, but that managers treat between 70 percent and 90 percent this way.

When we personalise blame without good reason, we lose the chance to learn from it.

But we also destroy commitment and connection. We lose the ability to change our toxic workplaces into inspirational experiences.

In our businesses we reverse that thinking – we catch people in rather than catch people out. Inspired leaders identify and celebrate individual contributions whilst quietly ensuring we learn valuable lessons from the instances where it occasionally goes wrong.

Kevin Gaskell uthor of Inspired Leadership: How you can achieve extraordinary results in business (Wiley, 2017) he was the youngest Managing Director of Porsche, Lamborghini, and BMW, leading all three companies to record growth and performance.

How Social Engagement Can Streamline Cashflow

By Craig Evans, Head of Business Development at Graydon

Social selling creates great personal relationships with key business contacts that can improve cashflow, boost sales and improve market intelligence.

Using LinkedIn to create relationships between credit controllers and credit managers not only improves cashflow – it can help with sales as well. ‘Cold calling’ is an increasingly appropriate name for the sort of out-of-the-blue intrusion that’s probably been with us ever since Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone.

Not only is its reception usually far from warm – it’s now pretty much dead as well.

One of the final nails in its coffin has been the rise of the discipline known as ‘social selling’ – interacting directly with contacts via social media to create a dialogue that evolves into a long-term and loyal customer relationship.

Warmth Matters But, in my view, calling this kind of contact ‘social selling’ is actually to restrict its value.

The benefits can extend far beyond the sales arena into just about every area of business life where strong (and warm) relationships are important.

Take, for example, the credit-control and management functions. As anyone who’s ever issued an invoice knows, written payment terms are all too often seen by one side as a vital part of the contract and by the other as a mild irritant that exists only to be ignored.

As a credit controller seeking settlement, there are few sure-fire ways of getting your invoice to the head of the payment queue, on time every time.

By far the most effective is to have a positive and open relationship with the person who ultimately decides which invoices are settled on which payment run.

Barriers to Access But it’s often far from easy to gain initial access to this individual. For a start, large companies will often have five or six people who are directly involved in the payment

process. And reaching any key decision-makers will certainly not be made easy – they’ll be surrounded by technological and human barriers, part of whose job is explicitly to prevent such contact.

So by the time you need to chase payment or renegotiate credit terms, it’s often far too late to achieve anything by picking up the phone.

Nine times out of ten, you should have started far earlier – long before the invoice in question was issued in the first place. And, besides, you should have used social media - usually LinkedIn. LinkedIn is particularly useful because it gives you multiple points of entry into an organisation, enabling you to bypass the guardians and get straight to the purchasing people who matter.

Shared Benefits If you get the balance right, it’s also an excellent mechanism for creating something close to friendship with these decision-makers, long before they have influence over your contract negotiations or paying your invoices.

The key is to ensure that the benefit goes in both directions.

That means finding out what matters to them, contributing to the debates they’re involved in, and providing them with data and commentary that can help them in their roles.

In other words, creating a relationship that’s as valuable to them as it is to you.

As already discussed calling this approach social selling was limiting.

But that’s not to say that it doesn’t also have a strong sales task to perform beyond selling the benefits of dealing with you and your organisation.

Good credit managers often regard credit controllers as customer experts who really know what’s going on in the market place.

A strong ‘finance-to-finance’ social-media relationship can provide a relaxed environment in which even the most commercially-minded supply chain managers

are less cautious and more receptive than when talking to a salesperson.

That means they’ll often be open to hearing key nuggets of company, product or market information that they can feed into their sales teams.

It also means they’re more likely to take on board and share positive messages about your company than is the case in a more traditional sales setting.

Comparing Notes Using social media isn’t all about one-toone relationships, however. Again, LinkedIn is particularly useful for sharing experiences and knowledge with your peers right across your industry.

Doing so enables you easily to compare notes about particular difficulties you may have had with individual companies and exchange ideas with one another on how to cope with them.

In essence, it’s not unlike the established concept of a credit circle where members help protect one another against payment issues by sharing information on companies’ creditworthiness.

Where credit circles tend to be scheduled for set times, this virtual approach means that credit controllers can get up-to-date, accurate information at the moment they need it.

As an adjunct to a credit report, it can be an extremely useful way of protecting your company’s cash flow.

About Graydon Graydon provides business intelligence solutions for Credit Management and Risk & Compliance. By combining data with business insights, Graydon helps companies to gain access to capital and to expand their knowledge in order to strengthen their competitive position.

Graydon has offices in London, Amsterdam and Antwerp and uses a network of 130 international databases around the world with information of more than 90 million companies.

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BLANCPAIN BOUTIQUE www.blancpain.com

11 NEW BOND ST · LONDON · W1S 3SR

A Capital Critique – a Short Interview with Daniel Pinto Interviewed by Henry Hopwood Phillips

Your advocacy of family business is unfashionable; as you say in Capital Wars, it’s conventionally perceived as merely a stage of a business’s development. Why do you think this isn’t the case in Germany, with itsMittelstand tradition of small to medium-sized family firms?

Mittelstanden are just the best known case in Germany. Even if you look at the very largest companies, Volkswagen or BMW for instance, the families may not have a controlling stake, but they have a large stake and everybody knows that they are behind the company.

The pendulum has swung too far in the West, from family firms dominating the FTSE 100 in the 1960s to a place in 2014 where less than 10 per cent of the UK’s big firms are family-owned.

The best format must sit somewhere in between. Fourth or fifth generations of families can sometimes lack oomph and motivation but the reverse where people keep your stocks for five months is not right either.

There seems to be a trend developing on the proletarianisation of what were white collar jobs. Do you care to comment?

White collar jobs are being eradicated by new developments in technology. The conundrum for the West is that the foundation of our democratic society is the middle class. If that class is financially disenfranchised, this threatens the basis of our society. I don’t think the political class has taken this into account.

Generational inequality sits at its heart. It is about somebody sitting somewhere comfortably and failing to build a future.

Your medicine in the book seems quite modest when compared with the diagnosis – was it the short end of the wedge?

I think people always have this tendency to think of very dramatic, draconian, solutions to fix things. I prefer a far more surgical approach.

One of our biggest problems is short-termism, as it prevents investment in research & development and capital expenditure i.e. preparation for the future. It must be tackled at its source: shareholders and CEOs. First, a two tier tax system should be established. Short term investment should be taxed at a higher rate than long term equivalents. Secondly, rewarding senior executives on a one to three year basis is outrageous; the term does not cover a cycle in any business.

This should be increased to a minimum of five years. Thirdly, stock prices have lost their relationship with the real performance of a business.

Look at the US over the last three years – the value of the stock market in the US has increased by around 60% yet the earnings of businesses in the US have stayed flat. The instruments and measures of a shopkeeper should be brought back: we need to go back to basics.

Once absolute poverty has been eradicated, there seems to be little correlation between a society’s happiness and its economic growth. Should we therefore see ‘degrowth as positive?

Your reference to the handelsbanken in the book is intriguing. Do you think something along this Swedish model involving the decentralisation of banks is possible in the UK?

If you are looking at it from a philosophical viewpoint it is probably right, but more practically I think people are in denial about what is happening. I suspect many Italians are happy with their country becoming a museum but this ‘sunshine, espresso and 35 hour week’ happiness is ultimately selfish.

Absolutely, but unfortunately the management at the big banks have not yet realised why they fail. They have forgotten that you need to trust your employees. Currently there is a pyramid system. All decisions have to go up, they are centralised. But centralising risk compounds it at every level.

Risk could be lowered by decentralising.

Credit should be personal; agents of a bank should be made responsible for failing or succeeding in managing risk.

The New York Times recently ran a column referring to Britain’s bright young things now becoming consultants, art dealers and hedge-funders, or put another way, oligarchs’ valets. Is there much of a future for a nation that acts in such a myopic and mercenary manner?

I have noticed that over last 10-15 years educated young people increasingly dream about instant recognition. It is all about being the next Mark Zuckerberg. The captains of industry who led their companies through thick and thin, the business creators who took 20-30 years to build up something in a very painful way, have gone.

We’re seeing short-termism even in ambition. This is dangerous because if it doesn’t happen or something fails then the first headwind will blow potential entrepreneurs over. It is unsound and unhealthy.

You mention in your book that a football star ethos has entered banking attitudes.

In your experience, is this talent real? If so, why don’t emerging nations seem to be trying to poach it?

The reality is that no value was created in their actions. Emerging powers have their own problems but their perception of both the role of finance and time is spot on.

Finance is there to serve, to enable, to pass the plates; it’s useful as long as it doesn’t become the tail that wags the dog. In the West the banks are advisors, principals and underwriters; they are everywhere in the chain.

DANIEL PINTO is chief executive and founding partner of Stanhope Capital, one of Europe’s largest independent investment firms. He founded the New City Initiative with combined assets under management in excess of $350bn. implement many of the values talked about in his new book, Capital Wars (Bloomsbury, £25.

Interview with Designer, Angelo Galasso

By Lucie Herring

As he celebrates 23 Years of the innovative Watch Cuff Shirt design this year, we take a look at how Angelo Galasso became a bastion of style.

Born in a small Puglian town in 1959, Galasso perfectly captures his devotion to tailoring in these few short sentences: In the beginning, it was a game. Then it became a passion. Now it is fashion.

Son of the towns’ police chief, Galasso spent most of his childhood shadowing local artisans (his father’s attempt to keep him out of trouble) and it was here where Galasso absorbed the entirety of the art of traditional Southern Italian tailoring.

Not surprisingly, it was not long before Galasso began structuring his own clothes, honing in on the many skills and talents he had observed during his childhood.

“Where I come from, from the moment you are born you are seen as a typical boy, so if you start to do something that is atypical, like dressing really differently, people immediately tell you you are crazy.

But I came from a big family where you always had to fight for attention, which is why I moved to Rome and then London where people like you to be an individual and you are actually encouraged to be different.” - Angelo Galasso The first items Galasso created were shirts, something unique and bespoke to match his taste, and starting the trend for high collars and longer cuffs, something that was initially laughed at when introduced in the 80s.

However, this new style soon caught on, as Galasso began producing his designs for friends and family at first, before the word spread and the beginning of what would later be the base of his international empire was founded.

With a wealth of knowledge, a move to Rome in the late 80’s proved to be a pivotal step in Galasso’s life story, as it was here that he underwent a strong stylistic development resulting in the creation of

Interno 8 – a network of shops offering unconventional style: a ground breaking first shirt collection that rewrote the rules of traditional patterns (the innovation of big collars and cuffs) whilst preserving high-quality tailoring.

Born in 1990 Interno 8 became a phenomenal success, with 80 stores throughout Italy.

It was also around this time that Galasso created the exclusive and ingenious Polso Orologio (Watch cuff) shirt - a design inspired by former Fiat president Gianni Agnelli who couldn’t wear his watch next his skin due to an allergy.

This made history in 2004 as the design was exhibited at the London Design Museum, leading the Financial Times to dub Angelo Galasso as The Da Vinci of Shirts and defining him as “this generation’s most inventive image maker”.

Additionally, Galasso gained further recognition for his own prestigious and unique elegance leading him to the highest positions of GQ’s Best Dressed Men list, both in 2012 and 2013.

“Our brand philosophy is to use the classic Neapolitan cut for jackets and to construct shirts in the old fashioned way” says Galasso.

“My customers however want to stand out so we might do a few things differently, such as make a watch cuff, but everything is made in true Italian tradition” London, the capital of fashion and tailoring brought to Galasso’s brand major success, thanks to high-profile clients such as Sir Paul McCartney, Roger Moore, David Beckham, King Abdullah of Jordan, Puff Daddy, Michael Caine, Simon and Yasmin Le Bon, Rod Stewart, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Al Pacino and Mickey Rourke.

“It’s an excellent place to live and to start a business” says Galasso.

His pioneering spirit, along with his need to always move forward led Galasso to the most important step in his career with the launch of his eponymous ANGELO GALASSO line in 2009. Revolutionising menswear once again, ANGELO GALASSO was born and the first

‘House’ opened in London’s Knightsbridge, heart of the Capital’s fashion scene. The aesthetic of the ANGELO GALASSO brand is ground-breaking yet timeless.

Adding a new dimension to menswear, Galasso’s style continues to allow for a new breed of men to enjoy a service that merges the tradition of classic tailoring - a tradition, which is steeped in Italian craftsmanship and the creativity of couture houses, reminiscent of a world of exclusive and unique garments, conceived by couturiers with just one client in mind.

This is what Angelo calls Tradition in Evolution.

“Angelo is an artist. You see the craftsmanship in his work” - Al Pacino The Milano House opened in 2011 in Via Montenapoleone, the word’s epicentre of luxury, quickly followed by New York in 2012, where Galasso took over the Edwardian room in The Plaza Hotel.

The Moscow House opened shortly after and the same year the Fondazione Angelo Galasso (foundation) was launched in collaboration with Moscow’s State Historical Museum.

The newest Flagship store, 450 m2 House, opened in March 2014 on Corso Matteotti 8 next to Montenapoleone, celebrated with a big event “the Importance of Being Eccentric”.

“The designer is a true modern dandy and plays the part of the Pugliese peacock to perfection” – GQ Magazine, UK Not averse to trying something different, in 2015, Angelo introduced an exclusive line of bespoke watches, expanding into a new business opportunity.

“We’ve had a great response to our fashion designs in the world arena and it’s now time for a new challenge, which will build upon our existing brand and take us into a whole new category. The watch has always been a fascination of mine; it is the ultimate male accessory - exuding personality, power

and luxury.” - Angelo Galasso. Evolved from Galasso’s eponymous Polso Orologio shirt, the AG Multiuso watch captures the appetite of today’s gentleman – those who are fast becoming obsessed with vanity and beautiful objects of desire, who crave to possess prestigious items and show them off proudly.

“Women’s fashion has held the limelight for such a long time, it’s only natural that menswear should be on the rise, especially considering the cultural shift in attitude.

We’ve noticed that men, especially Londoner’s, are taking a more serious approach to their appearance and focusing on details, such as accessories and grooming.” - Angelo Galasso

sapphire stones. Understated in its design but equally as unique, this watch gives prominence to the signature AG logo and comes with an elegant checkered strap, all presented in the Galasso blue root wood case.

Aesthetically pleasing and designed to be worn with the Watch Cuff shirt, these new AG timepieces speak fashion and elegance in true Galasso style.

Sourcing the finest and most exquisite materials is a must for all items and all components that go into the final creation.

His shoes, for example are an exemplary product of fine Italian craftsmanship; made in limited styles and colourways, each pair is finished by hand and built to last a lifetime.

With prices starting at £240,000 for a timeless jewel-encrusted piece, Galasso has given a preview of two items.

The unique use of exotic skins and fabrics in Galasso’s footwear makes each pair a collector’s item unto themselves.

The AG Diamond Multiuso is solid gold weighing 180g with a face studded with black and white diamonds (it’s an outstanding work of art that deserves to be flaunted).

As you might expect, there is a fully bespoke service on every item, from casual wear to dinner suits, where monograms and individual detailing are standard practice – the choice of fabrics on offer will make any decision hard, and will no doubt have ever tailoring devotee ordering multiple looks.

The gold body, hexagonal to celebrate Galasso’s inspired AG logo, cocoons the famous ETA movement ETA chronograph mechanism - one of the finest and most prestigious Swiss watch manufacturers in the world.

The solid gold strap provides a 30’s feel, continuing to showcase the hexagonal AG logo design, whilst each crown is topped with a single brilliant diamond.

This unique custom-made timepiece comes complete in a root wood case with two interchangeable watch faces (one black and one brown) and three variants of wristband - rubber / submariner, croco and calf leather.

Each watchband is finished with gold buckle fastenings with a tiny slide capsule containing a diamond screwdriver for component changing. For everyday wear a minimalist classic option is offered, featuring a round silver bezel subtly embellished with

To commemorate 20 years of his world famous watch cuff, this year Galasso has introduced a women’s version of the shirt, along with 50 one-of-a-kind pieces to be sold from late April onwards – get in the queue as these highly coveted items are expected to start a bidding war between hard-core devotees of Angelo Galasso.

Blossoming along the path of the thirty-year creative evolution of Galasso, the new collection celebrates the eccentric as an absolute value, whilst nourishing precious Italian craftsmanship.

Angelo Galasso 8-10 Hans Rd London, SW3 1RX www.angelogalasso.com

Carole Hubscher President, Caran d’Ache Interviewed by Katie Berkshire

In an age when communication takes place almost exclusively via screens, why should we still value the pen?

continue to bring innovation and I think my ancestors would have embraced these new challenges.

Handwriting is an important tool for our cognitive development; it’s proven that handwriting has a direct impact on our reading and recall capabilities.

Has technology stunted creativity? Do you think there is something therapeutic about drawing and writing?

Writing by hand, not on a device, provides a complete individuality and freedom to the scribe, signalling elegance, creativity and personality. Computer notebooks and smartphones are absolutely a new competitor but they will never replace the wonderful simplicity of the pen.

Today, people certainly write less, yet everybody still carries a pen or a pencil to jot down a quick note or doodle.

Over the past few years the market has remained fairly stable but we are now experiencing firm growth – people are beginning to go back to basics. The fact of the matter is that a pen remains a perfect gift; you will never make a mistake offering a beautifully made pen to someone.

The enduring appeal or a pen applies to men, women and to people of all ages. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t keep a pen in their pocket or bag. New technologies are a modern necessity, but the pen will last the test of time and always be a must-have.

What would your ancestors who built Caran d’Ache in 1915 think of the digital age?

Technology is often associated with consumption, whereas drawing and writing is linked to self-expression. Partaking in either of these activities has proven to have therapeutic effects such as relieving stress, increasing clarity of mind and encouraging out-of-the-box thinking.

With growing standardisation and digitalisation, creativity has become increasingly important. Our mission at Caran d’Ache is to provide the best drawing and writing instruments for all generations to express their imaginations.

Through drawing and writing, we keep our sponaniety and personalities alive. This type of creativity and self-expression helps us avoid society becoming completely anonymous.

That said, the popularity of talented artists and illustrators that are sharing their work through platforms such as Instagram is on the rise – this is a perfect example of how digital and analogue can work together to enhance the wonders of creativity and bring it to the masses!

How has the digital age transformed the way Caran d’Ache approach the design of pens and pencils?

Good question! I guess they would probably have seen it as an opportunity just like any entrepreneur. In 1915, they bought a factory that was manufacturing soap in the centre of Geneva and transformed it into a factory that could produce black lead pencils.

Our products are truly timeless. The design of a pencil has not changed for centuries.

At the time everybody was writing and it was an important opportunity to develop a high end, quality product.

The difference at Caran d’Ache has always been that our customers look for the best, for example: the ability to sharpen a pencil easily derives from the quality of the wood. The high class of the lead, the high lightfastness of the pigment and the fact that it is safe and ecological are other elements that, for our customers, are of the utmost importance.

Caran d’Ache invented the water-soluble coloured pencil in the 1920s and we have continued to invent ground-breaking new patents ever since. It is imperative that we

The principals behind the design remain elementary - they are made from natural wood and have the same purpose as they always have done.

As for the pens; the shapes, design and materials form our brand identity. Our 849 ballpoint has not changed since its creation 50 years ago. The success of this product is thanks to the iconic design, inspired by industrial design principles.

The consistency of the design and quality have made the 849 an icon that that people love collecting, especially when we bring out limited edition pieces. Why would we change design that our customers love?

When it comes to fine writing, we cherish beautiful “métiers d’art” such as guilloches, engraving, polishing, Chinese lacquer and stone settings on precious metals.

These artisanal skills are passed down from one generation of artisans to the next and are still used today within our Geneva workshops. Even in the digital age, people appreciate these fine details provided by historic techniques.

Caran d’Ache was an early adopter of e-commerce, back in 2013 –and we are now very active on social media and our online shop. The digital age allowed us to be more efficient and to build a remarkable community with whom we can engage on a regular basis. Digital is a brilliant opportunity for us and one in which we will continue to invest.

Do you think the digital age has altered the quality of peoples’ penmanship?

In the past everybody had beautiful handwriting and it is most certainly true that handwriting has changed quite substantially.

Today people do not write as much as they did before and so we really do see it evolving. Teachers in particular are worried to see children’s handwriting abilities diminishing significantly.

On a positive note, there has been an exponential increase in the past few years of people drawing thanks to the adults’ colouring book trend, as well as the trend for modern calligraphy. We are slowly coming full circle.

Hephzi Pemberton CEO, Equality Group The Importance of Diversity in Business

Diversity within UK businesses is continually being assessed with governmental reports consistently delving into what businesses need to do to increase diversity at every step of the professional ladder.

Within the UK alone, the gender pay gap is set to be closed in approximately 55 years; an abysmal reality that perfectly describes the UK’s professional arena’s ability to invoke social change.

While the topic of conversation often centres around gender equality, it is imperative expand the assessment of workplace diversity to understand ethnicity within business.

If only one in four companies have women on their board, you can expect the number of BAME (Black, Asian, Minority Ethnics) on the board to be significantly less.

We are living in an increasingly more diverse and connected world, where people are looking for organisations that reflect the world they want to live in.

On the basis of this alone, the more diverse and inclusive businesses open themselves up to the benefits of diversity and will undoubtedly attract the best talent.

It is undeniable that broader diversity greatly benefits companies. The rewards include, but are not limited to, an increased probability of greater levels of innovation and creativity, and better professional decision making within the workplace.

This year’s McKinsey report, Delivering Through Diversity, found that companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams were 21 percent more likely to outperform on profitability and 27 percent more likely to have superior value creation.

The results were even more impressive for ethnic and cultural diversity; top-quartile companies were 33 percent more likely to have industry-leading profitability. The value of input from a workforce with a range of perspectives and experiences will undoubtedly increase the scope and colour of the work that is provided. Until UK

businesses truly understand this, we are effectively working in grayscale. Yet, despite widespread awareness of the benefits of diversity, only 6% of 2017 FTSE 100 chairs were held by ethnic minority workers and in 2016, only 11% of jobs in the UK were occupied by black, Asian and minority ethnic people.

It is important however that businesses, when promoting diversity, do not entirely focus on improving opportunities for women.

There is a very prominent risk of UK businesses solely hiring “more women” which often just means privileged white women - that will limit the benefits of greater diversity.

Commendable as this is, there is more to diversity than hiring and promoting women, particularly if many of them come from the same privileged backgrounds as men.

Not only do teams miss out on other diverse perspectives (such as those from different ages, ethnicities, degrees of mobility, and sexualities), we also miss a broader point about diversity of thought.

This cognitive diversity describes ways of processing information. It is not predicted by inherent characteristics, such as gender or ethnicity. Instead, it is often established at quite a young age and developed through experience.

A study by Harvard Business School showed that cognitive diversity had a greater impact on the results of a team problem-solving test than inherent diversity traits.

In other words, a team that looks diverse on the outside might not think so diversely on the inside. There is, therefore, a need to measure cognitive diversity across teams, whilst also proactively hiring and developing diverse talent within them.

The Equality Group commissioned a nationally representative study that delved into UK ethnic minority citizens, their career aspirations, and the inequalities that still challenge the UK’s BAME community in the world of work.

The research was launched amidst industry data that shows only 84 of the 1,048 directors in the FTSE100, originate from an ethnic minority.

Contextualised by the fact that there are more directors called Dave or Steve within these 100 companies than there are women or ethnic minorities, this timely research unveils a damning insight and ever-present reality impeding almost 8 million ethnic minority Brits attempting to succeed in the UK’s professional arena.

Underpinned by an overwhelming drive to succeed in positions of seniority, the study commissioned by Equality Group - an organisation that helps companies attract, retain and develop diverse talent - unveiled majority sentiments of ambition, academic prowess and unwavering perseverance is propelling the UK’s ethnic minority workforce forward.

Whether this sentiment is met by an academic and/or professional infrastructure is questioned significantly in The Equality Group’s study, given that 46% -2.5 millionethnic minority citizens were encouraged to commence their career in a role that did not reflect their career aspirations or academic credentials at that time.

As cited by the University of Leicester in 2017, students from ethnic minority groups have, academically, significantly improved over the last two decades and are achieving higher grades than the national average.

With this in mind, it is important to assess ethnic minority experience upon leaving education, in order to understand how such stark differences within the professional career ladder exists.

Half of ethnic minority respondents noted that they had no professional role models of their ethnic profile within the UK’s professional landscape.

This is extremely topical yet unsurprising given that the FTSE has just noted a drop in the number of ethnic minority Directors in the UKs largest 100 companies to only 84 out of 1,048. The underrepresentation of

relevant role models and the subsequent lack of identification that ethnic minority citizens have with people in positions of authority, largely contributes to the underrepresentation of ethnic minority citizens on boards.

The report made it clear that ethnic minority students have strong support structures available to them throughout their educational careers. However, there seems to be a significant deficit upon entering the world of work.

The research indicated that young ethnic minority students have significant levels of professional aspiration, supported by an educational infrastructure, that should, in theory, enable them to excel within their chosen professional careers.

This is, however, far from the reality when assessing the UK’s BAME representation at senior management, board and director level. It is a shocking reality that in 2018, the workplace does not nurture and support BAME talent in a manner that reflects the undeniable aspirations prominent in this community.

As a society of business leaders, decision-makers, professionals and commentators, we have an obligation to ensure that intention is met with action to ensure the UK’s workforce - in its entirety has access to a democratised career ladder that promotes inclusion for all at every level.

With this research and its startling outcomes in mind, diversity policies speak louder than words.

To nurture diversity, businesses need to recognise their role to do more than prevent discrimination by appealing to staff from a range of backgrounds.

Helpful measures might include flexible working hours and parenting leave, or the provision of pastoral care, mentoring and coaching, and data on pay gaps.

There is no simple formula. Much depends on the business, as well as the talent it aims to attract. These policies that support

communities that may be unable to work without them, are vital in ensuring that diversity can be achieved.

This is increasingly important within executive and director level positions where women often have to pause their careers due to starting a family.

and results. It is only after companies realise this, that they can amend their diversity policies and improve the overall health of their company.

It is time to stop questioning the importance of diversity within businesses, the evidence of it is benefits are glaring.

By simply asserting the option to work flexibly can completely change the demographic that will become available for employment positions and opportunities.

Instead UK businesses need to start assessing their own diversity policies, are they efficient, are they working, are they making your workforce diverse?

SMEs represent 98% of private sector business in the UK, a sector which provides £1.9trillion to the economy and accounts for around 16 million jobs.

About Equality Group Equality Group harnesses the power of diverse leaders for Finance, Technology and Social Impact.

Despite this, when it comes to diversity within business, the UK’s large corporations have a grave responsibility to society set a precedence for all smaller businesses in regard to equality within the workplace.

They change the business landscape by widening the range of exceptional candidates and offering them unique leadership opportunities.

They should, in theory, have the diversity policies and structures in place to compliment all workers from all backgrounds.

There has been so much discussion around equality for women within the world of work, but we are yet to see notable change that is both sustainable and replicable by smaller entities.

Within the Hampton-Alexander Review of FTSE 350 companies, efforts to promote women to board level have been described as a ‘tokenistic gesture’ in the case of 75 companies; gender equality is not a tokenistic gesture, gender equality it is a right.

In conclusion, the problem that many companies have with promoting diversity is that their perception of diversity is flawed.

Diversity within business is not a ‘nice to have’, it is a must have quality.

When diversity is seen as a competitive advantage and business necessity then you see incredible rates of change in the diversity of an organisation. When diversity is simply seen as either as a Corporate Social Responsibility or Public Relations exercise, then you see very little (if any) progress on the numbers

Their consultancy service helps companies attract, retain and develop diverse talent, which our Executive Search service headhunts.

Hephzi Pemberton Founder & CEO – Equality Group Hephzi is a business founder and angel investor, who believes in the power of good business to transform society. After completing an undergraduate degree at Oxford University, Hephzi began her career in Investment Banking at Lehman Brothers.

In 2009, she co-founded Kea Consultants, a financial headhunting firm that specialises in investment and high-growth organisations, which she quickly grew into a profitable and sustainable business.

Hephzi helped multiple investment firms, including KKR, Blackstone, Och Ziff and Elliott hire and retain high performing investment professionals. At the end of 2015, Hephzi exited Kea Consultants to pursue her next ventures.

In 2018, Hephzi founded Equality Group to harness the power of diverse leaders across the Finance, Technology and Social Impact sectors.

Peter Stas, CEO, Frederique Constant Luxury Craftmanship

Swiss watches are expressions of craftsmanship. Developers and fine watchmakers work passionately on their creations.

It is their selection of materials and their craftsmanship that determines the qualities of a beautiful Swiss watch. In addition to classic watch qualities, Swiss watches include vision and creativity.

There are three important elements that create a beautiful watch. It all starts with the movement, as it is the movement that determines what will be displayed on the dial. Secondly, the finishing of the dial of a luxury watch is a form of art.

Look at details like the galvanized background, the applied indexes, and the fine printing. Finally, the overall design balance is essential to make a watch appealing to the eye.

By definition accessible luxury refers to items of luxury, which are available at an accessible price, however to some the idea of accessibility seems alien when the subject of luxury is discussed. T ake for example the undiscerning buyer who might have the financial wherewithal to purchase an expensive product without understanding the finer details about its intrinsic qualities.

This sort of person merely understands luxury products as expensive items, which are largely unavailable to most.

With this in mind, why should anyone want a luxury item, which is available to a greater number of people at an accessible price?

The answer to this question lies with the discerning buyer of luxury purchases, who understands that luxury products are not just about their prices alone but mostly about the quality of the item being purchased.

Quality refers to the constituent materials used in making the product, the finesse and extent of the craftsmanship involved and the reputation of the brand behind the product.

With items such as luxury watches, it is widely known that the best items in this niche are largely made in Geneva, Switzerland, an area renowned for its watchmaking practices and innovations, which have held the attention of those who understand the nature of timepieces for centuries.

maintaining a perfect and delicate balance in terms of pricing, quality and availability.

However, some brands have taken advantage of this reputation to develop expensive products on a purely commercial basis which limits the purchase of such items to a very few, including buyers who view the cost factor as the sole criterion for identifying items of luxury.

Frederique Constant’s continued growth can be attributed to its long term Accessible Luxury strategy.

These practices are usually justified as being due to the rarity of the watches in question, the number of items made for a particular collection as well as cost of precious materials used in their manufacture.

Still a watch buyer should always be able to relate the cost of a product with the value of the item being purchased.

At Frederique Constant, our focus is creating luxury timepieces with an intrinsic value usually greater than the offer price of the products being sold.

Intrinsic value involves the quality of product both in terms of design, materials used in manufacture and adherence to Swiss watchmaking standards as well as traditions.

Frederique Constant timepieces are exclusively manufactured by hand while the processes involved are regulated with the latest precision equipment available in the industry backed by years of research & development.

We recruit passionate watchmakers from time-honored watch making schools whose reputations are an intricate part of Swiss watchmaking history.

Unlike a number of other brands worn for the name recognition and price tag alone, you will rarely find a Frederique Constant watch in the hands of an individual who is not a connoisseur of finer points of watches and life in general. Frederique Constant offers watches as an accessible luxury while

Making watches with a beautiful design and of quality is our passion. Lovers of the brand, and what it stands for, are partners in this shared passion for fine timepieces.

Frederique Constant offers beautiful watches at an accessible luxury price for younger people and watch enthusiasts who don’t necessarily have thousands of dollars to spend, as well as the more value-conscious customer in all kinds of categories today.

The company held this positioning for 25 years and Frederique Constant watches have never deviated from it, so people know what the brand stands for.

Unlike some other brands that have changed their strategy or tactics over the years, becoming less credible.

Drs. Peter Stas CEO (born 1963) is a Dutch entrepreneur and author. He completed his studies in Business Economics at the Erasmus University and Harvard University.

Stas worked as Consultant in New York for Loyens & Volkmaars and Product-Marketing Manager for Royal Philips Electronics.

In 1988, he founded, with his wife Aletta Stas-Bax, the watch company Frédérique Constant.

The manufacture’s initial strategy was to focus its energy on classical luxury watches at an affordable price.

The Accessible Luxury positioning was the basis of strong growth during the financial crisis when consumers came back more to classical values and accessible prices.

In 2002, to diversify the Frédérique Constant group, Stas and his wife acquired Alpina Watches, a manufacturer of Swiss sports watches founded in 1883.

Dan Cruickshank, The First Cities Art Historian and BBC Television Presenter

I’ve pursued it around the world. There’s an alchemy about brick – about all building materials made from fired clay – where the elements of earth and water are transformed by fire into a material that can be more durable than stone.

Through fire, a soft, ephemeral and ‘base’ material – mud – is transmuted into the hard, the eternal, and the beautiful. Perhaps it is the beauty of bricks that is the starting point of my love affair.

Many materials can be hard – wrought iron, steel, or concrete – but they don’t have the character, or the ancient pedigree, of brick.

And as well as hardness, history, beauty and character, brick possesses great subtlety.

A brick’s colour and texture is the result of the mix of clay from which it is made, perhaps with the addition of other materials, and of the manner in which it has been fired – primarily the temperature, length and regularity of the firing process.

Also, unlike many other hard building materials, bricks breathe, almost as living beings.

Their open cell structure makes them wind-proof but breathable, which means they are the ideal material for homes.

They also offer superb insulation – helping interiors remain cool during a hot summer and warm in cold winters. Since they also function as heat reservoirs because of their high heat retention capacity, bricks can actively help warm a room. In a brilliant manner the heat stored during the day is gently released when outside temperatures fall.

The inherent qualities of brick, aesthetic, economic, environmental and structural, seem to have been recognized by mankind at a very distant time. Indeed, as far as it is possible to tell, bricks are the oldest man-made building material.

The first cities made by man – such as Uruk in Mesopotamia which was founded around 6,000 years ago, and Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro in the Indus Valley dating from around 4,600 years ago – utilized brick and other clay products. Both these

locations were near deposits of alluvial soil, which were ideal for brick- making, and the lack of timber or stone suitable for building meant that brick technology had to be developed. The bricks used in these cities were typical of early brick construction: both sun-dried and kiln-fired.

The Ziggurat of Eanna at Uruk, approximately 4,200 years old, is a good example of early brick construction, as is the now much-restored ziggurat at nearby Ur (174), that was started about 4,000 years ago.

The core of the Uruk ziggurat is made of sun-dried bricks with mats between a number of courses to help level and sustain the structure while the bricks and the mortar in which they were laid became more solid.

Over this core was laid a facing of hard kiln-fired bricks. And occasionally at Uruk, earlier and smaller sun-dried brick structures were faced with kiln-fired clay cones, of different colours and laid to form abstract patterns.

When I visited the ziggurat, I observed that the kiln-fired bricks had been mostly robbed long ago – and that the sun-dried bricks survived to a large degree and in generally remarkably good condition, although molten by the rains.

This can also be seen in the ruined and mighty Peruvian adobe-built ‘pyramids’ – like Huaca Larga at Tucume (166), dating from around 1000 AD – that are so vast and weathered they look like part of the natural geological landscape.

What amazed me at Uruk is that the kiln-fired bricks were as sound as the day they were made. This put me in mind of what is now regarded as the world’s oldest book, The Epic of Gilgamesh, written about 4,700 years ago.

Gilgamesh was a king of Uruk who sought immortality and found it, ultimately, through architecture and the construction of cities wrought in strong kiln-fired bricks.

Gilgamesh realized that his name stamped on hard bricks, ‘where the names of famous men are written’, meant that his creations and his memory would last for eternity. The

kiln-dried brick was the passport to immortality, a guarantee that your creations – and your name – would live forever.

Dan Cruickshank co-wrote Brick Mini Format which takes an intriguing look at the world’s oldest manmade building material, collating remarkable and beautiful brick buildings from around the world.

In this newly reimagined and easy-to-use size, Brick Mini Format is an insightful and often surprising look at a humble material which has been an architectural staple for centuries. With all of the extraordinary and insightful content of the original edition and in a tactile new size Brick Mini Format is now available at a very affordable price.

As well as showcasing fantastic early works of architecture, such as the strange remains of the Ziggurat of Ur (dating from 2100 BC) and the vast Baths of Caracalla in Rome (216 AD), Brick Mini Format features some of the most celebrated architects of the twentieth century, such as Mies van der Rohe, Alvar Aalto, and Frank Lloyd Wright – for whom bricks were integral to his vision of an American vernacular.

Equally striking and memorable works are featured by innovators working into the twenty- rst century, including Frank Gehry, Peter Zumthor, Kazuyo Sejima, and many lesser-known newcomers.

Arranged to promote comparison and discussion, the selected projects take the reader on a global tour of intriguing and inspiring structures: an American arts centre sits next to an English castle, a French war memorial is shown alongside a Russian cathedral, and a Uruguayan church next to a school in Burkina Faso.

Dan Cruickshank is an art historian and BBC television presenter, with a special interest in the history of architecture.

Cruickshank studied Art, Design and Architecture and was formerly a Visiting Professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Shef eld and a member of the London faculty of the University of Delaware.

David Vincent, PhD The Paradox of Privacy Valerie Kendall, Partner at WestBridge Capital

The death of privacy was first pronounced in the late 1960s. The spreading use of mainframe computers threatened a world in which all personal secrets could be held by central bureaucracies. Where the great paper-based demographic and welfare systems had stored only discrete aspects of a person’s life, now machines could connect the fragments of information into a complete subject, who no longer had control over their use.

surveillance. There is widespread apprehension about the security of emails, yet the average teenager now exchanges 40-50 messages a day.

The arrival of the internet, the personal computer and mobile devices from the 1980s onwards revived the prophecies of doom. In scholarly monographs and popular journalism privacy was consigned to the past. Campaigners protested; Silicon Valley celebrated. Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun Microsystems, told journalists in 1999, ‘You have zero privacy anyway.’

The seeming paradox of bottomless pessimism and increasing use derives from four characteristics of privacy, which are frequently lost to sight amidst the intensity of the debate about the digital revolution.

The sense of pessimism was deepened by Edward Snowden in June 2013. His material finally democratised the debate.

Specialist commentators had long been concerned about the scope of the surveillance operations of the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and their interactions with commercial network providers.

After Snowden, everyone was worried. A recent survey of found that only 5% of Americans were unaware of his allegations.

The consequence was a collapse in public trust: ‘across the board, there is a universal lack of confidence in the security of everyday communication channels – particularly when it comes to the use of online tools’ (Mary Madden, Public Perceptions of Privacy and Security in the Post-Snowden Era (2014). p. 23).

Over the last half century privacy has acquired a zombie status, forever killed by the digital revolution, only to rise up with an axe through its head to be destroyed once again.

The same post-Snowden surveys report no reduction in the use of the media which are now seen to be so vulnerable to

The internet providers are trying to reassure their customers and increase the use of encryption, but in in spite of their apparent concern and the absence of a significant reform of the security agencies, their share prices have remained unaffected.

In the first place, privacy was never conceived as an irreducible possession, which was either wholly owned or forever lost. As far back as the late middle ages we find households taking their neighbours to court for infringement of their expectation that conversations should not be overheard or activities spied upon.

But with un-curtained and mostly unglazed windows, flimsy interior walls, and crowded interiors, such ambitions were at best relative. Creating the opportunity of exchanging personal confidences was a matter of constant effort and ingenuity.

Always there was the threat of eavesdropping, yet always there was a possibility of finding a quiet moment amidst the bustle of the household, particularly as the number of specialised rooms increased in the early modern period.

The front door, which from the beginning of domestic architecture has served as a frontier of privacy, could let people out as well as in, with gardens and the countryside beyond an additional arena of secluded conversation.

Privacy was and has remained work, with endless minor defeats and victories in the struggle to control personal communication.

Not until the post-1945 declarations of Human Rights was privacy formally accorded the status of a human right, but even here its

relativity was preserved. Clause 8.1 of the European Convention, enshrined in British law by the Human Rights Act of 1998, guarantees the right to private and family life; clause 8.2 lists the exceptions, including the state’s overriding requirements in respect of national security, serious crime and ‘economic wellbeing’.

Secondly, privacy has always been conditioned by communication. From at least the fifteenth century onwards, protected face-to-face discourse has been supplemented by devices of virtual privacy.

Correspondence became a means of maintaining intimate relationships over distance, first for the educated minority, and those, like Margaret Paston, who afford scribes to write and read their messages.

By the eighteenth century, as Susan Whyman has shown, the practice had reached far down into society, and with the introduction of the Penny Post in 1840, the machinery was in place for a limitless expansion in cheap, reliable intercourse.

By that time the telegraph was under development, and from the mid-1870s, electronic conversation became possible.

From the outset, those who engaged in forms of virtual privacy recognised that benefit was accompanied by risk. Before the creation of a national postal service, letters were entrusted to travelling friends or employees, who might or might not deliver as requested.

The physical manifestation of the message meant that there was no guarantee that during or after delivery the letter would fall into the wrong hands, and the physical separation of the interlocutors introduced an irreducible element of doubt into the meanings derived from the exchange.

Once the state began to provide a service to the civilian population, the danger of government espionage was readily apparent. Legislative safeguards were introduced from the 1710 Post Office Act onwards, but these only concerned the behaviour of postal employees; the state reserved the right, through to the

present day, to open letters by warrant in the interests of what it believed to be national security. When it was caught intercepting mail on behalf of the Austrian Government in 1844, just after democratising the service through the penny post, there was an immense public controversy, but the use of the correspondence continued to rise.

Those engaging in the expanding realm of virtual privacy sought to manage risk by adopting a range of devices to minimise the danger of exposure.

They wrote in terms that only the respondent could fully understand. With the introduction of the telegraph, which required the operator to read the message, the modern devices of codes and encryption began their development.

Thus it is that those who have looked closely at the seeming exhibitionist privacy of teens and their digital intercourse have found that without instruction or conscious learning they have developed a wide range of techniques for controlling the exposure of their personal secrets. As a recent survey found, ‘one of the ways that people cope with the challenge to their privacy online is to employ multiple strategies for managing identity and reputation across different networks and transactions. As previous findings … have suggested, users bounce back and forth between different levels of disclosure depending on the context’ (Madden, 2014, p. 5).

Fully to comprehend the range of meanings embodied in a single exchange between two instant-messaging teenagers presents a still insurmountable challenge to all the algorithms of the security agencies.

This raises the third issue at the heart of the paradox of privacy, the meaning of surveillance.

The term is everywhere deployed in the debate about the impact of the digital revolution. In many studies it is embedded in an explicitly historical context. Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, first envisaged in the late eighteenth century, subsequently reworked by George Orwell in his dystopian 1984, and further theorised by Michel Foucault in Discipline and Punish, is held to provide the model for the present regime of oversight.

Where Bentham’s prison relied upon unproven machinery and was too expensive ever to be built, now the state appears to possess both the resources and the technology to deliver his vision of inspection. However, Bentham, who derived his model from the notion of divine inspection, was collapsing five stages of surveillance: the capacity to see, the act of seeing,

the comprehension of what is seen, action on the basis of that knowledge, and a change of behaviour by the observed. T oo often in the debate about the surveillance of private behaviour, the final four are assumed from the possibility of the first.

All five can of course occur, and in the minds of those in the early modern period who were earnestly engaged in private prayer with an omniscient Almighty, there was no doubt that they did.

But in our own secular world, the sequence has to be demonstrated. CCTV cameras deliver blurred images to untrained technicians, security agencies accumulate haystacks of information which obscure more than illuminate about the behaviours they seek to uncover.

And, above all, the assumed passivity of the observed, which was at the centre of Bentham’s prison and all subsequently reworkings, has only been glimpsed in the totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century, and even then elaborate strategies of evasion were developed.

Thus it is that the surveys that report steepling levels of concern about surveillance, also reveal minimal reported levels of material invasion of privacy by those, principally mothers, teachers and potential employers, who are actually in a position to affect the subjects’ wellbeing.

Finally, there is in the current debate about privacy a constant danger of confusing the direction of change with the complex patterns of behaviour in the present and recent past.

As the technology observer John Naughton has argued, it is necessary to view the digital revolution as one element of a constantly evolving media ecosystem, in which new developments interact with but rarely displace older forms of communication, including speech and correspondence which go back to the beginnings of civilised society. The obsessive concern amongst commentators and researchers with the internet, and in particular with its use by a narrow cohort of teenage users, obscures the range and complexity of the means by which the population as a whole, even in advanced western societies, exchange intimate confidences.

As late as 2007, for instance, for UK women engaging on a daily basis in a basic form of private communication, ‘catching up with close friends or relatives’, the most common channel was ‘face-to-face conversation’ at 51%, followed at 47% by the telephone, a technology by then into its second century (Office for National Statistics, Social Trends, No. 41 (2011), ‘Lifestyles and social participation’, p. 3). Sherry Turkle has lately published Reclaiming Conversation.

The Power of Talk in a Digital Age (2015), which argues persuasively for the importance of face-to-face intercourse and the threats posed by talking via machines, but lacks any comprehensive survey of the range of ways in which couples and wider social networks do in fact communicate over the life course.

The pace of change has been so rapid since the late twentieth century as to create real difficulties of research methodology. It is impossible, for instance, to conduct a stable longitudinal study, finding out how teenagers change their privacy behaviours as they grow old, holding constant a particular configuration of communication technologies.

However, there are clues in the current literature which suggest that whilst adults will express concern when asked about the security of their digital devices, that technology still only constitute a minor element in the exchange of intimacies which lie at the heart of privacy.

A recent study of online users who are married or in committed relationships found that nearly three quarters ‘said the internet has “no real impact at all” on their partnership.’ Unsurprisingly, the figure fell with age, declining to ten per cent for those over sixty-five (Amanda Lenhart and Maeve Duggan, Couples, the Internet, and Social Media (2014), pp. 2-3).

Even where an impact was felt, it was mostly positive, enabling couples to keep in touch when physically apart. When the mobile device was put aside, there was talk, and when the words dried up, there were all the gestures of face and body by which individuals know that they know each other. ‘After all,’ wrote Montaigne in his late sixteenth-century Essays, ‘lovers quarrel, make it up again, beg favours, give thanks, arrange secret meetings and say everything, with their eyes… And what of our eyebrows or our shoulders? None of their movements fails to talk a meaningful language which does not have to be learned, a language common to us all.’

David Vincent was an undergraduate at the University of York and gained a PhD at Sidney Sussex College Cambridge. He became Lecturer in History at Keele University in 1974, leaving as Professor of Social History and Deputy Vice Chancellor in 2003 to take up the post of Pro Vice Chancellor (Strategy and External Affairs) at the OU. Now Emeritus Professor in History, he became a full-time member of the History Department in 2010.

He was a Visiting Fellow of Kellogg College 2004-11, Oxford and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Society of Arts.

Gerry Brown The Independent Director The Non-Executive Director’s Guide to Effective Board Presence

RBS, BP, Tesco, Enron, Northern Rock, Polly Peck, Arthur Andersen and Swiss Air are all companies that have been the subject of major losses in shareholder value and affected the value of the pension funds of millions of people.

Their governance and actions have led to major job losses and, in some cases, the Government has spent billions of taxpayer’s money to rescue them. Then let us consider some of the following issues and how they have damaged companies; • Mis-selling of services by banks, for example the massive mis-selling of payment protection insurance by UK banks, which has cost them billions of pounds and damaged their relationships.

• Tax avoidance by international firms who route income through low tax domiciles in order to avoid paying tax • Anti competitive behavior such as the persistent rumors of collusion between energy firms.

• Unethical behavior such as the phone hacking scandal - which threatened the stability of the entire News International group.

• Corruption for example the payment of bribes in countries where the rule of law is weak in order to secure contracts.

• The fines levied by regulators against pharmaceutical companies e.g. for failure to disclose the side affects of drugs discovered in clinical trials.

• The massive fine against BP for the environmental damage in the Gulf of Mexico.

In all these cases failures of corporate governance have damaged companies, sectors and sometimes - entire economies.

As a result, over the years, various UK special investigations have been conducted, e.g. Cadbury Report, Greenbury Report, Higgs Report, Walker Report and a number of codes of conduct developed. In the USA,

two pieces of legislation have been passed Sarbanes Oxley and Dodds Frank. Yet, no matter how many codes are developed or laws passed, it is the behavior of the leaders of companies that counts.

In 2015 the problems of VW, Petrobas, T oshiba and the fines against banks, to name a few demonstrate that this issue is still far too prevalent.

Yet despite many deleterious sometimes dramatic consequences, public understanding and perception of the role and importance of independent directors as the real custodians of companies remains woefully inadequate.

I try to rectify this lack of understanding and knowledge in my new book The Independent Director (Palgrave Macmillan).

So why do I claim that independent directors (non-executive directors in old money) are the real custodians of our companies. Firstly and foremost, increasingly they have the majority of seats on the boards of public companies.

In the final analysis it is the boards that have the responsibility for the strategy and performance of businesses.

Secondly they represent ALL interested parties not just the shareholders. This is particularly important since, increasingly, via their executive representatives shareholders have become focused (almost fixated) upon short-term results and it falls to Independent Directors to have concern about the longerterm health and strategic direction of the business.

Another significant factor is that the increasing mobility of executive directors (and their understandable natural interest in career progression) requires Independent Directors to retain focus upon high calibre management recruitment and/or the associated management succession.

Given all these factors, the role and function of the Independent Director crucially both safeguards and helps responsible management. Interestingly, this isn’t just the case in the corporate sector but increasingly also on the Councils of Universities, NHS Trusts, Charities & NGO boards along with numerous other public

bodies. Unfortunately not in the world of global football as can be seen from the FIFA scandal. Responsibility for company strategy is foremost for most IDs since this together with ensuring the strength of the senior team are the key factors that impact the health of companies.

There are also critical roles to play in helping companies deal with issues of globalization and risk management as well as overseeing merger and acquisition due diligence (along with hostile approaches from predators). Finally IDs should be the eyes and ears of companies in addition to bringing best practice, experience and contacts from other sectors and g eographies.

It’s obviously the case that the job of the independent Director has become much more challenging and difficult this reflects the growing complexity of the decisions, which the boards of companies routinely face, for example; • Should the company do business in or with countries that have oppressive regimes the policies of which may be anathema to employees, shareholders and the general public?

• How should the company make sure that local subsidiaries, suppliers and so on are not behaving in unethical ways such as exploiting child labour or failing to provide a safe working environment?

• What stance should the company take with regard to its customers?

• Will it engage in price fixing, price exploitation or dumping in order to grab market share, regardless of the long-term impact on customers?

• How safe are the company’s products?

• Is the company behaving in an environmentally friendly manner?

Palgrave Macmillan publishes Gerry Brown’s The Independent Director: The Non-Executive Director’s Guide to Effective Board Presence.

The Art Market LUMAS Galleries, Berlin

By Dr. Jan Seewald, Senior Manager, A. Lange & Söhne

The first work of art I owned was a small print my mother bought me on a flea market in Switzerland for a couple of Swiss francs, years ago, when I was a child.

It was nothing special, made by an unknown artist, and I discovered it in a pile of many others. But when I held it in my hands I knew I wanted it. No: I needed it. It almost spoke to me and I fell in love with the piece at the very moment.

Ever since then, I added other works of art to my collection, which I had laid the foundation for in my early years.

The print I got years ago is still in my possession, reminding me of a beautiful day that I spent with my mother. It is a small piece of art, but it has the power to trigger in me a multitude of emotions.

In my opinion, art should always trigger emotions and in order to enjoy it over a long period or time, it is vital to really ‘fall in love with a piece’.

development in art history. It slowly evolved from documentary photography and journalism to one of the most important mediums in art. Maybe that’s why photography is becoming more accessible to new collectors than other more established art forms.

As a result of this shift in perception, galleries and online platforms such as LUMAS have sprung up around the world to accommodate this growing interest.

By way of example, LUMAS, founded just ten years ago, now offers more than 1,800 works by 200 established artists and promising newcomers, creating a portfolio which delivers a comprehensive look into the contemporary art and design scenes.

For photography lovers, a gallery like LUMAS therefore offers a perfect place to start a collection.

Photography has become increasingly popular over the last couple of years.

Even though it is tempting to consider art as a financial investment, especially in times of a heated international art market, I would not recommend collecting with a purely financial motivation when starting out.

Historically, prices for photographs used to be much lower then for paintings or sculpture for example, but this is changing fast.

While the pieces you fall in love with might be out of reach in your first years of collecting, there are ways to work around this, so don’t let a limited budget stand in your way.

There is a rapid increase in value and in prices, especially when it comes to big names, such as Horst P. Horst, Bert Stern, Andreas Gursky, Richard Prince or Cindy Sherman.

There are a number of galleries, including LUMAS, who offer a large variety of works, from established masters to young talents, over a range of budgets, from very affordable prices to more expensive pieces.

But the public interest in photography is growing stronger, which is made apparent in the growing worldwide interest in photo fairs, such as Paris Photo, Unseen Photo Fair Amsterdam,

Having said this, it is worth determining how much one is willing to spend on photography each year, if not each quarter.

AIPAD or the newly established Photo London, which was held for the first time in May this year. I think photography will continue to grow in popularity and we have not seen the peak yet. The fact that photography is now considered to be an art form in the same league as painting and sculpture has only been a fairly recent

Before actually going out and buying something, it is most important to actually find out what you like.

To determine this, the following strategy always worked for me: go to museums, browse through galleries, attend art fairs whenever possible and flip through photography books: this way you will find out what you can relate to personally and

what you are drawn to. Pretend you have an unlimited budget and see what you would buy. Your taste will narrow down and you will know quickly where your areas of interest lie.

Another question you need to consider when buying is the purpose of it and if you want to follow a special direction for your collection.

Are the works to be hung in your office or in your living room? No matter where you put them, they need to fit the setting you provide.

Many galleries still adhere to a white cube model, making it hard to imagine the works in a domestic setting.

There are ways around this however, and technology is working to make the process easier, with a variety of apps and the use of smartphones to help you visualise the work in your own home.

One of the most interesting recent trends is that more and more people are buying art online and there are now a multitude of outlets to be considered.

That was not the case ten years ago, when a platform like LUMAS was a novelty. This move to purchase art online stems largely from caution; a lot of people visit a gallery and see something they like, but they don’t want to decide straight away and instead choose to make their purchase at a later date in their own home.

However, nothing beats the actual moment when you see a work of art in a gallery and fall in love with it right there and take it home with you on the spot.

And once you found the perfect place to hang it, you cannot imagine living without it.

LUMAS Galleries Ernst-Reuter-Platz 2 10587 Berlin Tel: +49 30 30 30 69 69 Mon - Fri - von 09-19 Uhr

The Speciality Food Industry - History of Partridges

By John Shepherd, Owner and Managing Director

Partridges opened its doors for the first time at 132 Sloane Street on 25th May 1972 at 9am.

A former car showroom had been transformed into a delicatessen with the slogan “Good things for the larder”. It was the vision of my older brother Richard who after studying at the LSE with Mick Jagger, among others, had opened a chain of late night convenience stores called Shepherd Foods in 1968.

As a delicatessen Partridges was going very much against the trend of the time.

Convenience and self-service were the clarion calls for food retailers.

Counters were being phased out, floor staff were being reduced and product ranges modernised. It was a bold move and a challenging one. Our prices were significantly higher than local competitors who included Oakeshotts, Justin de Blank, Jacksons of Piccadilly and International Stores on Sloane Square.

Although by closing at 9pm we traded later than all of them and by opening on Sundays and offering free deliveries provided a service that was readily appreciated and provided a USP. We still have the original delivery bike.

However 1972 was just prior to the recession of 1974, the oil crisis, three day week and electrical blackouts. So not a particularly auspicious time to launch an independent, traditional food shop.

It was a different world in other ways too.

On the day we opened T Rex topped the charts with Metal Guru. The temperature was recorded as 47 degrees Fahrenheit and Ramu the killer whale was performing at Windsor Great Park.

The Watergate Hotel in Washington was about to be burgled the following day.

Products that we sold from day one included Bird’s Nest Soup, Gulls Eggs and Frozen Jugged Hare. Game Pie and Taramasalata were popular. Our tea range included Gunpowder Tea and Russian Caravan and the cake counter sold Black

Forest Gateau and a chocolate cake the likes of which I have never seen again. Our speciality of the house was the Alderton Marmalade Ham. In the wine department a bottle of our Vin Ordinaire sold for 60p, Chablis for 77p and Moet et Chandon champagne for £2.20.

Under the section ‘lesser European wines’ there was Valpolicella for 90p. Our free range eggs were supplied by the family dentist and later on our olive oil was produced by our local vet.

We were locals ourselves and my first home was just a few hundred yards from the front door having arrived in this world at St George’s Hospital on Hyde Park Corner. At the time of our opening Upstairs Downstairs was a fictional television programme about life in Edwardian London and we fortunately reinforced the image of the local grocers. Indeed we were mentioned in the more recent remake as such.

1972 was also the year after decimalisation.

Not many products had date codes. There were no barcodes, prices were applied using a price gun and Sunday trading laws restricted the hours when alcohol could be sold and ensured that household products and bibles could not be sold at all.

It was actually very confusing. On several occasions I recall police officers in uniform asking to buy alcohol which would result in a swift prosecution if a hapless member of staff agreed to do it. Something we fortunately avoided. So by the end of the 1970’s Partridges was still open but still had not quite developed a stride pattern.

In 1983 the opportunity arose to buy the double unit carpet shop next door. I had gone in with the intention of actually buying a carpet but the conversation with the elderly owner soon developed into a much larger business transaction.

So in 1984 we tripled in size and our new address was 132-134 Sloane Street. There was a much larger deli counter, wine section, fruit and veg department and patisserie counter.

We even had a rotisserie oven for cooked chickens that eventually caught fire but in the

first year sales doubled and by the end of the second year had nearly trebled. We now had very large windows for product display and the death trap grocer’s boy delivery bike had been replaced by a van.

By the end of the decade sales had risen over 600 per cent and this was a real transformation in our fortunes. We also started to export in a small way and became Founder Members of the Guild of Fine Food Retailers who were later to become the real champions and saviours of artisan food in the United Kingdom.

Their creation of the Great Taste Awards often referred to as the Oscars of Speciality Foods - played a key part in the Artisan Food Revolution of the early 2000’s. It was in the 1980’s that Christmas sales became a big thing for us. Mainly because department stores closed their order books at the beginning of December.

We kept taking orders until the last possible moment. Christmas Hampers were therefore very popular as were cooked Christmas Turkeys and hams, caviar, port and stilton boxes, house claret, Patum Pepperium (Gentleman’s and Poachers’ Relish), Christmas puddings, Carlsbad and Elvas Plums, Moutarde de Meaux, sides of smoked salmon and foie gras (which we no longer sell).

Also by the end of the 1980s we were stocking over 100 own label lines.

By the beginning of the 1990s the flow of the mid 80s had given way to an ebb.

Oakeshotts, our nearest competitor, had been replaced by the much more commercially orientated Europa Foods.

The Sunday Trading Act of 1994 allowed large supermarkets to trade legitimately late at night and for some hours on Sundays.

There was also a recession at the beginning of the decade that did not end until 1993. Sales at Partridges fell by 16% during this time but later on started to flow again and by the end of the decade recorded an increase of 187% over the course of the ten years.

In 1991 a memorable and fortuitous event occurred, we received a phone call from the Palace asking to order some products. We were not entirely sure at first which Palace this was – theatre or public house. Luckily it turned out to be THE Palace, as in the Royal Household.

Rumour had it that another supplier had dismissed their Royal Warrant Holder. The Royal Warrant is actually granted to an individual not to a company and so technically the Royal Warrant had been surrendered. Due to our close proximity and desire to supply the Royal Household we leapt at the opportunity and in 1994 were granted the Royal Warrant as Grocers to Her Majesty the Queen.

This year is our 25th Anniversary of being a Royal Warrant Holder.

As with the beginning of the 1980s and 1990s the millennium for us did not get off to a very good start apart from the absence of the Millenium Bug. From the end of the year 2000 until 2004 our sales declined by 17%. One of the reasons was the arrival of Waitrose Belgravia about three quarters of a mile away.

At the time they were regarded with admiration as champions of gentrification around the country but regarded with dread for their range of speciality foods by many small delicatessen owners.

In 2004 The Duke of York’s was known more as a barracks than as a retail destination. Due to our absence from Sloane Street many customers thought we had closed down entirely and taxi drivers denied all knowledge of the new Square.

In fairness it was in fact the first public Square to open in London for over 100 years. We occupied the ground floor of Queripel House, a building which among other users had been used as an indoor marching hall. A year later to encourage more footfall we launched the Duke of York Square Fine Food Market with the support of Cadogan.

At first we started with about 20 traders who I had attracted over from Borough Market. As many business ventures go the market was quiet for the first year or so and many traders came and went. Slowly however it started to establish itself and footfall increased on Saturdays and the number of traders grew to about 70 with a significant waiting list. It was always a business risk to bring 70 competitors to trade just outside our front door but the market has benefitted the shop over the years and made it more accessible to a wider demographic.

As a rule we always try to offer stalls to smaller businesses and coined the word Startisan to cover the Startup Artisans who form the main body of the market.

However another fortuitous turn occurred when the Cadogan Estate invited us to move to the newly created Duke of York Square which was a shopping area created out of the Duke of York Square Barracks on the Kings Road.

Over the last decade there have been many memorable events. In 2012 we celebrated the Diamond Jubilee with the rest of the country and joined in a large party on the Square.

In 2016 we ran the Startisans café and launched a shop in Covent Garden and the market won a national award as Best Market Attraction.

The 500 yard move south west was not an easy manouevre to perform. We managed to close down one shop and reopen the other in the space of about 4 days, if I recall correctly. Thousands of food and drink products were transported round the Square. We also expended no money at all on advertising apart from a sign on the front door of our old premises informing customers that we had relocated – to little effect.

Prior to that we also won an award for Best Family Business in Retailing from Family Business United. In 2017 we joined the trend and created and launched our own Chelsea Flower Gin, first The Original to celebrate our 45th Anniversary and the following May we launched No.2 Chelsea Flower Gin to commemorate the marriage of Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex, which have both now proven to be one of our best selling products.

Looking back, what are they key elements of our longevity? Luck, team work and focus and a supportive local community have been vital ingredients.

There have been very difficult years probably about 7 – but on reflection they have only served to help us savour the good times all the more. Who would have known that my brother’s vision 47 years ago would have kept me gainfully employed me with our wonderful colleagues for so many years.

And also provided a fair degree of fun along the way.

I once read that the average life span of a new delicatessen is 5 years. So to have continued as an independent family business in the centre of London for 47 years must mean something. Perhaps because when we started there were no sell by dates.

Partridges, Kensington, London The company slogan was, and still is, ‘good things for the larder’.

Today, Partridges is still very much a family-run business with Sir Richard’s brother, John Shepherd, now the Managing Director.

In fact, it is one of the few remaining family-run food shops in Central London and still cherishes its original idea of providing the very finest quality foods.

Now located on the Duke of York Square on the King’s Road, the Partridges of Sloane Square branch features a café, a delicatessen counter, a weekly Saturday Fine Food Market and a huge range of American groceries.

Partridges was awarded its Royal Warrant in 1994 by Appointment to HM The Queen.

Today, firms that hold the Royal Warrant include grocers like Partridges, wine merchants, chemists, plumbers, mole catchers and dressmakers. The distinguishing feature, no matter the size of the company, is to provide the highest standards of service. partridges.co.uk

Bing Luo, Chef Hutong Restaurant, The Shard Interviewed by Vincent Abrams

What attracted you to the hospitality industry and what were you doing beforehand?

My whole career I have been a chef, it’s all that I have wanted to do. At 17 I went to culinary college in my home town, Chengdu – capital city of the Sichuan province in China

cultures. With travel, people are wanting to try a wider variety of cuisines. I think Chinese food and culture is becoming more accessible and people are more interested to try it. Indeed, people are learning also about the difference between the the different Chinese cuisines.

Why did you decide to become a chef?

And did you have any role models?

We cook Northern Sichuan Chinese food, which is aromatic with the fire and spice of Sichuan pepper.

I didn’t have any particular role models, but in my neighbourhood growing up was a very famous chef.

What would you say has been the most memorable moment in your culinary career so far?

He had a really interesting life, and I thought that that was something I would like to do!

In Hong Kong I worked at a private club where we had to create classics, with new techniques.

Have you personally invented any dishes?

Because we cook authentic Northern Chinese food, I don’t ‘invent’ any dishes.

But there are a number of dishes on the menu that I have put my own spin to. For example, the ‘Chefs Rice’ is very classic, but I have added our own ‘Hutong’ seasoning and Sichuan pepper oil, which gives a numbing sensation.

Why do you think your menus have become so popular?

Our menu is very well balanced. We have a lot of different flavours, and a variety of sauces. I try to develop authentic dishes, and then modify to suit the produce we have available.

What type of experience do you hope to give guests at Hutong London? Is there a particular vibe you are aiming for?

I love introducing my cuisine to people, and I think the British people are open minded and happy to try new things, which I really enjoy. I want our guests to feel welcomed and leave happy!

Why do you think that Chinese cuisine is becoming increasingly popular around the world?

People are travelling a lot more, and there is greater understanding between different

Once I came up with a dish of tofu ice-cream and dan dan noodles. That was a really challenging time, but exciting and different.

What are your favourite dishes to make? Both personal and at work.

At home I like to make stews and Chinese soups. At work I really like working with fresh seafood. My favourite ingredient at the moment is scallops.

They are so delicate and sweet. I recently cooked them with a pickled chilli sauce – perfect!

What tools / instruments could you not live without in the kitchen?

We have a saying “one knife and one wok can walk around the world”.

What restaurant is currently at the top of your list to dine at?

It’s a long list, but I have favourites I like going back to. Roka is always at the top, and I really like Spanish food, and what Head Chef Yahir does at aqua nueva.

What is your favourite cuisine outside of Asian i.e. Italian, South American etc.

I like Mediterranean cuisine - balanced and simple, with strong flavours.

Hutong Level 33 The Shard 31 St. Thomas Street London, SE1 9RY (020) 3011 1257 hutong.co.uk hutongreservations@aqua-london.com

Tuna Tataki with Ponzu

NOBU Restaurant, Berkeley St, Mayfair, London Advertorial

Located over two floors with a stylish yet relaxed Lounge Bar, Nobu Berkeley ST is also home to some of London’s most exclusive celebrity parties and events.

NOBU’s Namesake Nobu Berkeley Street is the second London venture from world renowned Japanese Chef Nobu Matsuhisa in conjunction with partners including Robert de Niro and hotel owner Christina Ong, after demand required another Nobu restaurant in London.

The menu draws heavily on Matsuhisa’s classic Japanese training as a sushi chef in Tokyo, as well as on South American influences gained during his extensive travels. This innovative “new style” Japanese cuisine has become both his trademark and the foundation of his success.

Dining A name that is synonymous with masterful techniques, confident Japanese flavours with a hint of Peruvian influence, and picture-perfect presentation, Nobu Berkeley ST is the place to see-and-be-seen in Mayfair.

An instant hit from the day it opened in 2005, the pioneering restaurant and bar on Berkeley Street that led the way in Japanese dining continues to cast its spell over fashionable, discerning Londoners and international clientele alike.

With Executive Chef Mark Edwards at the helm, alongside Head Chef Rhys Cattermoul and General Manager Trudi Fairweather, Nobu Berkeley Street embraces its reputation as one of the capital’s most established restaurants.

The menu encourages diners to combine both iconic dishes that have stood the test of time with more recent additions via the Nobu Classic and Nobu Now sections.

With all dishes designed for sharing, signature classics include: Yellowtail Sashimi with Jalapeño; Baby Tiger Shrimp with Ponzu and the world-famous Black Cod Miso, as well as dishes incorporating local ingredients such as Dover sole, Scottish

lobster and langoustine. While the Nobu Now options bring more contemporary tastes to the fore with: Wagyu Gyoza with Spicy Ponzu; Spicy Chicken Tacos and Matsuhisa Sliders.

The extensive selection of Sushi and Sashimi, prepared by Head Sushi Chef Hiyoshi San, should never be overlooked. The options range from the Classic Salmon and Spicy Tuna through to Razor Clam, Sea Urchin and Freshwater Eel. If you’re struggling to decide, put your trust in Nobu’s seven-course Omakase chef tasting menus. Choose between the Nobu Classic or the Vegetarian menu to experience the true essence of Nobu’s cuisine. Lunchgoers who are pressed for time can keep things simple by opting for one of the expertly-assembled Bento Boxes.

The Classic Bento Box contains: Sashimi Salad with Matsuhisa dressing; Assorted Sushi; Baby Tiger Shrimp Tempura with Ponzu; Black Cod Miso; Vegetable Spicy Garlic with Rice and Miso Soup. Vegetarian, Deluxe and Children’s options are also available.

Add some theatre to your meal with the exclusive Hibachi Table. Offering wagyu beef, seafood or Chef’s market vegetables, choose from three cooking techniques, including the classic Hibachi – searing meats offered with a variety of dipping sauces; Shabu-Shabu – meaning ‘swish swish’ where slices of meat are submerged in a pot of dashi and swished back and forth several times to cook, and Sukiyaki – a traditional method of cooking where the meats are slowly simmered in a shallow iron pot in a mixture of soy sauce, sugar and mirin.

It’s worth saving space for dessert – favourites, created by Regis Cursan, Nobu’s Executive Pastry Chef and Head Pastry Chef Sanjay Gupta include the Chocolate Bento Box - a rich, hot chocolate fondant with a scoop of green tea ice cream, cooling with a herbal kick; the Fuji Apple Crumble - combining seared Fuji apple with sesame oil, miso salt, toffee, peanut ice cream, and coconut crumble; the selection of Ice Cream Mochi and Bomboms which lets you mix and match flavours of coconut, yuzu, hazelnut, chestnut and dulce de leche; and the Nobu Berkeley ST exclusive Chocolate Tart.

- a dish as indulgent as they come that is served with sake kasu ice cream, cinnamon custard, almond crumble and hot chocolate sauce.

The Lounge Bar Designed by David Collins Studio, the Lounge Bar reflects Nobu’s ever-evolving flair with a modern and elegant space perfect for dinner, cocktails and private events. The style is contemporary Japanese with a rich colour scheme of teal, black and gold. Teal leather banquettes feature a Japanese indigo-dyed fabric, whilst mother of pearl capiz-shell tables and Tai Ping carpet create an understated yet luxurious look.

Group Bar Manager Flavio Carenzi and his team have crafted a beautiful selection of cocktails including , Femme Fatale, a selection of small plates including miso grilled chicken, lobster ceviche and almond coated soft - shell crab can also be ordered in the Lounge Bar, alongside sushi and sashimi platters and the larger a la carte menu.

The restaurant and bar are available for exclusive hire – accommodating up to 450 standing or 200 seated guests. The Lounge Bar can be transformed into a luxurious dining room, a contemporary drinks reception or a corporate meeting space, whilst the upstairs restaurant is perfect for group dining.

NOBU Events Nobu Events offers the unique opportunity to enjoy Nobu’s incredible quality and exacting standards outside of the restaurant to cater your very own special event, wherever you choose to hold it.

Whether it is from the comfort of your own home, a unique London venue, a marquee in the country, or an exotic location further afield, Nobu’s experienced events team is available to discuss all your event requirements and help you to put on the perfect party.

NOBU 15 Berkeley St, Mayfair, London W1J 8DY noburestaurants.com/london

Vacherin Exotic Fruit Meringue, London

Restaurant Review Les 110 de Taillevent

By Henry Hopwood Phillips

It’s been fashionable since Jay Rayner slated Le Cinq (which, incidentally, lost its third Michelin star in 2007 – the same time as the original Taillevent) to trash the traditional bastions of French fine dining.

They’re typically viewed as low-hanging fruit (with their politically dangerous overtones of nostalgia and snobbery) by critics. And Les 110 de Taillevent hardly helps itself with either its name (which sounds like an oversized platoon of musketeers in French and crap in English) or its backstory, which screams “London spin-off of Parisian brilliance” in the eight arrondissement.

To make matters worse, it’s no longer owned by the Vrinat family who made the original restaurant’s name (harking back to the first Frenchman to produce a cook-book in the 14th century) so formidable with its triplet of stars under the stewardship of Claude Deligne.

The brand was taken over in 2011 by the three Gardinier Brothers who run orange groves in Florida and produce a mean claret (Chateau Phelan Segur) alongside their restaurant portfolio.

Their London foray, “110”, occupies a Grade II listed Georgian building (once a branch of Coutts) on Cavendish Square that’s been redesigned by Pierre Yves Rochon (of Four Seasons and Shangri-La fame) in shades of mottled green.

Inside, stained oak and wrought iron wine casks evoke the restaurant’s vinicultural aspirations, which are spelled out further by a little army of Coravins.

These tiny-needle systems withdraw wine from cork-stopped bottles without letting air enter. 110 bottles are pierced by these machines (hence the restaurant’s name) and roughly 70 per cent of customers opt for its “BTG” service from the wine menu, which is roughly the size of a medical encyclopaedia and only slightly less daunting.

The general (and perverse) rule of thumb is that the expensive wines represent the best value. We dash through a number of glasses

(starting with a chalky, fresh Larmandier-Bernier Blanc de Blancs) on the “prestige pairing” six-course tasting menu.

This includes Yarra Valley Pinot Noir, Clos Nelin Priorat and a Riesling from Mosel among others.

And the Head Sommelier, Christopher Lecoufle (who started his career at Lasserre) has his own fun playing schoolmaster, forcing us to go blind and enter into ever greater detail whenever a correct answer is delivered.

My friend gets an impressive 50 per cent correct before bowing out to a few glasses of my favourite of the night: a rosé Champagne

by Deutz, which combines redcurrants and strawberries with a fresh acidity and toasted-nutty finish.

Admittedly, the food feels secondary. Not in quality, as Ross Bryans (ex-Corrigans) brings shades of his idol (Martin Wishart) into the kitchen.

But because the service and excitement centres on the wines, sending the beautifully crafted grub into small-plates cum tapas territory.

Nevertheless, highlights include a firm spelt risotto, which lurks beneath a rich and frothy roof of bisque, topped with a glistening chunk of the crustacean.

And the “Barbary” (AKA “Muscovy”) duck with lavender spice and white onion that I push into the soft remains of English cherries for that perfect combination of sweet, sour and floral.

On a final note, Adisa Vital’s two desserts (goats cheese cake with violet – think “Parma Violets” – ice cream and a chocolate lavender tart) serve as powerful reminders of how superior the French are when it comes to the pastry chefs. Whilst, in the UK, pastry departments are seen as second fiddles for recipe-followers, over the Channel folk like Cedric Grolet and Dominique Ansel (now in Belgravia) view it as a playground for innovation and fun.

16 Cavendish Square, W1G 9DD (les-110-taillevent-london.com)

Kevin Brooke General Manager, Cliveden House Hotel

Hotel Review Cliveden House, Berkshire

By Henry Hopwood Phillips

Cliveden House, meaning “valley among the cliffs”, is regularly stabbed in the front with the blunt, clichéd adjectives that belabour luxury journalism. It’s inevitably inhabited by the “glamorous”, each room is “palatial”, all fittings are “sumptuous” and so on.

Worse, the stately home possesses the sort of visitor’s book that includes Churchill, Charlie Chaplin, George Bernard Shaw, John Profumo and Christine Keeler, and so every incident must be framed as “portentous”, “scandalous” or “clandestine” in the same soulless journalese – just as the ambience is predictably “fin de siècle”.

These lexically-challenged attempts at capturing Cliveden fall short because the house’s Italianate facade looms far above the bromides of brochures. Blending history (Nancy Astor, whose nymph-ish John Sargent portrait hangs to the left of a 16th century fireplace, was Britain’s first female MP) with a hallowed public status (it’s one of the National Trust’s most visited properties) and its five-star hotel services is no easy manoeuvre, yet it’s one that the house somehow manages to pull off.

Its unusual blend of functions is due to being owned by the National Trust but leased to the Livingstone brothers (who also own Chewton Glen in Hampshire). And its Palladian cum Cinquecento appearance is mostly attributable to the Astors (whose family produced America’s first multi-millionaire in John Jacob). A visage outdone only by its surroundings, with a 19th century parterre running through hundreds of acres to the Thames.

Located near Taplow and Bray, Cliveden reminded the seventeenth century diarist John Evelyn of a papal residence in Frascati known as Villa Aldobrandini – famous as “Belvedere” (beautiful view) thanks to its prospect (though Cliveden’s garden balustrade is, in fact, swiped from the Villa Borghese in Rome).

Today – beneath a plum-coloured sky – the northern driveway fills with glitzy cars rather than a sense of Evelyn’s “solitude” but the result is still unmistakably heady as visitors glance up at a house that is less silly than

Blenheim; less Jacobean than Charles Barry’s other edifice, Highclere Castle; and clearly more loved than Wentworth Woodhouse.

Inside, 38 rooms and suites (each named after figures and visitors from the house’s past) balance the needs of luxury like wifi and air-con with historical integrity.

There are only a handful of casualties. The most obvious is the usually ubiquitous coffee machine, which finds itself banished to the Butler’s Pantry. A quibble more than compensated by making the room a larder sans honesty-box i.e. effectively free to pillage at will.

Little touches ensure the grandeur doesn’t grate. On the doors of suites guests’ names are etched, making each feel as though they’ve taken up residence rather than snuck into an historical celebrity’s bed.

Above my own is Lawrence of Arabia’s, who may have enjoyed the fireplace that seems original and now blazes a gas fire (the real deal is out of the question given how many times the place has burned down) and antique furniture including chaise longues and mirrors.

The most modern part of the hotel is the spa (standing to the north of the Stables), which is the result of a recent renovation. Enclosing the original outside pool, its inside-pool, sauna, steam room, hot-tubs and bar form an austere Art Deco riposte to the clock-tower’s gilded flamboyance.

Entering an impatient, hostile Londoner – glued to my phone – I leave blissfully buffed and oiled like a hunk of one of the wagyu breeds.

Despite this, little things irk. Though the tinkle of cocktails please the ear in a room that prides itself on being a “liquid museum”, being beneath the flight path doesn’t. And the humidor is perplexingly small for a room the Astors used to describe as the “Cigar Box” (thanks to its Cedar panelling).

And, finally, though it’s best to err on informality, the failure of staff to bring those into line who seem happy publicly belting out

YouTube clips to their friends, makes things feel more awkward than relaxed. André Garrett’s 3AA Rosette restaurant is also full of misfires. Cliveden has seen talented chefs come and go – like Gary Jones, now at Le Manoir au Quat’ Saisons.

And Andre cut his teeth at both Orrery (under Nico Ladenis) and Galvin at Windows. So nobody is expecting hotel fare in the pejorative sense. Yet the 70-cover dining room is seating perhaps nearer 20 as we enter and it’s quickly clear why. Mark-ups are nothing short of punitive – even on the wine where there’s still little relative improvement on the big-hitters.

Worse, my starter of crab and cauliflower is dry and tasteless. I use my partner’s oyster sauces to provide succour for the parched crustacean. The scarlet venison is faultless but also £40. And the pavlova is a binary creature that rarely avails itself of the sea buckthorn that might have provided an extra dimension. Moreover, the Galician waiter is the perfect gentleman – matching banter with informative asides – but is repeatedly ousted by a fellow who seems to want to pull rank on the poor chap, leaving a rather bad attitude lingering in the air.

This is all rectified the next morning by a giant spread and a superb full English. But, intrigued at whether the restaurant had simply been an anomaly (perhaps a parting shot of gaucheness from a chef soon leaving for London’s Corinthian), we have lunch at the more informal restaurant known as The Grill.

A “superfood” starter (covered in a lip-smacking green harissa) followed by a lamb-chop main ticks all the boxes. But, again, whether this justifies its price-tag (one can easily hit £150-200 for two) is hardly up for debate. The whole affair reminds me of a lyric from the New Zealand band Flight of the Conchords, which, while tackling the topic of cheap labour in developing countries noted that “sneakers aren’t getting any cheaper”, Cliveden House, Berkshire, SL6 0JF, 01628 668561 (clivedenhouse.co.uk)

Hotel / Restaurant Review The Goring Hotel

By Henry Hopwood Phillips

Henry Hopwood Phillips goes to see if The Goring retains its reputation for excellence under its new chef, Shay Cooper...

It’s quite clear why the royals have loved the Goring ever since it first opened in 1910.

Like royalty, it’s still a family-run business and like the royals it’s very British on the outside and German on the in.

Launched by a Saxon, Otto Goring, and designed by John Evelyn Trollope, the hotel with its exaggerated symmetry and central projection is a good example of Edwardian baroque; it’s also a very good example of what to do to keep your five stars for over a century.

It’s a four minute skateboard from Buckingham Palace, so it’s necessarily become a bit of a local for every Windsor from the Queen Mother to the Duchess of Cambridge.

The dining room is an ensemble of whites, golds and beiges in the grand dining tradition. Each plush fabric on display, from the tablecloths to the curtains, could easily buffet the impact of a German shell (don’t mention the war).

It’s all the work of Viscount Linley, the Queen’s nephew, who tarted the place up a few years ago. And it is all in good taste.

The only parts that jar are the Swarovski chandeliers that resemble the lights garden centres lasso around their sheds to bully them into the Christmas spirit.

I choose the Oeufs Drumkilbo to start because, according to the waiter, the Queen’s Mother said I should.

It’s a mélange of seafood and boiled egg, bounded by a tumbler and topped with gelée. It looks like the garden of a goldfish bowl might if you left it by a window in this heat for too long.

Fortunately for this socially-mobile prawn cocktail, it is a delicious jumble.

Tempted by the trolley theatre (only club-land and Simpsons-in-The-Strand really

indulge in the silver domes any more) doing the rounds, I decide against the beef wellington, rounding in on the roast Cornish cod, broad beans, cockles, asparagus, and Iberico ham instead.

Place. After removing a public house and several cottages, the path was laid clear for the last grand hotel of the Edwardian era – The Goring.

This is a master class in getting the finest ingredients and making them do the running.

The meat leaves a happy memory imprinted on a fish whose size belies its flavour.

Opened on the 2nd March 1910 this historic hotel was finally complete, along with en suite facilities and central heating in each and every bedroom – widely believed to be a world first.

The service begins in a semi-intrusive manner (reducing my conversation to a comedy of staccato notes) but hits a perfect rhythm as the room fills up.

Today, The Goring remains a favourite address and hidden gem for anyone seeking out that impeccably English luxury hotel in the centre of London.

As the glasses fill, the atmosphere becomes noticeably more relaxed too. So laissez-faire in fact that one can perhaps imagine (in the mind’s eye of course) Jeremy Goring, the current owner, dancing on tabletops in a moment of wild abandon.

Through four generations of the Goring family, the hotel has come to deliver some of the finest personal service in the world.

Talking of drink, we plump for a 2006 Margaux by Chateau Rauzan-Segla. The producers have had a mixed history, rocketing to fame in nineteenth century before plummeting in the 1970s.

Now in the safe hands of Chanel, it’s restoring itself to preeminence. This bottle is nowhere near as good as the legendary 2005 but still bursts with intense red currant fruits on a base of darker earthier notes. At £80 this is a steal too.

I am not a dessert man. And not even this John Bull riot of crumbles, cheeses, puddings and custard can tempt me.

Instead I cleanse the palate with a splodge of lemon sorbet and let a single shot of espresso do the rest. Dark, rich and nutty, I leave remembering why the Goring never throws away the culinary rule book: because it is the rulebook – and like most rulebooks, it is there for a reason.

History Built by Jeremy Goring’s great-grandfather Otto in 1910, The Goring has been lovingly run by the Goring family since its inception.

A visionary, Otto Goring saw great promise in a plot of land situated at the Buckingham Palace end of what today is known as Beeston

This world class guest experience is set against the elegant backdrop of the rest of the hotel. From the Linley designed Dining Room celebrating the very best of British cuisine, to the artistry of the hand-woven Gainsborough Silks which adorn the walls so gracefully, The Goring is a wonder to behold. The inside of the hotel is beautifully enhanced by The Goring Gardens – one of the largest private gardens in the capital.

The Gardens, as well as the Lounge Bar, provide guests with the perfect setting to enjoy the award-winning afternoon tea and The Goring is proud to be leading the way in restoring this wonderfully English pastime to popularity once again.

With only 69 luxurious suites and rooms, The Goring is affectionately known as a “Baby Grand”.

It is the finest of traditional hotels in the perfect location, but with the most intimate of atmospheres and personalised attention.

The Goring 15 Beeston Place London SW1W 0JW Phone: 020 7396 9000 thegoring.com

Erol Tabanca (c) Mustafa Özkök

Erol Tabanca Tabanca Collection Odunpazari Modern Museum designed by Kengo Kuma

What was the first work of art you purchased for your collection? Was there a specific moment that was a catalyst for the start of your collecting?

About 20 years ago, I went to an auction with a friend. Even though I wasn’t planning to buy an artwork, I took a liking to a small oil painting and ended up buying it.

This was the first piece in my collection.

After this, I started reading about art and visiting museums and galleries around the world. At first, I collected mostly modern Turkish pieces, however, as I gained more experience and knowledge in the field, I decided to develop the collection with a particular focus on contemporary art.

Today, the collection comprises over a thousand pieces of modern and contemporary art spanning the 1950s to the present day with a particular focus on artists from Turkey.

How have you amassed your collection? Is it through a particular dealer or gallery?

I buy artworks from galleries and auction houses in Turkey and from art fairs internationally. While I sometimes seek professional advice, I always buy according to my own personal tastes.

Are there any artists or works that you especially value, or any artists you are particularly excited about?

I have developed a personal and unique connection with each piece in the collection. However, in general, I enjoy artworks that reveal something about their creative process and the artisanship behind them, such as Ahmet Doğu İpek’s Construction Regime ; Guido Casaretto’s Historical Connotations and TUNCA’s Lacus .

happened gradually—first by exhibiting these works on the office walls, getting positive feedback and observing the ripple effect they create; then by designing Polart specifically to further exhibit, preserve and foster meaningful conversations on art.

These experiences showed me that art blossoms when shared.

There is no point in keeping your artwork in the storage. I like to share things, and good interactions make this passion of mine all but more meaningful.

Clearly, appreciating art requires a visual literacy and discipline. To travel and see new things, to read and allocate time to these practices is all very important. When I first started thinking about the museum project, I vividly remembered how there were no art i nstitutions offering that experience in Eskişehir when I was growing up.

I truly think sharing these artworks with the public will be tremendously beneficial for adults and students, retirees and children alike.

Art feeds the spirit. If others, too, can benefit from this spiritual nourishment, it means we are in fact building and running a project in social responsibility.

Even if it amounts to only a few drops in the ocean—people from different age groups and socio-economic backgrounds simply walking in and establishing some sort of intimacy with art—that alone is enough for me.

Our goal is to make art accessible in everyday life and make new perspectives available to everyone through art.

OMM

The museum will display works from your permanent collection as well as temporary exhibitions. What do you want the cultural experience to offer visitors?

Your latest philanthropic project is a major new museum - tell about what inspired you to embark on this venture.

Ever since I first started acquiring art, I’ve been excited about sharing the experience these artworks bring along with them. It

With its striking design, we hope that OMM will stand as a new landmark of Eskişehir and of Turkey at large. We hope that visitors from all over the world will interact with the design of the building while enjoying the artworks on display.

OMM will also create a multicultural hub and public meeting place in the town, while helping to preserve the cultural heritage of the district.

Art in Turkey What stories do you want the museum to tell about Turkey and its art scene? How will OMM change the cultural landscape in Turkey?

Turkey has an incredibly diverse and talented art scene, and I want to reflect this through both the collection and exhibition programme.

The unique position between East and West, and the social environment, have led our artists to produce some of the most interesting work of the 20th and 21st centuries. I hope that by showcasing these artists alongside internationally renowned names we can reaffirm their position within the canon.

You’ve been a huge supporter of the Turkish art scene for many years. In the context of contemporary geopolitics, why is it important to support the arts?

I think that artists need support in order to produce artworks and in order to create sustainability in the arts sector. Today, not only in Turkey but globally, arts can only survive with special funds and with the support of individuals and organisations.

With regards to my collection, recently I’ve focused on young emerging artists. I am interested by their new approaches, the way they integrate with the world and their inspiring artworks and these have changed the scope of my collection. I would be very happy if, by this way, I provide support to the production process of young artists. Providing support in arts is very important to have sustainable art production and to create richness.

Architecture Your background is in architecture and construction. What’s your relationship with architecture and why was it important to house your collection in an iconic building?

I’ve always been drawn to art and design, and I studied architecture as a student after completing my studies at the Art Institute in Eskişehir. In choosing an architect to design the building, we wanted something that was personal to my collection, led by a partner who shared our vision and ambition and who would bring a fresh approach to the project.

OMM is designed by world-renowned architects Kengo Kuma and Associates.

How did this relationship come about?

We chose Kengo Kuma and Associates because we were impressed by their striking and distinctive style. Moreover, we shared the same vision of creating a strong connection between the museum and its unique surroundings.

I believe that this is an extremely important consideration when creating new buildings in historic locations. Finally, KKAA’s preference for using natural materials, like wood, was an important factor in our decision.

Business OMM is a significant investment for the city of Eskisehir. Do you have any hopes for how the museum will impact the cultural capital of the region in an economic sense?

Eskişehir is becoming a cultural destination for local and international tourists and is widely considered to be Anatolia’s capital of culture. The city is home to around 20 museums, three universities, numerous cultural events and a young and dynamic population.

OMM has great potential to increase visitor numbers to the city, which brings not just economic, but also social and cultural benefits.

How does being the founder of OMM sit alongside your role as the Chair of Polimeks construction?

In the projects we developed under Polimeks, arts has always had a special role in creating a unique aspect. In the realisation of OMM, the sectoral

experiences we had with Polimeks were very useful. Hence, I think these support each other. With Polimeks so far we’ve finished 134 projects.

On the other hand, OMM is a very fresh, brand new platform for us and I can say that, as it will reflect my personal interests and display my collection, OMM is like a place for me to take breath, a new excitement and passion in my busy life.

Finally, what do you hope is the legacy of OMM? OMM is located in Odunpazarı, the heart of the unique city of Eskişehir. Named after the historical timber market it once hosted, Odunpazari (meaning ‘wood market’) is Eskişehir’s oldest area of settlement, dating back to the Seljuk and Ottoman period, and is on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List. Odunpazari is best known for its narrow meandering streets and traditional wooden houses.

With its distinctive stacked timber design by Kengo Kuma and Associates (KKAA), OMM draws inspiration from Odunpazari’s traditional Ottoman wooden cantilevered houses that are synonymous with the district, and pays homage to the town’s history as a thriving wood market.

Inspired by the history of the region, this contemporary design of the museum I think has already created a cultural legacy.

With our strong and extensive exhibition and activity programmes which will involve artists and students, we will develop this legacy even stronger. I hope that OMM will create a memory between generations to keep the legacy of the modern and contemporary arts in Turkey and beyond.

The Odunpazari Modern Museum (OMM), ‘‘a major new institution designed by Kengo Kuma and Associates, opened in the vibrant but ancient university city of Eskişehir in Turkey in September. With stylistic echoes of Kuma’s V&A Dundee, the museum’s stacked timber design reflects surrounding wooden houses from the Ottoman era, and is named

after its historic “wood market” district—Odunpazari. The museum will house and show Turkish and international Modern and contemporary works from the 1,000 piece collection of Erol Tabanca, the architect and partner in Polimeks Holding, a leading Turkish construction firm.

Eskişehir, in western Anatolia, first founded in 1,000 BC and whose name means “old city”, boasts three universities.

On the high-speed train line between Istanbul and Ankara, its parks and heritage make it popular with day-trippers from Istanbul, and the OMM is set to be a modern flagship for nearly 20 other museums running to archaeology, aviation, and typewriters.

“Positioned at the cross-section between history and modernity, between the East and West, Turkey has produced some of the most interesting art and artists of the past 70 years,” Tabanca says. “Through opening up the collection, we hope to draw international attention to Turkish art and artists and reaffirm their position in the canon of modern and contemporary art.” He said the museum would be a new landmark for the city and the country.

The inaugural exhibition is curated by Haldun Dostoğlu, the founder of Istanbul’s Galeri Nev, will show around 200 works by 60 Turkish artists. International artists in the collection include Britain’s Julian Opie and Marc Quinn, the award-winning Spanish sculptor Jauma Plensa, and from the US the painter and sculptor Robert Longo and the UK-born, US artist Sarah Morris, whose work is in the Tate. A new site specific piece by Japan’s Tanabe Chikuunsai IV, known for his giant swirling creations of woven bamboo, will go on show.

Major Turkish names in the collection dating back to the 1950s include the painter Erol Akyavaş, artist and film-maker Gülsün Karamustafa, and her teacher Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, the poet and painter whose work won first prize at the Brussels Fair in 1958.

They include emerging and established artists, such as Canan Tolon, Ramazan Bayrakoğlu, and İnci Eviner.’’ T.A.N.

The Odunpazari Modern Museum Courtesy - Kengo Kuma & Associates

Mark Blowers, Investing in Luxury Watches Managing Director, Blowers Jewellers

Over the last decade the value of classic watches has risen by more than 5% a year, with certain pre-owned models more than doubling in value over this period. As a result, watches have become one of the most desirable forms of alternative i nvestment to seasoned and fledgling investors alike.

Yet there is one common mistake made by those looking to invest in a luxury watch; thinking you can pop into the local jewelers, buy a relatively average model from a well known manufacturer, and within a few years get back what you paid for. This is not the case.

Below are a few thoughts that may help make your first foray on the world of Haute Horlogerie a pleasant one.

1. Research before buying. It’s essential to get an idea of what you’re looking for before you buy - whether it’s seeking independent advice from an expert, or joining a watch enthusiasts forum. Help and good advice is out there!

2. Some retailers with multiple stores have first class, knowledgeable staff. Yet there are many assistants who have little if no product knowledge, and have to check the very basics of a watch’s specification (even when let loose on £10,000-plus pieces). Make sure you find someone who is passionate, knowledgeable and enthusiastic - a less than average purchasing experience can tarnish what should be a very enjoyable one.

3. Consider carefully before buying from a retailer who offers a limited number of brands, which they can only sell at retail price. Instead, look for a retailer who has a great reputation, product knowledge and will help you identify a piece that will be residually strong and, equally importantly, will suit your lifestyle!

Try to view a comprehensive selection of brands and models in one store so you can make direct comparisons, and choose a retailer that have the pieces in stock and available. So many retailers and web sites try to sell from brochures or library images.

Many of those pieces they do not even have, so even if you identify your “chosen one” you may find that delivery will be a deflating 6-9 months.

4. A pre-owned watch will always (with good advice) have better investment potential than a brand new watch. Always consider an independent dealer who is not tied to particular brands. They are often more negotiable on price, and usually more considerate when part exchanges are involved.

Customers typically part-exchange their watches after around three years, but sometimes as often as every six months. As a general rule of thumb, it would on average take five to seven years before you begin to see an increase in value.

6. Some manufacturers have very little, if any, pre-owned market value. If you’re unsure, speak to dealers & collectors - you will soon become aware of brands to avoid.

7. It’s hard to look beyond Patek Philippe and Rolex for brands that are best at holding their value. Patek Philippe’s Nautilus, designed by the legendary Gerald Genta, is the nearest thing you’ll find in the watch world to a guilt-edged investment. Relatively few are produced and demand will always be high, even at the £16,500-plus price point.

In contrast, and contrary to some people’s perceptions, diamond-set pieces often depreciate the most. The more heavily diamond set the watch is, the less likely you are to hold value unless ideally a pre-owned example can be found at very sensible levels.

8. An obvious point perhaps, but one that is unfortunately often overlooked: ensure the watch is authentic. Brands are constantly innovating to take steps to protect their watches from being reproduced. But increasing numbers of counterfeit watches are making their way onto the market, so its vital to do your due diligence before purchase.

Not all pre-owned watches will come with paperwork or a serial number, but if your watch of choice doesn’t come with either of these, look further into why.

Every brand has unique measures built into their watches to confirm their authenticity.

For example, since the mid-2000s Rolex watches have a coronet micro-etched into the face barely visible to the naked eye. The weight, ticking noise, hand movement and materials of a watch are the first indicators of whether it is genuine or fake.

To ensure the watch you are investing in isn’t a counterfeit, only deal with a reputable, experienced dealer who will be able to fully inspect the watch on your behalf.

9. A factor likely to influence a model’s value is when it is discontinued, how many where produced, and subsequent demand. Some quality manufacturers frequently change their range and cull certain models. This is not in the buyer’s control so sometimes there’s an element of good fortune involved.

For instance, the Rolex Daytona chronograph was produced with Zenith El Primero movement until the late 1980s. Rolex then produced its own in-house chronograph movement; the Daytona Zenith was subsequently discontinued, with a good example now selling for upwards of £9000.

Or take the Rolex Deepsea D-Blue, which was designed to commemorates James Cameron’s historic deep-sea dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in 2012; rumours abound that it will soon be discontinued has led to very strong demand, with prices 10% above its RRP. All things considered, purchasing a special timepiece shouldn’t be all about investment.

The experience should be fun and exciting - a glimpse into the secretive world of fine watchmaking, a considered yet passionate purchase to mark a special occasion, a pat on your, or someone else’s back or to mark a special achievement or goal, or something to pass onto the next generation...

All that said, with a little time, energy and advice, something that gives you as much pleasure as a fine wrist watch could also, as a bonus, become a very pleasant investment too.

In the heart of the 16th arrondissement of Paris, BRACH is a place of life as much as of passage, an immersive and inspiring experience for visitors who discover the French capital, a new vision of the neighborhood life for residents and regulars. BRACH is a timeless address, a huge glass house that fits naturally to its neighborhood. It is the epicenter of an authentic story.

Brach was born from an immense 1970s mail sorting centre, a surface area of 7000 m2 left free to the imagination of visionary creator Philippe Starck. Architecture of the 1930s meets Modernism and Bauhaus, the Dada and the Surrealists. Warm colors are combined with natural and raw materials including wood, leather, concrete, glass, marble and metal. Everywhere mysteries, unusual objects and a selection of artworks create a cozy atmosphere.

BRACH is refined, energetic, atypical, epicurean and aesthete. It is a cosmopolitan place that displays its originality and conviviality on the eight floors of this glass house. Thanks to its 59 rooms and suites with terraces with breathtaking views over the rooftops of Paris and the Eiffel Tower, its sports club and its swimming pools, its restaurant, its bar and its pastry shop, BRACH is a place of culture, of well-being that we can enjoy from morning to night.

THE HOTEL “Brach is not a hotel, but a unique, place of life and culture where poetic mysteries and fertile surprises feed the imagination.

Sensual and rigorous, minimal and unconventional, Brach is reigned by raw and modernist romanticism, warmed by multicultural influences from Africa, Asia and South America. It is an unusual place that invites guests on a journey, on an exploration.” Philippe Starck The lobby is a truly intimate bubble in this open and welcoming place. Located on the first floor in a space reserved for hotel residents, it allows to discreetly welcome guests. The atmosphere is warm and eclectic, a tribe of totems, sculptures and poetic surprises come alive between the ceiling adorned with an original canvas by artist Ara Starck and the floor carpet that reflects it like a mirror. In the rooms and suites, the 1930s furniture as well as natural and raw materials recall the modernist inspiration of the place.

BRACH is at the image of its guests: unique.

Therefore each of the hotel’s rooms and suites are different, adapted to the desires and needs of each individual.

From the first to the sixth floor: 52 bright rooms from 24 to 42 sqm. On the fifth and sixth floors of Brach: 7 suites from 60 to 200 sqm, opening on terraces with breathtaking views on Paris. All are equipped with a Norwegian bath, and one also has a Jacuzzi.

Brach guests have access to the sports club, swimming pools and collective classes. Access on the rooftop garden is reserved for their exclusive use.

THE SPORTS CLUB An essential element of BRACH, the sports club is spread over 1,000 sqm and takes care of the body in an atmosphere inspired by the boxing clubs of the 1930s. The 22- meter pool encourages the swimming of lengths when the thermal pool, sauna, steam room and Himalayas salt cave invite you to relax.

Individual or collective fitness classes, pilates, boxing, yoga or bodybuilding lessons, as well as aquatic courses such as aqua-maternity, aqua-yoga, aqua-boxing, aqua- pilates, and private swimming lessons are provided all day long.

For the members of the sports club and the residents of the hotel, comprehensive and tailor-made fitness and relaxation programs follow the prescriptions and actions of sports coaches, osteopaths, naturopaths, physiotherapists and dieticians. The care and preservation of the body above all, for an atmosphere that varies according to the time of day, very dynamic or relaxing.

THE RESTAURANT Located on the ground floor and accessible to all, the restaurant is a friendly and generous place where both hotel residents and locals will enjoy sitting and sharing.

The restaurant is a gateway to the world of BRACH. Imagined by Philippe Starck, warm, comfortable and timeless, it is a space between modernism and art brut where marble, metal, leather and wood mingle with harmony, where warm and elegant lightsreveal unusual objects, surprises, sculptures and unexpected works of art. Ara Starck created the mural artwork as a surrealist ballade of poetic aberrations that run intertwinning each other throughout the canvas in the manner of a rhyme to make a single loop.

Behind the impressive 20-meter-long counter opened on the kitchens, is a pastry shop, a

cocktail bar, a delicatessen, fresh vegetable cabinet, and wine & cheese cellars. The restaurant room can accommodate up to 180 guests divided between the counter, the communal tables and more intimate tables some of which are set on the covered terrace of the restaurant.

The restaurant serves Mediterranean cuisine of chef Adam Bentalha; a simple and tasty cooking based on products, spices and smells of these terroirs bathed in sun, selected from responsible producers.

Adam Bentalha was trained in the greatest Parisian kitchens, the Ritz, the Shangri- La, the Royal Monceau or the Prince of Wales.

At BRACH, he becomes Executive Chef of the kitchens of the establishment. His philosophy is simple: cooking can be healthy and balanced without losing taste.

Cooking is a story of encounters: those between producers and gourmets, between well-being and well-eating.

“I do not know if it’s the cuisine of today or of tomorrow, it’s just the cuisine I want to do now.” Adam Bentalha THE BAR Welcoming and gourmet, the pastry shop is conceived as a charming neighborhood store open to all. It is let free to the imagination of pastry chef Yann Brys - Meilleur Ouvrier de France - who proposes traditional desserts as well as his dashing and colorful original creations that resonate with the Mediterranean inspirations of Chef Bentalha’s cuisine. Like BRACH, its restaurant and its pastry shop, the bar is a journey to the discovery of poetic mysteries, surprising flavors and unusual tastes. The original cocktail menu is developed by Simon Quentin - Best Apprentice for France in the Barman category. Inspired by the Mediterranean terroirs, he works with fresh and seasonal products: prepared-at-the-minute condiments and spices, cold-extracted juices and homemade syrups. A tapas menu accompanies the cocktails.

THE ROOFTOP GARDEN The countryside air takes over the 16th arrondissement of Paris, and the roof of BRACH is transformed into an urban vegetable garden, with henhouse and views of the Eiffel Tower.

Pictured right, Phillipe Starck, designer and Director, of Brach Hotel Paris, image copyright @ Josehvia

Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare Interviewed by Vincent Abrams

Why did you first become involved in writing, or what happened on your timeline in life that pushed you to become an author?

When I left Parliament in 1969 and was fascinating bankruptcy, I thought the story of how I lost my money would make an interesting novel, and as I couldn’t get a job, I sat down and wrote ‘Not a Penny More Not A Penny Less’.

What are the Clifton Chronicles about? If you could summarize the series for people who haven’t come across it before.

The Clifton Chronicles are set in Bristol, and open in 1919 just after the First World War has ended.

They follow the lives of Harry Clifton, his closest friends Giles Barrington and his sister Emma, who Harry falls in love with.

The story follows their lives over the next 80 years, taking in the great events of the day with several well-known figures having walk on parts.

I know you sometimes act as an auctioneer for British Polo Day, are you a polo fan?

And if so, what draws you to the sport.

I regularly auctioneer for charity, in fact I would describe it as my hobby. And British Polo Day was supporting a very worthwhile cause - which I was happy to help them with.

You have sold over 270 million copies of your books over the years, is that amount of success something you think you were prepared for?

I’m always surprised by how many people have purchased my books, and confess that when a new book comes out, it feels like starting again.

Did you have any authors and or political role models growing up?

I’ve always been a great admirer of John Buchan, so I suspect he influenced me, as he was as fascinated by politics as he was by writing.

It’s interesting that we are both storytellers not writers.

What do you get up to in your spare time?

My hobby is being a charity auctioneer, and I conduct around 30 a year, but I also enjoy the theatre, the ballet and visiting art galleries, and of course I love watching England and Somerset play cricket.

How important is philanthropy to you? If at all, and are you involved with any charities or foundations?

I support a wide range of causes, and also conduct around 30 charity auctions a year, but if I have a favourite, it’s between two incredible charities, the Make-A-Wish Foundation who grant magical wishes to enrich the lives of children with life-threatening illnesses, and Sir Magdi Yacoub’s Chain of Hope which links experts together around the world to bring life-saving heart treatments to children in developing and war- torn countries.

What is your favourite restaurant? And what type of food do you like.

I confess to a passion for Italian food, and in particular pasta. My favourite restaurant is Lucio’s in the Fulham Road.

What was your first book, ‘’Not a Penny More, not a Penny Less’’, about?

What is your favourite piece of art – or the one piece you would love to have on your wall or at home?

It’s semi-autobiographical, and is the story of four young men who having all been robbed by one particularly evil character, and decide to come together and steal their money back, but they decide they must not take back more than what he took from them – not a penny more, not a penny less.

I’m not sure I have one single favourite piece of art, but Rembrandt’s The Man with the Golden Helmet in the Berlin museum and The Entombment of Christ by Caravaggio in the Vatican.

What prompted you to write ‘Kane and Abel’...? And would you describe yourself as a religious person. I was inspired by two Americans who came from different ends of the social scale, but ended up as close friends,

whereas in my book although William Kane and Abel Rosnovski meet only once, they are sworn enemies un l their dying day.

Why did you choose the Conservative Party over the others when you got involved in politics?

And how have things changed for better or worse for the party (do you think) over the years?

I think I am a conservative by nature. My mother was a Conservative councillor in Weston-Super-Mare, and as I believe so strongly in free enterprise and the right for anyone to achieve what they set out to do, I wasn’t a natural for the Labour Party.

I think the Conservatives are lucky to have another woman leading them, especially when the Labour Party is in disarray.

About Lord Archer Before becoming an author, Archer was a Member of Parliament (1969–1974), but did not seek re-election after a financial scandal that left him almost bankrupt. He revived his fortunes as a best-selling novelist; his books have sold around 330 million copies worldwide.

Archer became deputy chairman of the Conservative Party (1985–1986) before resigning after a newspaper accused him of paying money to a prostitute. In 1987 he won a court case and was awarded large damages because of this claim.

He was made a life peer in 1992 and subsequently became Conservative candidate to be the first elected Mayor of London. He had to resign his candidacy in 1999 after it emerged that he had lied in his 1987 libel case.

Archer has said that he spends considerable time writing and re-writing each book.

He goes abroad to write the first draft, working in blocks of two hours at a time, then writes anything up to 17 drafts in total.

Since 2010, Archer has written the first draft of each new book at his luxury villa in Majorca, called “Writer’s Block”.

Pip Jamieson Founder and CEO, The Dots Interviewed by Tara Harandi-Zadeh

Did you always want to work in the creative industries?

What did you learn from your days at MTV?

My brilliant Dad worked in the creative industries and I had this wonderful upbringing surrounded by creatives. It was our shared passion and my family just assumed that I’d follow the same path.

I was never one of those people that dreamed of becoming an entrepreneur, and I had no tech experience to speak of. I just saw a problem while I was working at MTV, and (somewhat naively) wanted to build a solution to solve that problem.

However, my slightly strange, rebellious nature led me to do an economics and math degree. I guess I wanted to prove that even with my dyslexia, I could carve a career path that was my own.

The whole idea came about because I was surrounded by incredible people who were adopting very different career paths (and in many ways had very different value sets) to the traditional white-collar workforce.

To the surprise of my whole family – and to myself, to be honest – I walked away with a top grade and was approached by, and then joined, the UK government as a fast-stream economist.

Our careers were much more fluid! We were increasingly working on a project-by-project basis, had side hustles, working freelance or adopting portfolio careers. LinkedIn just wasn’t working for us, so I wanted to invent a new professional networking solution that was fit for the 21st century.

I went into government because I had aspirations to change the world. However, I quickly realised that an economist’s role in government was primarily to produce results that justify political policy, not to inform them.

So I jumped ship and joined the creative industries, working first for the Brit Awards in London, then in various roles at MTV around the world.

Describe your typical working day.

I’m so blessed that no two days are the same. I live on a houseboat in London, so my morning usually starts on the boat, sipping coffee and feeding the ducks.

I then walk to my office in Shoreditch listening to audio books.

My day is then made up of meetings with the team, partners and clients... or working on product ideas.

I love being out and about meeting my community and partners, so it’s usually a wonderful whirlwind of meetings with people from across the creative industries.

This helps me understand what worries them about their careers and helps me innovate The Dots (the-dots.com).

One that helped ‘no-collar professionals’ – creators, freelancer and entrepreneurs – build their personal brand, network and connect to dream roles. The rest, as they say, is history.

What bound us all together is we were coming up with ideas and building teams around us to execute those ideas. So a very basic level, the core difference between The Dots and LinkedIn is, instead of promoting yourself via a CV, people post projects and credit the whole team behind those projects.

Kind of like a community-driven IMDB. For example, you could post the latest issue of a magazine you are working on, and credit the full team that brought it to life, from the editor to the writers, stylists, photographers, producers and so on. It’s a recognition that creativity is a team sport – you can be a rockstar creative but if you’re not supported by an amazing team, that idea is hard to bring to life.

In 2014, I sunk everything I had learned into starting The Dots from my houseboat, Horace.

Fast forward four years and we have 100,000s of members and over 10,000 brands using us to hire full-time and freelance talent.

It’s been a LOT of hard graft, but my goodness it’s been worth it!

Why are you passionate about diversity in the workplace?

When I was seven I was diagnosed with dyslexia – I am one of the lucky ones, as my family sent me to a creative school that specialised in dyslexia, resulting in me being the first person in my family to make it to university.

My education helped me cope with my crippling dyslexia and to go on to have a wonderful career. I do often ask myself, what if I hadn’t won the middle-class lottery of life? There is a strong chance that I wouldn’t be where I am now. There are so many squandered minds and creative innovators that we’ve left behind.

During my time working at MTV, I also experienced how dangerous a homogeneous workforce can be for creative thinking. As with most creative businesses, we hired via word of mouth, resulting in an inherent lack of diversity – our creative output became stale.

There is now endless research proving that diversity is good for creativity. A London Business School study found that more gender-balanced teams are best to promote environments where innovation can flourish.

A Harvard Business School study found that teams that include workers from different backgrounds and experiences come up with more creative ideas and methods of solving problems. The list of examples is endless.

So, I’ve dedicated my career to helping democratise talent and helping businesses increase diversity in their teams in all its guises. For example, 68% of The Dots’ members are female, 31% black and Asian minority ethnic (BAME), 16% LGBT+, and I’m also a massive advocate for disabled and neurodiverse talent – those with dyslexia, autism, ADHD and other superpowers. We removed the ability for the 10,000+ companies who use The Dots to be able to search for talent based on where people went to university, to help people rise to the top irrespective of

Is There Such a Thing As Too Much Beauty?

The Grand Tour, Geneva Region, Switzerland, By D.L Osborne

‘’It’s said to be between heaven and earth’’, it’s true, says DL Osborne.

Orson Welles said Switzerland’s accolades amount to 500 years of peace, brotherly love and the invention of the cuckoo clock.

He was a cynic. What Switzerland symbolizes for the 21st century traveller is remarkable. Within this landlocked nation, her incredible natural beauty and peace allow you to be yourself because her prosperity and cleverly developed democracy make it a happy place to be.

Switzerland Tourism’s ‘Grand Tour’ offers a range of the most scenic and idyllic panoramic routes. The itinerary runs over 1600km, five Alpine passes, 11 UNESCO World Heritage Sites and 22 lakes. Hire a car, enjoy the train, jump on a boat or use all three, nothing is left unattended. The Swiss Travel System offers a wide range of travel tickets and passes exclusively for visitors from abroad and have affiliated 115 hotels and off the beaten track charming guesthouses.

The short flight from London to Geneva with Swiss International was effortless. I arrived in the beautiful historical city of Lausanne in time to explore its striking gothic cathedral and the renowned Olympic Museums brilliant interactive and thought provoking depiction of the games.

The winding cobblestone streets and interesting shops make it a perfect base for intimate cityscape trekking before heading out on your adventure.

My tour started roughly 9 km from Lausanne at Point i Cully. A place of beautiful vistas, lazy boat rides and fresh fish for sale on the water’s edge. Hiking, a village, an intimate and respected ‘Cooley Jazz Festival’ and the Lavaux Panoramic Railway are not to be missed here.

One of Switzerland’s best-kept secrets is its wine. I headed to the stunning UNESCO World Heritage Site of Lavaux which houses 10,000 terraces of vineyards in various geometric patterns dating back to the 11th century. Roughly 40% of wine produced in

Switzerland is consumed by the internal market. Switzerland’s love for its cultural heritage is exemplified here. I chose to wander on foot through its vine trails that stretch for 30 km from the Château de Chillon to the eastern outskirts of Lausanne in the Vaud region. This peaceful gradient of tiny villages and vineyard plots harness a distinctive micro-climate; and there are several wineries to stop off on route.

I had lunch with Patrick Fonjallaz, a most gracious and engaging estate owner whose family have produced wine here for centuries.

This winery has an elegant and gorgeous setting that you’ll want to return to. Over a couple of glasses in the cellar, surrounded by magnificent giant casks, Patrick explained local wine traditions and warmly divulged the secret of the ancient Chasselas grape. It’s proudly attributed to the Geneva region and is best produced by the Swiss, creating a big and plump, more mineral Chasselas.

Lunch is served on his leafy sun-drenched terrace overlooking Lake Geneva. Locally sourced fish and an exquisite array of local produce reflect the passion this kitchen has for seasonality and freshness. Lavaux feels unhurried and genteel, oozing tranquillity and harmony. The musical impresario Prince wrote a song about Lavaux, no doubt inspired by this regions exceptional beauty; it cannot be overstated. If one could live here, you surely would.

Whether it’s relaxing outdoors in the mountain lounge or simply taking in the wondrous scenery of 24 summits over 4000m, there’s plenty to do here for all ages: whizz down the Alpine Express’ self-propelled toboggan, cross the exhilarating ‘Peak Walk’ suspension bridge, hike or a take a glacier snow bus ride.

Lunch in the panoramic Restaurant Botta faces a shimmering Matterhorn and serves top notch Swiss fayre and of course another fine selection of Swiss wines.

The following morning I jumped back on the GoldenPass Line to Villars-sur-Ollon situated in the heart of the Vaud Alps. Set against a backdrop of spectacular beauty at 1300m, this area is the epitome of picture-postcard

Switzerland. The walking trails surround a sparkling blue lake, red chocolate box train’s wind their way around the mountains as the wonder of Mont Blanc sleeps in the distance. I had a game of golf at Villars Golf Club which has two decent nine-hole alpine courses and a club house that falls nothing short of an idyllic spot to lose a few hours over another superb lunch.

My last day was spent on two contrasting railways; the ultra-modern GoldenPass Panoramic and the luxurious vintage Pullman Belle Epoque. From Montreux to The Pleiades in Les Rochers-de-Naye, very few words are needed: this is sensational, awe-inspiring iconic scenery. By late afternoon I’m exploring Montreux’s wonderful architecture with its very pretty long promenade that’s strewn with modern artworks.

In a mid-eighteenth century Britain, European conflicts didn’t stop tourism, it excelled. The Georgian travellers of the ‘Grand Tour’ arrived in Switzerland because it was an adventurous destination and the heroic journey amongst travel literature boomed.

This account touches upon the surface of what Switzerland’s own 21st century Grand Tour has to offer. The recurring theme here is timeless elegance and the Swiss are very clear about themselves, their history and its tourism.

It is no exaggeration to say, this country takes your breath away. It really has got the capacity to do this. Be adventurous: Switzerland offers something outstanding and unique and something of the majestic sublime.

Please see: grandtour.myswitzerland.com Swiss International Airlines operate several non-stop flights per day to Geneva and Zurich from London City and London Heathrow.

Article published in association with The Swiss Tourist Board, who arranged for DL Osborne’s stay in Switzerland.

Orlando Rock UK Chairman, Christie’s Interviewed by Vincent Abrams

How did you first become involved in the auction industry?

My introduction to the art world was by involuntary osmosis. My father had developed an almost obsessive interest in country house sales and antique shops – with some of my earliest memories being squashed between bubble-wrap and blankets in the back of a Volvo estate car, with yet another architectural fragment or Kentian table vying for space.

And rather like Stockholm syndrome, I gradually became fascinated by the English country house, the romance of objects and their past histories, whom they were made for and where they had been since……

Once captivated, it is a disease that you cannot shake – and after graduating in history and history of art at University, I went to go and talk to my aesthetic hero, Christopher Gibbs about what my next step in the art world should be.

He sent me to Christie’s in King Street and I have never looked back since.

How passionate about the auction industry are you?

After almost 30 years, it is admittedly the only world I know.

But I cannot imagine any other industry where you spend your days with sublime works of art, magical houses and fascinating people – both within Christie’s and beyond many of whom have achieved extraordinary success in their own respective fields and yet who collect passionately and knowledgeably in pursuit of a their very personal passion.

And behind all the theatre and razzmatazz, there is passion, erudition, teamwork, expertise, thirst for knowledge and an ever-evolving educational journey taken with artists, curators, restorers and collectors across the globe. Never a dull moment!

Did Christie’s suffer at all in the financial crisis that started in 2008? And have things got better for Christie’s since then?

Although the financial crisis of 2008 was seismic, the art market proved to be remarkably resilient – and indeed it is difficult to forget that record-breaking £100 million Damien Hirst auction took place on the very same day Lehman collapsed!

for works over £10 million continued with 67 works sold at this level during the year, up from 65 in 2017.

Looking back over our 2008 Full Year figures release, we noted that despite the economic turmoil in the second half of 2008, Christie’s completed the year with £2.8 billion in sales, continued profitability, and a record of offering great quality works to clients around the world.

I think the fundamentals of leadership in a people business like Christie’s are clarity of vision and communication allied to a profound understanding of the market we operate in – alongside integrity, drive and human empathy…. Like all businesses, we succeed when we are a team working together.

We had market leadership across the globe in Impressionist and Modern Art, Asian Art, and Jewellery due to our ability to offer the best expert advice to our clients and market their property globally, employing the most sophisticated, innovative and compelling strategies.

The diversity of our auction business across regions as well as in other areas such as private sales, Christie’s Education and what was then known as ‘Christie’s Great Estates’, now known as Christie’s International Real Estate, continued to introduce an unprecedented number of collectors to Christie’s and contributed significantly to Group profit in difficult economic times.

Over the last decade, we have enjoyed a dominant market leadership position and the 2018 full year figures confirmed Christie’s continued global art market leadership position, as well as announcing the highest art sales total in company history.

2018 sales totalled £5.3 billion, an increase of 3% on 2017 and were led by the historic Rockefeller sale, the most significant collection ever sold at auction. Global auction sales rose 3% to £4.7 billion with sell through rates by lot increasing to 82%, a reflection of a continued focus on carefully edited and estimated sales.

32% of all buyers in 2018 were new to Christie’s with spend by this group increasing by 20% across regions and price points. The top categories for attracting new buyers were Luxury sales (32%) and Post-War and Contemporary Art sales (16%). The demand

What do you think the fundamentals of leadership are?

What is your leadership style?

I strongly believe in collaborative teamwork and empowering others to fulfil their potential.

Do you still have the same passion for the business as you did when your first started at the company?

I definitely do….

How have the last few years been in terms of revenue?

As above for 2018. For 2017 Christie’s total global sales increased 26% in 2017 to £5.1 billion, led by the record breaking sale of Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, selling for $450.3 million (£342.2 million) in November in New York.

Increased supply at masterpiece level met continued demand as global auction sales increased 38% to £4.6 billion.

Sales in the Americas increased to £2.5 billion, up 68%, sales in Asia totalled £582.9 million, up 11%, and sales in Europe and the Middle East totalled £1.5 billion, up 16%. In 2016 Christie’s celebrated its 250th year as leaders in the art market.

Over the course of the year the company reaffirmed its historic legacy and future focus on serving collectors globally, launching a new flagship office in Beijing and welcoming new clients from across the world. Private sales increased 25% and

Michael Bloomberg - Climate of Hope Can we heal the climate?

What happens if we do bust the 1,000-gigaton carbon budget? We can still bring concentrations of those gases back down to a level that sustains a stable climate.

We won’t get back quite the climate of the last 500 years, but we can shoot for one that future generations can adjust to. We have some time—remember, climate steers slowly and sluggishly, like a ship or plane, not all at once. If we go over our emissions budget briefly but promptly start reducing concentrations, we can eventually heal the climate, even though repair will take decades to be felt.

Here as elsewhere, the key to unlocking the climate puzzle is to realize that if we handle other pieces of our business better—in this case, stewardship of vital food, timber, and water sources like wetlands, mangroves, forests, prairies, and peat bogs—we will simultaneously make major strides toward a safer climate and a cooler world.

Investment in ecosystems is vital if we want them to thrive and then do what they are superbly equipped to do—suck carbon out of the atmosphere and turn it into soil and vegetation.

When scientists refer to this conversion of CO2 from a gas into organic matter as negative emissions, it sounds preposterous.

But it’s actually not. After all, it took the intervention of an industrial civilization, wastefully extracting enormous quantities of fossil fuels, breeding billions of cattle, and using large volumes of disruptive chemicals like HFCs, to disrupt the climate in the first place. Prior to this disruption, atmospheric concentrations of CO2 periodically went down, as oceans, forests, and soils sucked more CO2 out of the air than volcanoes and fires put back in. Global CO2 levels in 1750 were lower than they had been in 1500.

Only with the Industrial Revolution did they begin their steady climb. Cooling, as well as warming, is in the Earth’s tool kit.

Here’s how it works. Natural processes scrub black carbon and methane out of the atmosphere fast—in twenty years, both they

and their warming impact on the climate are gone. HFCs and nitrous oxide hang around for a long time—but if we implement the global agreement phasing out HFCs and also phase out excessive fertilizer use, they won’t take us close to the 1.5-degree redline.

That leaves CO2. It can last for a thousand years, but only if it remains in the atmosphere, and most of it doesn’t. Right now, only 1 percent of stored carbon is in the atmosphere; 30 percent is in soil and vegetation; 13 percent is stored in reserves of coal, oil, and natural gas; and a whopping 56 percent is in the ocean.

So once we phase out HFCs and minimize methane, black carbon, and nitrous oxide emissions, our task is to store more and more of the world’s carbon not in the sky (where it disrupts climate) and not in oceans (which it causes to become acidified and damaged) but in soils and vegetation, where that CO2 is the key to beneficial results, including higher crop yields and more effective water storage.

More carbon in the sky is a threat. Carbon in soils and forests is an asset.

We have phenomenal machines to do this job—they are called plants, and they exist to take CO2 out of the atmosphere and turn it into organic matter in the soil.

(Certain kinds of rocks also sequester CO2 in very large quantities, but our ability to influence the pace of such mineralization is much more limited than our impact on the biosphere and plant life.) What does it take to trip the biosphere—the globe’s collection of animals and plants—into a massive carbon-storing mechanism?

We simply have to protect valuable natural ecosystems like peat bogs and mangroves, start planting and growing more trees than we cut, adopt farming practices that treat soil as a primary asset rather than stripping it of nutrients and carbon, and allow grasslands to be grazed in ways that enhance, rather than destroy, their productivity. Healthier agriculture and forestry, in all their forms, are the keys to reducing atmospheric concentrations of CO2.

There are other strategies. A fair amount of scientific research is pursuing engineering strategies to “capture” CO2 even once it is released in the atmosphere. Exxon-Mobil is a partner in a major fuel cell project, which combines CO2 from flue gases with natural gas to create electricity.

Whether these pilots can, in a near future, be scaled at an affordable level is uncertain, but it seems only prudent to support the needed re- search to explore them .

One thing is certain: The use of plants to reduce climate risk is ready and able to go—today.

From Climate of Hope, by Michael Bloomberg and Carl Pope. Copyright © 2017 by the authors and reprinted with permission of St. Martin’s Press, LLC. Michael Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, author, and philanthropist. As of June 2018, his net worth was estimated at $51.8 billion, making him the 8th-richest person in the United States and the 11th richest person in the world. He has joined The Giving Pledge, whereby billionaires pledge to give away at least half of their wealth.

Bloomberg is the founder, CEO, and owner of Bloomberg L.P., a global financial services, mass media, and software company that bears his name, and is notable for its Bloomberg Terminal, a computer software system providing financial data widely used in the global financial services industry.

Bloomberg served as the 108th Mayor of New York City, holding office for three consecutive terms, beginning with his first election in 2001.

A Democrat before seeking elective office, Bloomberg switched his party registration in 2001 to run for mayor as a Republican.

Bloomberg was frequently mentioned as a possible centrist candidate for the U.S. Presidential elections in 2008, and 2012, as well as for Governor of New York in 2010.

Richard Ovenden, Curator, Bodleian Library, Oxford Twenty-Fifth Curator at Bodleian

The position of Bodley’s Librarian is one of the top librarian jobs in the world. Richard Ovenden took the job in 2014, becoming the twenty-fifth curator of the legendary Bodleian Library in Oxford.

policies which govern, and the strategies which guide our operations.

As such, he is responsible for the largest university library in the UK and one of the major research libraries in the world holding 11 million volumes and many of the nation’s most valuable literary treasures.

My vision is to ensure that the Bodleian remains one of the great libraries of the world -maintaining and improving our outstanding collections, providing the most informed and helpful staff, and the best and most responsive services.

Can you tell us about your journey to becoming Bodley’s Librarian?

I was a student at Durham University and became interested in early books and manuscripts there, staying on to be a Graduate Trainee. I was a graduate student at UCL and then worked in the House of Lords Library, before becoming a Curator in the Rare Books Department at the National Library of Scotland.

I moved to Edinburgh University Library first as Head of Special Collections, then Director of Collections and Acting Deputy Librarian. I moved to Oxford in 2003 as Keeper of Special Collections, then becoming Associate Director, Deputy Librarian, and in 2014, Bodley’s Librarian.

The role of Bodley Librarian has existed since 1599. Do you have a sense of the history of your role or is it a management role within a big organisation?

The history of the Bodleian is an ever-present feature of life in the Bodleian. Although not everyone is interested in our history, it is a constant fascination and inspiration for me.

What are your main responsibilities? How many buildings does the Bodleian consist of?

We currently manage 30 libraries as part of the Bodleian with almost 40 separate buildings, in two counties!

I am responsible for the collections (acquisitions, management, and preservation of them), the staff, the services to users, and

What vision did you bring with you when you were appointed?

One of your first jobs has been to oversee the £80m restoration of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott’s New Bodleian Library. Were you fazed by the scale of the project?

The project was originally my concept back in 2005, and I have seen it through to its completion as Bodley’s Librarian. The project was given strong backing by my two predecessors, but as I have lived and breathed it for ten years, I havent been fazed by the scale at all!

What were the biggest challenges?

bring ideas and to shape it from a variety of perspectives. But being determined to see it through is also vital.

How is the role of the library being redefined by 21st working methods?

Yes it is, but not completely. We need excellent connections to the network – both wired and wireless. We need space for collaboration. Students want to work differently depending on disciplines – scientists wants workstations with two screens for example. But spaces for quiet study and research are still in high demand.

What’s the single most important challenge that research libraries face?

Funding – funding is under increasing pressure but we continue to need to grow our collections, expand our staff skills, open our libraries for longer, and innovate with new technologies and new ways of working.

In your experience is the perennial death knell for libraries unfounded?

The main challenges were seeking approvals from within the University and the city, and raising the money needed to complete the project.

Of course. Our libraries are more heavily used now than they have been for decades.

With universities investing so much time and money into making aesthetic changes, is there any evidence to show that building design actually enhances learning or drives more people to use the library and its resources?

We have a number of interesting projects at the moment – including an examination of the future of our science library.

Building design definitely drives learning and research. Just look at how popular our older iconic buildings like the Radcliffe Camera and the Old Bodleian are. Our readers tell us this all the time – the Weston Library is very popular because of the quality of the environment – it has become an ‘academic destination’.

How do you approach the problem of coordinating large-scale transformation in an enormous academic library?

The best approach is to be patient! You must not rush the project, but allow people to

What are your plans going ahead?

Thomas Bodley The library was rescued by Sir Thomas Bodley (1545–1613), a Fellow of Merton College and a diplomat in Queen Elizabeth I’s court.

He married a rich widow (whose husband had made his fortune trading in pilchards) and, in his retirement, decided to ‘set up my staff at the library door in Oxon; being thoroughly persuaded, that in my solitude, and surcease from the Commonwealth affairs, I could not busy myself to better purpose, than by reducing that place (which then in every part lay ruined and waste) to the public use of students’

Art as an Investment Beautiful Rather than Bountiful

By Stephanie Holmes

Art is often viewed as a valuable asset, however the market is undermined by illiquidity, opacity, patchy supply and asymmetry of information.

There is consensus in the art world that art’s ‘beautiful object’ status should be its most important feature.

When Francis Bacon’s Three Studies of Lucian Freud sold for $142.4m in 2013, it was a sign of the art market’s health. This may be the time to challenge the idea that art is an investment-grade asset.

It seems to me that the best way to understand art’s distinct characteristics is through the prism of those assets with which it is often compared (but rarely in depth). It is understandable that wider market gloom has moved the debate about art as an asset into new territory. Art, claim its proponents, is not only a source of great value, but is also impervious to the world’s economic slings and arrows.

However, when looked at more carefully as an investment category, art falls short in relation to many of the other assets to which it is frequently – and favourably – compared.

These include both traditional and alternative investments, such as public and private equity, gold, wine, and residential property.

The combination of the market’s illiquidity, opacity, patchy supply and asymmetry of information undermines art’s profile as an asset. This is reinforced by the unique qualities of each work – including its history of ownership, trading and display – which create enormous ranges of pricing and valuation, and preclude sensible data aggregation or comparison.

The market’s opacity also opens it up to unchecked manipulation. ‘‘The market’s illiquidity, opacity, patchy supply and asymmetry of information undermines art’s profile as an asset’’ Price transparency is another huge problem facing those who would map art’s returns

on a Bloomberg screen, alongside their other investments. Only 50 percent of an already small number of art trades are recorded (auction results are made public, dealers’ prices are not).

To put this into perspective, Artnet, a database of auction sales, records that 1.8m works of fine art were offered at auction in 2012. By comparison, there were an average 1.5m trades per day through the London Stock Exchange alone in May 2012.

Risks and Returns Even if the limited, patchy and inconsistent available data on art sales could be put into a hypothetical basket of all segments of art, its financial profile is hardly compelling. Most such theoretical analyses of the art market find that the average compound return for works kept for between five and 10 years is around four percent.

Relatively speaking, this is already less than gold, wine and both public and private equity, and also lower than residential property – another market of unique goods, but with more trading volume and available data. And this is before considering the risk-adjusted return (the profits needed to make up for the peculiarities of any market). One investment professional I interviewed for my book said that, given the risks in the art market, anyone who is content with less than a 50 percent return on art “needs a lesson in investment”.

Meanwhile, art’s supposed lack of correlation with other markets is not entirely convincing. The price levels for art do not reflect its fundamental characteristics, but rather reflect the fortunes of its buyers.

The art market as a whole crashed soon after the economic downturn began in earnest in 2008. Thereafter, only the top-priced works recovered as the wealthiest few emerged relatively unscathed from the credit crisis and new wealth was created outside the gloom of Europe and the US. Spiritual Joy This is not to say that art doesn’t offer a different type of return, and even one with some grounding in economic analysis. In a 2007

paper, the economists Erdal Atukeren and Aylin Seckin estimated the intangible joy of looking at a work of art, which they term its ‘psychic return’, at around 28 percent. While it would be difficult to persuade a bank to lend money on the basis of this estimate (or indeed against most estimates of art’s value), owning and looking at art certainly offers something that a stock certificate or bar of gold cannot.

There is consensus in the art world (including the art market) that art’s ‘beautiful object’ status is what should be deemed its most important feature anyway. While there is an element of posturing in cutting out the investment aspects of art, it cannot be ignored that art offers a very different type of reaction to other investments, and one that is potentially very rewarding.

Of course, this is not to say that art isn’t an asset, per se, and that it can’t deliver superior returns. But I would advise that, rather than thinking of art as an investment of passion, would-be buyers should focus on it being a passion - which, if they do their homework and get lucky, could also make some money.

Art and Stock Markets The closest thing in the art world to investment funds are, in fact, not the art funds that have based their business models on them, but rather private dealers of art.

The comparison is even more pertinent with primary market dealers, who invest in the artist and the production of his or her work.

They grow profits not just through sourcing supply and stimulating demand, but by adding value to the artists they believe in. The daily business of primary-market dealers involves building the reputation of artists, their works, and galleries, as well as trading their works.

These galleries can be seen as the equivalents of what are known as incubator funds, a subset of private equity’s venture funds arena, designed to help businesses at an early stage develop their potential.

Pictures or Words ‘What’s in a Label?..’

By Paul Payani, CEO at OPTIMUS

The saying a picture is worth a thousand words is no more apposite than when used to highlight the toxicity of everyday products such as cigarettes, bleach and dishwasher tablets to name a few.

have seen UK clients being presented with investment opportunities as diverse as a Chinese contemporary art, Argentinean farmland, German real estate and Australian Green Oil.

However, in the world of financial services, the current regulator the Financial Services Authority (FSA) & the “old money” incarnates such as Fimbra and the PIA have not been able to bring themselves to use a picture to represent potentially hazardous investments and instead they rely on at least a thousand words to explain the risks to retail consumers.

It is not feasible to assume the FSA will be able to police all these investment offerings.

Nevertheless when things do go wrong, it can affect millions of people and cost the financial services industry billions in compensation payments.

It may require civil litigation through the UK courts, which can be prohibitively expensive, time consuming and has an uncertain outcome. Nevertheless in a world where UK interest rates are at a historic low and inflation remaining stubbornly high, I fear the temptation for some investors to seek out higher than average returns will be just too great.

Despite the existing warnings, any investors who suffered financial loss from precipice bonds, split caps, Key Data, Arch Cru and most recently PPI insurance, it’s a moot point whether the loss was the fault of the product design or a consequence of miss-selling.

Not until 2007 and the start of the financial crisis, was the word ‘toxic’ widely introduced to the general lexicon of finance.

At the time it was largely in the context of mortgage-backed securities, which were confined to institutional investors.

However, the repercussions of the global financial crisis are now, eleven years on, being felt at the retail level. The FSA is now using the word toxic to describe certain asset classes, as the UK Regulator attempts to shift emphasis to monitoring such investments at the source and not, as is normally the case, placing the emphasis on financial advisors, as to their suitability for a client.

However, the global nature of the world economy is not just confined to macroeconomics. We have witnessed a growing trend over the last few years for many esoteric investments to originate outside of the UK and be offered to UK investors. In the last few months alone, we

Furthermore these investments are often packaged and marketed in the UK by unregulated firms. This may only be an issue if the investments fail and the usual routes for compensation such as the FSCS and the financial ombudsman are not open to them.

Experience shows certain characteristics are common to many potential toxic investments, one of which is the word “guarantee”, being used in the offer documentation.

This guarantee could be on the original capital invested; perhaps on the minimum expected return for the investment or even on the provision of a guaranteed exit mechanism from that particular investment.

A key question to ask is: what are you actually investing in? Is it a recognised asset class, which has a robust method of valuation and a large enough market to be sold into on disposal? Is there legal title and under what conditions will you be allowed to sell? If the sponsors of the investment are “guaranteeing” to buy back the asset from you in ‘x’ years time, will they still be solvent and have sufficient resources to do so, when you are selling to them?

After all, we live in a world where Sovereign Governments cannot make good on their debts. Why should an investor automatically assume a lesser entity will be able to so? A simple mechanism we use for clients to counter this issue is to say they

should mentally place the word “may” in front of any guarantee on offer, to have a more realistic expectation of the risks.

For example, when several clients were looking to invest significant sums into a renewable solar energy project, the rationale was twofold, firstly to diversify their investment portfolio and also to take advantage of the two guarantees on offer, which made the investments more attractive to the clients.

The first guarantee was the fact that the solar panel manufacturer was providing a 25-year guarantee on the solar panels themselves.

These solar panels were to be fitted onto commercial buildings, predominately in the South East of England, to generate electricity, which would then be sold to the national grid. The second guarantee was the feed in tariffs (FIT’s) provided by the UK government for a period of 25 years for the purchase of the electricity produced.

Other considerations being equal, these two guarantees were the key drivers for the clients to consider making this investment.

The clients commissioned an independent industry expert to examine the manufacturer’s guarantee. It was their opinion that whilst the guarantee was valid, it was probably not worth enforcing, as the solar panels would be required to be returned to the factory for testing. In short, it would cost more to send them back than to buy and install new ones.

In the event of a mass product failure, it would be better to actually sue the manufacturer.

At the time the investment was being considered, it seemed unfeasible the UK government would move the goalposts on the FIT’s; especially as the new Coalition government was committed to increasing renewable energy sources.

However, the UK government did indeed reduce the FIT’s and effectively changed the whole profile of the investment, making it

unattractive. The recent UK Supreme Court ruling that the government FIT U-turn was deemed illegal may be of little comfort to other investors who relied upon it to make an investment decision.

Another characteristic common to potential toxic investments is debt or leverage. If there is leverage or debt involved, then there will also generally be a requirement from the lender that the loan be serviced during the term of the investment.

Also the loan will need, at some point, to be repaid in full, whilst the lender will require adequate security to give comfort, generally throughout the term of the investment. They are often found in property related deals.

When things do go wrong it is often because of a domino effect, generally starting with an unforeseen event. So investors must always ask the “what happens if …” questions and if the answers are not simple, clear, concise and enough to assuage their concerns, then simply avoid making that investment.

For example, a FTSE-100 company with a market capitalisation of £7billion is the tenant to a £23m syndicated commercial property. The original loan to buy the building had been serviced in full for 5 years, yet the lending bank recently forced a sale of the building, resulting in a 100% loss to all the equity investors.

The reason for the forced sale was that the original loan to value covenants of 2007 had been breached and despite the investors agreeing to put more equity into the deal to stave off the enforced sale, the bank’s desire to shrink their loan book ruled the day. The unforeseen event was the financial crisis and the requirement of the now UK state owned bank to reduce their balance sheet. It just took 5 years to materialise and hit investors in their pocket.

Investments offering tax relief can sometimes blind investors to the potential toxicity of the underlying assets themselves.

If there are generous tax reliefs for investing,

investors may feel the tax relief actually reduces risk, if HMRC are subsidising the underlying investment. Of course it is supposed to be a three legged stool. The Government needs to encourage growth in the economy and targets a specific geographic location or industry and offers generous tax reliefs. In the long term this will encourage employment and increase the overall tax take.

The sponsors will package the deal, apply the tax rules judiciously and market it to potential investors. Finally, the investors who partake are attracted by the tax relief and perhaps the underlying investment story and choose to invest. But it is they, the investors, who end up with a sore backside if a leg of the stool gives way. Invest £100 and receive anywhere from £30 - £100 back from HMRC, what can go wrong? However, the key question to ask is would the investment be considered if not for the tax relief?

We recently attended a conference call on behalf of a client where there was generous tax relief to invest into the renovation of an existing building into a hotel. Ignoring the tax relief, the client was essentially investing into the hotel business which also included some development risk and leverage.

The sponsors walked the client through the numbers in the projected business plan.

Specifically outlining the assumed occupancy and room rates, which coupled with a leading global operator of the business, would produce excellent anticipated returns in 2019. Coincidently our office at the time was next to the London franchise of the same hotel chain. We knew the management who would often comment how low occupancy was since the launch of the London hotel in 2010.

When asked directly what impact a continued slowdown of the UK economy would have on projected returns, the sponsors acknowledged it would have a considerable negative impact, which could result in limited or perhaps even no returns to clients, as any potential exit would be dependent on a trade sell. What is clear, is investors will need to conduct more robust due diligence when they are skiing off Piste, with part of their investment portfolio. They

should examine how they make investment decisions? What processes do they use to arrive at the decision? Who do they consult and seek advice from and is that advice truly impartial?

We typically create for our clients a family board, which can meet as often as the family wishes, but usually 4 times a year. The composition of the board can be anyone the client chooses and the meetings can be as formal or informal as the client wishes.

At these meetings any investment opportunities can be considered and looked at from different perspectives. It gives a process to the actual decision making. This structure can also take the pressure off clients making a quick and perhaps rash decision, when presented with an investment opportunity, often when there is also an impending deadline.

Of course there will always be risk in any investment and even the mighty Warren Buffett, arguably one of the world’s greatest investors, has made his share of bad calls.

However, the type of investments which could be labelled as potentially toxic are ones that on first glance, may actually look innocuous albeit slightly alternative in terms of the asset class. It is only over time that it may become something that could seriously harm your wealth.

In anthropological studies conducted some years ago, it was found when a picture of a venomous snake was shown to Inuit Eskimo children they would instantly recoil. This is despite the children having no experience or contact with such creatures. Perhaps we should have a nationwide schools competition to design labels to put on financial products to describe their toxicity.

In 2013 we will have a successor to the FSA, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA).

No doubt the powers that be, spent many hours and considerable sums on creating the new entity. Quite why they chose to have the name of a product provider included in the title is anyone’s guess. Then again, what is the significance of a label?

Paul Panayi, CEO Optimus – The Family Manifesto™ creating smart family offices

Professor Robert Winston Fertility, Religeon, Science and Politics

Professor Robert Winston has spent much of his career working in gynaecological and reproductive medicine.

His research has contributed to improvements in the areas of endocrinology and IVF, including the invention of genetic diagnosis techniques that have enabled families with gene defects to have children free from fatal illnesses.

A Labour Party representative in the House of Lords since 1995. Not too long ago, The European Court of Justice banned the patenting of embryonic stem cell research.

What impact will this decision have on stem cell research in the EU? I’m not sure [the judgement] is very important. Does it matter? Probably not very much. Can it be enforced? Probably more difficult, because other countries won’t adhere to that anyway.

America won’t. Also, there’s a confusion between patenting and invention. They are different. You can’t patent a gene because it occurs naturally, and the European Court was absolutely right to argue that.

What you might be able to patent is the way that you’ve detected the gene, because you’re using a technology there, which you’ve invented.

And in the same way with stem cells – you may not be able to patent the stem cells, but I don’t see how you can prevent someone from patenting the technology which enables you to use those stem cells.

I think that would be a colossally difficult thing to enforce.

Patents aren’t bad. In 1990, Alan Handyside and I invented the screening of embryos for genetic diseases. At the time we both agreed that we probably shouldn’t patent something which might be humanly useful.

It was a massive mistake. We should have patented it. We wouldn’t have made a profit, but we would have prevented people using it to exploit women who don’t need the treatment, because we would have licensed it. So patenting offers a method of control

Do you think there is a place for religious faith in science?

substantial fees being paid to organ donors?

Yes, of course. Why shouldn’t there be? Are the two mutually incompatible? No, of course they’re not.

Well, I think that there is probably no reason why they should not be paid, providing you can be absolutely sure that people who are giving the organs are doing so without risk to themselves, and without coercion.

But there are people who say that scientists can’t be religious. Well, they’re wrong. There are vast numbers of scientists who hold a religious view, or who go to church, or who, in extremis, pray – and sometimes when not in extremis. I don’t think they’re incompatible.

They’re different views of the world.

Do you think that it is possible to have a set of guiding ethical principles? If so, what would they be?

The idea that ethics are written in stone is not true. The classic example of that is the finding by [Nicolaas] Hartsoeker, who in 1694 showed, under a microscope, that a sperm had a little man inside the head.

Therefore, people thought that to destroy the seed was like killing a person. If you think about it, the ethics were impeccable, but it’s wrong because the science is wrong. So our ethics have to depend on our best knowledge, and our knowledge changes.

The central ethical principle of all human ethics is very clear – the sanctity of human life.

And pretty well everything stems from that.

It will become more and more interesting in the future. [For example,] if we believe that consciousness is an important definition of our humanity – which it may well be – then what happens when we develop robots that have consciousness?

The continuum of philosophical thinking should give us pause before making didactic judgements about ethics.

I think it’s much more difficult to justify the donation of a kidney, for example, than it is for an egg. You have lots of eggs [but] only two kidneys, and there is an inherent risk in removing a kidney. On the other hand, we don’t see it as an ethical dilemma for a brother to donate a kidney to a sister.

And yet, the brother is putting himself at risk. One has to be very careful about making hard and fast rules because there will be different circumstances for different individuals.

Essentially four principles are involved. First, in any medical procedure, whether you are the recipient or the donor, there is a need for practitioners to respect the autonomy of the individual in front of them. The second issue is: Are you likely to do harm? Third: Are you likely to do good? And lastly: Is this a fair solution?

We probably should be doing much more to look at alternatives to transplantation, because no amount of donation of eggs, kidneys or hearts is going to really solve the ultimate problem.

Sometimes medical progress seems to be a double-edge sword – some therapies have unintended medical consequences and there are costs and outcomes that society isn’t prepared for. Is progress necessarily always something to strive for? Are there some areas that medical science really shouldn’t be exploring?

A senior research fellow at the University of Dundee said in 2008 that people should be allowed to sell their kidneys for £28,000.

That’s what my book [Bad Ideas] is about.

It says that all scientific advances have a downside, starting with the flintstone hand axe, two million years ago.

However, there are critics who fear that payments of this nature would create a market for organs. What is your position on

Actually, once we’d invented that we changed our evolution. Without the hand axe, we wouldn’t have antibiotics. We

wouldn’t have the motorcar. We wouldn’t have global warming. And we wouldn’t have an epidemic of obesity.

I would argue that pretty well every human invention ends up not being used for the purpose for which it was actually designed – we find some other better use for it.

Secondly, most human inventions are not made with any particular purpose in mind, anyway. [In Bad Ideas] I say, “Nearly all technological advances have threatening or negative aspects, which are usually not fully recognised or predicted, at the time of the invention.”

I also say, “Many human discoveries have a beneficial application, which are not envisaged when the discoveries are made.”

And that, “The announcement of any new discovery is almost invariably exaggerated, in its value.”

We need to recognise that no government, however democratic, can ever be trusted to use science wisely, because it follows, from those sorts of principles, that it won’t be.

And that we need to be as literate in science as we can be, because ultimately if we are really to use science wisely, we have to be able to control the technology to benefit from it maximally. That applies to medicine, but it [also] applies to physics and chemistry, and engineering.

From MRI scanners to robotic surgery, technology seems to be playing an increasing role in Western medicine. Do you think that this reliance on technology is a good thing? Are there any drawbacks?

Well, of course, there are always drawbacks in the reliance on technology. Probably one of the biggest problems in medicine is not the reliance on technology, but the apparent need for more and more controlled governance and bureaucracy, which follows.

Which ends up with doctors not talking to their patients, and nurses not listening to their patients, and people not caring for their patients, but treating them in a formulaic way. We are becoming more

and more alienated as patients, and more and more alienated as doctors and nurses.

Technology encourages that, because [we are] able to avoid intercourse with the patients and more and more diagnostic work is not done at the bedside, but in the laboratory.

What do you think will be the greatest medical breakthrough in the next ten years?

Why people think scientists can predict the future any better than anyone else is completely irrational. Why would I know that? Of course, there will be trends.

But the overall? Well, it may be something out of the blue. If you’re going to ask me what I would like to see developed, I can tell you that. One of the greatest needs, worldwide, is more progress in our battle against infection.

Whilst we think of global warming as being the big threat, actually the thing that is much more likely to wipe the human race out is global infection – we haven’t really invented a new antibiotic for two or three decades. So new approaches, particularly to viral infections that threaten humanity.

Lord Winston is Professor of Science and Society and Emeritus Professor of Fertility Studies at Imperial College London.

In the 1970s he developed gynaecological surgical techniques that improved fertility treatments. He later pioneered new treatments to improve in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and developed pre-implantation diagnosis.

This allowed embryos to be screened for genetic diseases and has allowed parents carrying faulty genes to have children free of illnesses such as cystic fibrosis.

He now runs a research programme at the Institute of Reproductive and Developmental Biology at Imperial College that aims to improve human transplantation. Robert Winston has over 300 scientific publications about human reproduction and the early stages of pregnancy.Robert Winston is also Chairman of the Genesis Research Trust – a charity which raised over £13 million to establish the Institute of Reproductive and Developmental Biology and which now funds high quality research into women’s health and babies.

Gillian Wearing OBE, Sculptor Millicent Fawcett Statue The Unveiling of a Statue 100 Years After Women got the Vote

Millicent Fawcett’s statue is to commemorate women’s suffrage and in particular 100 years since women got the vote.

I wanted to also celebrate that it takes a movement as well as a strong individual to change things. So, around the plinth there is a frieze of photographic engraved granite tiles with images of those who were part of the wider Suffrage movement.

Millicent was a Suffragist and strongly believed in non-militant activism as opposed to the Suffragettes led by Emmeline Pankhurst who believed strongly in militancy. I had initially thought that those represented in the tiles would be Suffragists like Millicent was.

I drew up a list of names of women and men connected from both groups and then changed my mind to having just Suffragists like Millicent. I settled on a list of names but whilst away on a trip, I started to question my reasoning about it only being Suffragists.

The logic worked, but I was missing out on an opportunity to highlight the fact many different people were part of the fight for equality. And the Suffragettes in particular risked their lives for this. Luckily I still had a chance to change the names and with the help of Jo Baxendale from City Hall a meeting was set up with suffrage academics and historians so we could get a list of important Suffrage campaigners.

There are 55 women and 4 men and this means more women than men are now commemorated in Parliament Square.

It was in April 2017 that Millicent Fawcett was announced as the person to be represented in Parliament Square. As soon as I heard it was going to be Millicent, I immediately had the idea to have her hold a banner, saying: ‘Courage calls to courage everywhere.’

The words come from a text Millicent wrote a while after Emily Davison was killed by the Kings Horse at Epsom Derby. Emily sacrificed her life for the cause — Millicent’s

quote both acknowledges this but also the message speaks to people on many levels, encouraging us to think of selfless acts of others and how we might be the same ourselves.

It also references my early 1990’s ‘signs’ series of photographs where people were asked to write anything they wanted on an A3 piece of paper.

I wasn’t sure what age Millicent should be portrayed in the sculpture so I called Caroline Criado-Perez, who was the person that successfully campaigned for the statue, to get her advice.

She said that she should be represented at the age she became leader of the NUWSS (the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies), which was 60 years old.

Of course this made total sense, as all the statues in Parliament Square were of middle or old aged – the moment that a person has a significant history and has achieved their goals. Even though Millicent started campaigning at 19, it took another six decades before the vote was granted to those over 30 years of age.

Most of the sculpture is machine made from a 3D printed cast. This is done by a photogrammetry studio where a person stands in the centre of the space whilst cameras circling around the figure capture a pose from all angles.

Those images are composited and turned into a 3D image. For this I needed to have someone who had a similar build to Millicent in a traditional costume being photographed in the pose as if they were holding a banner.

For the costume I employed award winning costume designer Deirdre Steer to design a walking suit based on one similar to Fawcett’s.

I wanted to incorporate an actual object of hers, to bring an authenticity to the sculpture.

I looked at an old battered bag she owned at the LSE Library but that looked out of place.

Then Gillian Murphy from the LSE let me know about a brooch that belonged to the Fawcett

Society and their CEO Sam Smethers kindly brought it down to Pinewood studios to be 3D scanned.

3D Systems, who undertook the scanning and printing, composited the images and then printed out the scans and then it was sent to MDM Props to be assembled into one piece.

The shoes and head were sculpted, a banner was made and cast and finally my own hands were cast. I chose my own hands as I am similar in age to that being depicted, she wore a similar wedding band ring to mine, plus as I was having her hold a sign again it shows the connection to my previous artwork and how I am interested in the voices of others. In fact, Millicent is the only sculpture in Parliament Square with a voice, all the other statues have names and no quotes.

The statue isn’t based on an image that existed of Millicent, it is one I wanted to portray of her and also to acknowledge activists and campaigners who come to Parliament Square with their banners to protest for change. In fact, since the statue has been unveiled many groups, particularly those fighting for women’s causes have met or stood around the statue to raise awareness of their individual causes.

The final part of the process before it was installed was the casting – this was done at AB Foundry. It was a really difficult challenge as the detail on the skirt had to be retained when it was de-assembled and assembled in many parts. Joining the seams is called chasing and only very few people in this country can do such a fantastic job as those at AB, you cannot tell where the seams are.

It has been an honour to design this sculpture, and I was fortunate to have freedom to make all the creative choices on the work. It has been a fantastic response to the work, many people now quote Millicent’s “courage calls to courage everywhere” after seeing or hearing about the statue and seeing these words. For it to be that inspiring a piece of work I couldn’t have asked for more.

Lord Watson of Richmond Ramifications of Churchill Churchill’s Legacy, Two Speeches to Save the World

I have written a number of books over the years but never has one excited me as much as the one I have recently completed.

It was published around the world by Bloomsbury in 2017.

Entitled Churchill’s Legacy: Two Speeches to Save the World, it tells how in 1946, months after being thrown out of office by the British voters, he electrified the world via two speeches which revealed the threat to freedom everywhere posed by Stalin, and what to do about it.

The first speech he gave in Fulton, Missouri with President Truman sitting beside him.

The second he gave six months later in Zurich.

The commotion they both caused lifted his spirits. After losing the 1945 election, or as he put it to King George VI, “having received the order of the boot by the British People”, he confided to his doctor, Lord Moran, that it would have been better if he was dead.

His intense depression, his “black dog”, as the condition was known, threatened to strangle him. After these two speeches, he was back with a vengeance.

The Lion had recovered its roar. Churchill’s personal resilience and his power of political vision were inexorably intertwined.

Together these two strengths fused into an explosion of persuasive power that changed the world.

What he achieved in 1946 has not been sufficiently recognized. It matters to do so now because we also live at a time of great peril. The vision and wisdom of Churchill is sorely needed.

It is hard to recall the despair and danger that dominated the international scene at the end of the war. True, Hitler had been beaten. True, Japan had surrendered. But chaos had ensued. The Soviet Union had 300 divisions of the Red army facing a divided and isolated Berlin.

The Americans were going home. Britain was bust. Lend Lease had stopped. The French economy was bankrupt with a Communist takeover all too probable. Italy was pandemonium and Spain a Fascist autocracy.

Could the USA be persuaded to defend Europe? Could they also be persuaded to restore its economy?

It was these two questions that Churchill sought to answer. At that moment in 1946, no one else could.

He started with defence. Sitting gloomily at his country house, Chartwell, a letter was put before him. It was an invitation from an obscure college in Missouri, inviting him to receive an honorary degree and make a speech. It had a footnote in President Truman’s hand, recommending this college in his home state and promising to travel with him and introduce him.

Churchill was galvanized and motivated. The Americans would listen to him and so would the President.

The counterpoise to Churchill’s depression was his optimism. “We are all worms”, he opined “but I am a glow worm”. He accepted the invitation and went to Fulton with the President.

Showing Truman the text of his speech on the train ride down to Fulton, his verdict was that it would kick up ‘one hell of a shindig’. He would later deny that he had seen the text in advance. Later, he wrote personally to Churchill to tell him that each day his prophecies were born out of events.

Churchill’s image was stark. An iron curtain was falling upon Europe, behind it, Stalinist dictatorship was expunging all hope of democracy and… Stalin wanted more.

America had the power and the atomic bomb to make him pause. Britain and the USA had to stand together.

Churchill succeeded in winning America’s commitment to defend Berlin and Western Europe. He had provided the answer to the first question with his first speech.

The second seemed beyond reply. The majority view in congress was that Europe wasn’t worth American treasure. Lend Lease to Britain and France had been stopped.

Churchill’s pleading for a loan—at least for Britain—failed to stir the conscience or the generosity of Washington.

But, he was half American. By instinct as well as analysis, he knew what Europe had to do to win US aid. And in Zurich, in September 1946, he told them what was needed.

He warned the audience that he would startle them all by calling for a “kind of United States of Europe”, led by a partnership between France and the hated, defeated Germany. deGaulle was as appalled as the Roosevelts had been by Churchill’s attack at Fulton on ‘good old Uncle Joe’.

Churchill was shaking every shibboleth.

But his speech in Zurich changed minds.

Jean Monnet persuaded deGaulle to change his policy on Germany abandoning his plans for occupation and endless reparations. This changed the US view. Europe was putting the past behind it.

George C Marshall constructed his plan for Europe’s recovery acknowledging his debt to Churchill’s call for European Union.

A new world including a new Europe was emerging from despair and destruction.

In his Zurich speech, Churchill used a powerful image. It was of an old man imprisoned for decades in a Spanish dungeon. He had no hope. Then on an impulse he pushed at the door he had always assumed to be locked. It opened.

Churchill opened a door in 1946—a door which let in both light and hope.

The convergence of his resilience and political vision released the courage and energy needed. Churchill had done it in 1940. Now he had done it again.

We too are in a confinement of fear, suspicion and uncertainty. The answer is not to build walls or pull up drawbridges. It is to think afresh, to risk initiatives—to push open the doors we imagined closed!

‘When do You Plan to Die?..’

Generational Wealth

By Peter Gale, Senior Wealth Manager at Alexander Associates Group

Inheritance planning is something that used to be reserved for the ‘old rich’, who have been passing their wealth down through the generations for centuries.

However, the reality is that today it is something we should not just be considering, but planning for well in advance.

We spend our adult lives working hard and looking at ways to be ‘tax efficient’; keeping hold of the money we are accumulating and sharing less with the Taxman. But, when it comes to planning to be tax efficient with your legacy, it’s something that gets pushed to the bottom of the ‘To Do’ pile.

coupled with the new rules on inheritance tax, can be daunting. A combination of being overwhelmed and not wanting to think about our own demise, seem to be the main barriers to even starting the discussion.

The importance of having that initial, uncomfortable conversation pays dividends.

We’d suggest beginning by breaking it down into manageable topics with the top 3 topics of conversation: 1. Housekeeping - The starting point here is the mundane, but vital paperwork. Questions you need to answer include: • Is there an up to date Will in place?

Should we be classing it as low priority? Or, should we be protecting our wealth now, so that we can provide a better life for future generations, when things may not be so rosy?

• Has a Power of Attorney been assigned?

The topic of Generational Wealth planning becoming more common place; whether it is inheritance you may receive from your parents, or planning for the legacy you will leave behind – the point is to educate clients on the legitimate solutions to tax mitigation and the importance of robust planning.

• Are relevant policies held in Trust?

We know that, in general, people don’t like to think about death – a fact that is supported when you look at the number of people in the UK who don’t have a Will.

Typically, trusts fall into two types; ‘Absolute Trusts’ have specified nominated beneficiaries at the outset, which cannot be changed.

According to Will Aid’s study in July 2014, just 48% of adults have a Will and out of those, 60% haven’t reviewed them in the last 5 years. Which means that the majority of adults in the UK simply don’t have any plans in place for their Estate in the event of their death. A staggering, 70% of cohabiting couples have no Will, which means on death, their surviving partner would have no automatic right to inherit.

To many, our family are our most valuable asset, so it can be quite hard to believe that we aren’t making plans to protect and provide for when our family will need it most. Almost everyone that I meet is able to reduce or eliminate their IHT exposure, but the complexities of generational planning,

• Are ‘Nomination of Death Benefits’ and ‘Expression of Wishes’ forms complete and, again, up to date?

Trusts can provide an important vehicle to hold money and assets outside of yours, and beneficiaries’, estates and therefore, aren’t liable to Inheritance Tax. However, they are often not used, or set up, correctly.

Whilst ‘Discretionary Trusts’ can remain flexible, with availability to nominate potential future beneficiaries, such as unborn grandchildren. The area of trusts is incredibly complex, so it’s not an area that people should attempt to do themselves.

The huge changes in Pensions has opened up opportunities on how you can pass your pension pot down to the next generation.

Previously, you could only pass your Pension to your spouse or dependants.

But, the rules have been relaxed and you can now name a ‘Nominee’ to be the benefactor of your pension pot; with further ‘Successors’ available to be appointed on their death. As you can appoint anyone as your nominee, we are seeing a part of generational planning.

2. Gifting - On the whole, gifting is something that people can be wary of. The main problem is that none of us know how long we will live for, so knowing how much of our wealth to gift, and when, can be tricky. Plus, there are rules and limitations surrounding gifts, which can land you in hot water with HMRC. You may be aware of the 7 year rule, which states that you need to survive for 7 years after making the gift for it to be IHT-exempt. If you die between 3 and 7 years after making the gift, and its total value is over the IHT threshold, the tax due is reduced on a sliding scale.

Mr Osborne does provide us all with some allowances when it comes to gifting. You can gift up to £3,000 annually and make unlimited gifts of £250, to different people.

You can also gift up to £5,000 as a wedding or civil partnership gift.

These allowances are relatively low, so, whilst gifts should be part of a plan, they aren’t effective at substantially reducing your IHT liability.

Gifting out of income is definitely an underutilised tool. The majority of people gift from their savings as capital, which not only affects their allowances, but often is not tax efficient. Whereas, so long as you have a sufficient revenue, regular gifts made out of income are immediately exempt from tax.

Many of our clients are now gifting from their income into Junior ISAs or pensions for their children or grandchildren. This not only moves money out of their estate tax efficiently, but has the additional benefit of building a nest egg for the next generation.

Once you have gifted, you lose control of the assets, so it is important to plan your gifts to ensure that you don’t put yourself in an unstable financial position. Therefore, consideration needs to be made regarding whether you need access to the capital, the income, the growth – or a combination of all three. The most important point to remember is make a record of the gifts you are giving, as this will be assessed on death by executors.

There’s no doubt that Gifting can be a balancing act. So, there are solutions that move your money outside of your estate whilst enabling you to have access. For instance, a Discounted Gift Trust allows you to put a lump sum into a Trust for your beneficiaries, with the ability to also draw a regular income.

The level of income is important as any unspent income falls back into your estate for IHT purposes.

Another option for retaining control of your money and bypassing the 7 year rule is Business Property Relief, which allows company shares and other assets in certain businesses to be passed down to the next generation without attracting IHT. The assets have to be held for 2 years and still held on death to qualify, so it is often a good solution for people who are unwell or in old age. BPR only applies to certain companies, for some it might be worth this higher-risk strategy. Therefore, professional advice should be sought to determine if it should be considered as part of your personal plan.

BPR investment is also one of the few options within a Power of Attorney’s authority to mitigate IHT without breaching their responsibilities. With around 800,000 people suffering some form of dementia in the UK, and this number expected to rise year on year, Power of Attorney plays an important role in generational planning.

3.Protection - The last phase is to turn to protection. We put protection in place to pay any Inheritance Tax that is due on the remaining estate.

As long as regular premiums are paid, the policy will pay into a trust for the main beneficiaries of the estate. So, when does inheritance tax need to be paid? It becomes payable 6 months after death, and the estate cannot be distributed until it has been paid. For an illiquid estate this can cause significant complications that can be eradicated with a protection policy, which will ensure that there are funds to settle the IHT due immediately.

It’s often assumed that life for the next generation will be abundant with opportunities for them to make their own wealth.

But, what’s gone before is not necessarily an indication of what will happen in the future. It’s another reason why we should safeguard our existing wealth for the next generation.

With the recent Government changes to IHT, and the fact that none of these are actually set in stone, it’s important to plan on the basis of what we know now as fact. Amendments can always be made to stay in line with legislation as it changes.

For instance, with the Main Residence Nil Rate Band tapering relief due to be phased in from April 2016, we will see an additional allowance for your main private residence – with the caveat being that it has to be passed to your children.

If you don’t know or understand the intricacies of the rules and regulations around IHT, then how can you make sure you have the protections in place?

Like a doctor doesn’t condone self-diagnosis, as professional Wealth Managers, AAG doesn’t support DIY solutions to IHT planning. We have seen so many clients come to us with plans in place that won’t stand up.

They think they have taken the right steps, but in fact the plans they have made will cause more harm than good. Knowing what you can do to manage your wealth across the generation is half the battle.

In our experience, it is better to start putting some structures in place if you want to make the most of the legacy you leave. Now is the time to have those difficult conversations and take advantage of all your options.

Whilst it’s not a very nice thought, as Benjamin Franklin wrote, there are two certainties in life.

About AAG Wealth Managers AAG Wealth Management (AAG) was founded in 1995 and backed by Lord Jacob Rothschild.

We set out to provide sound financial advice. Over the years, that objective has remained at the core of AAG. Our Wealth Management arm of the group has won numerous awards, which have been presented by notable luminaries including, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Christopher Reeve, Lord Sebastian Coe, and The Rt. Hon. Lord Michael Heseltine.

Based in Mayfair, the Group has evolved and includes a CIMA regulated accountancy firm amongst others.

The achievements and successes we have been recognised for is testament to the work we do and, as a result, we have built a reputation second to none for innovative, tailored advice. We take a ‘family office’ view to personal finance, with a complete focus on the client as an individual.

Their confidence in us comes from our approach – we put ourselves in their shoes; only providing advice that we would want in their position.

Financial services may appear intimidating, but it doesn’t need to be. We guide our clients through the various facets of their personal finances; from financial plans, investments, legal issues, mortgages and accounting concerns, our qualified and experienced professionals are always on hand to provide the relevant assistance.

We use an analogy, to help clarify the AAG approach: ‘In this country, we all take for granted the presence and availability of our GP when we have a health concern.

Yet our GP is more than a doctor to treat minor ailments. He is also an extensive network of contacts, able to refer us to one of a plethora of specialists, depending on our condition. He confers with these s pecialists, keeps all our records and always has a detailed overview of our health, past and present. Why should the same centralised guidance and support not be available for our finances?’ We have always believed it should be, which is why AAG exists.

Clive Jackson Chief Executive, Fly Victor Interviewed by Vincent Abrams

What do you think inspires you and why?

I’m inspired by anything to do with communication, connectivity and making people’s lives easier. I’m constantly looking for opportunities to do things differently and, most importantly, more efficiently.

These areas are particularly where consumers need to interact with brands and businesses, and also where consumers interact between themselves to create and add value for each other, which in turn benefits the businesses that serve them.

I’m motivated by finding ways of cutting down on duplicate information. Travel and trip management services such as Tripit and WorldMate together with Hilton’s “digital key app” called Hilton HHonors, which began beta testing late last year and allows you to check-in and select your room the day before you arrive, are prime examples of where technology can improve the customer experience and reduce the amount of wasted time.

How did you get into the private jet (aviation) business?

Having spent a lifetime involved directly in and also servicing the travel, hotel and leisure industries, I have come full circle back to the world of aviation; albeit, in this instance with Victor, amongst private and business jets.

When I spotted an opportunity in the world of private aviation in 2010, combining my travel and technology experiences, I started writing the business plan for Victor.

What are you working on right now? I.e. expansion, campaigns etc.

I’m currently working on driving the international expansion of Victor, which is one of the UK’s fastest growing technology companies, currently 15th on the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 list and last year expanded into the US. Victor has really taken off with a consumer proposition that has struck a chord with the most discerning travel segment and caught

the connectivity of everything at just the right moment. The business idea was born out of my frustration with the excessive fees and lack of transparency in the broker-driven private jet charter market.

As a second-home owner in Mallorca, I regularly travelled to and from London until BMI cancelled all scheduled services during the depth of the global recession.

Through word of mouth I gathered together 20 existing and aspiring private jet flyers, who helped me establish both the business principles and consumer benefits that formed the foundations of a new and exciting business plan.

Which travel apps do you feel are the most disruptive?

Disruption comes in various forms. I see disruption as a question of: ‘How can we streamline and cut out inefficiency and waste to create a more pleasurable experience?’

When I talk about disruption it means presenting new ways of doing things and intelligent interaction allows businesses to do this for the consumer, providing them with new ways to access and manage information.

With this in mind, great examples of disruptive travel apps are TripIt, Kayak and TripCase.

These three apps fall into a category where – as a traveller – my itineraries, hotel information and email-updates can be fed into the cloud, and my travel itinerary is constantly updated and fed back to me wherever I am, 24-7.

This is something that would be a nightmare for my travel manager or personal assistant, particularly when you are operating in a different time zone to your home or office base.

Other examples of disruptive travel apps are WorldMate for the business traveller and TripAmatic for leisure.

TripIt, Kayak and WorldMate are probably the top three: TripIt: All you do is send the confirmation email from your travel agent or

airline to plan@tripit.com and it optimises and displays your plans on the app.

Kayak: offers precisely the same thing that TripIt does: Send your booking confirmation email – or confirmation number – to Kayak and it will make your plans ‘magically’ ready.

WorldMate: introduces the concept of saving on hotel bookings and flight tickets through its app: This makes it easy for a frequent traveller to save a significant amount of money on routine flights and hotel reservations.

What business (or industry) did you work in before setting up Victor?

I served as a ground-handling, ticketing, reservations and check-in agent with British Airways, before striking out into the luxury tour segment and becoming the youngest general manager of an ABTA tour operator, operating at the very pinnacle of luxury travel with ITP Villa World.

In 1993, I started Global Beach, one of the very first digital design and build agencies, servicing clients such as Unilever, Hewlett-Packard, Sony Entertainment and a plethora of travel and hotel groups.

We developed customer acquisition and retention strategies, website and booking portals and, of course, mobile apps (my first ever mobile app was developed on the WAP technology platform for Jaguar Formula One in 2000).

Why did you decide to name the business ‘Victor’..?

We felt that the name needed to reflect personality of customers who use the service.

CEOs of businesses who are discerning, time poor and want to control their lives by the minute and dictate the pace.

The attitude of our clients to both business and life is about wanting to win, being a ‘victor’. The Victor name works in 27 different languages around the world and also fits as ‘Victor’ is an aviation term, so it’s perfect in that sense.

Richard Thompson Chairman, M&C Saatchi Merlin Richard is also Chairman of Debretts and Surrey County Cricket Club

You began your business career in information technology so what made you want to become involved in talent management?

How does your approach to managing leading names in sport and entertainment differ from other agencies, what’s your USP (so to speak)?

I started dealing with talent after moving into marketing services. We would often liaise with agencies and managers, but we found it difficult to engage talent and find a quality agent to work with. This really triggered me to realise there was a need to be met in this industry, so I began consulting for a while in the area.

We manage them as brands and invest a lot of time into strategy and research to position them correctly and find their USP. The secret is continual reinvention.

I developed some strong working relationships with talent over this time, but it wasn’t until I Geri Halliwell asked ‘Would you manage me?’ - that I really thought about creating my own agency.

One thing then led to another, and that led me to where I am today.

What was rationale behind the merger of your agency Merlin Elite with M&C Saatchi to create M&C Saatchi Merlin?

I’ve always looked at talent as if they were a brand and managed them in that way too.

This ethos meant Merlin Elite was structured more as a marketing services business rather than a traditional talent agency, so there was already a lot of synergy with the way M&C Saatchi did business.

M&C Saatchi has always had a great reputation for being innovative, pioneering and entrepreneurial - characteristics that I think were fundamental in leading them to become the first ad agency to acquire a talent agency.

Who are the agency’s leading clients?

We’ve got such a brilliant varied roster of clients, it’s difficult to single anyone out! You have David Gandy in fashion, mainstream broadcasters like Sue Barker, Kirsty Gallacher and Jamie Theakston, a number of former sports stars, such as Jamie Redknapp, Matt Dawson and Jermaine Jenas who’ve gone into broadcasting, while others like Freddie Flintoff and James Cracknell moved in different directions.

We’ve been very good at reinventing talent and are probably the leading agency in helping clients cross over from one field to another. Take Jodie Kidd, for example, whom we’ve taken from fashion into TV, or Freddie Flintoff from cricket into TV. Cross-over has definitely been what sets us apart in our industry.

Some global sports stars are now trying to manage their own (celebrity) brands – Lewis Hamilton, for example. Do you think this can work?

I absolutely don’t think it can. It doesn’t matter how big you are; you need someone out there objectively working on a strategy to formulate what the essence of your brand is going to be.

Chairman of Surrey County Cricket Club - so my days are really very varied. M&C Saatchi Merlin dominates the majority of my day, but at the moment I’m involved in a lot of dialogue with Two Four Group as we have The Jump going on. I’ll normally be out at dinners at least three times a week.

You have a burgeoning reputation in private equity after turning round the events company MAMA Group and selling it to Live Nation, and overseeing the sale of the production company TwoFour Group to ITV Studios. What do you look for in a potential investment?

You look for a great management team first and foremost, alongside unrealised potential and ambition.

I think it’s also important to find a business that could do with the leadership or input that I feel able to offer.

For example, I’m drawn to projects where there is a gap around bringing the team together or providing experience to guide a young, dynamic group. Shared ambition is crucial and a very clear vision & proposition.

Defining what you are might sound straightforward, but it can be a painstaking process, it requires a lot of work, thought and time. Once you have a vision you then need to decide what strategy you will use to execute your plan, before going out there and finding the work.

What has been your biggest success?

It doesn’t matter how many Grand Prixs you win, you need all of that going on behind your brand to really be effective. You need a third party in your life who can work with you objectively, give you really good advice and open the right doors with their great contacts - and I don’t see it with Lewis Hamilton.

After I had sold Merlin I had started and sold three businesses in different sectors.

Knowing that I had successfully reinvented myself three times, to provide three good exits, was and is fulfilling.

Describe your typical working day?

In Starbucks with a large espresso, is normally where it starts – before moving onto lots of different meetings.

I’m involved with a number of different businesses – I’m also chairman of the production company TwoFour Group, Debrett’s and

Selling EMS to Mosaic Group in 1998/1999 was a big one for me, but selling Merlin to Saatchi three years ago was very satisfying.

I guess both were really special for different reasons.

What’s the next challenge you’re looking for?

Having had two good exits in the last twelve months, I’m interested in exploring more opportunities in private equity.

I’m also looking to take M&C Merlin Saatchi to the next stage through acquisition and international expansion and would love TwoFour Group to win another Emmy.

When it comes to very grand hotels, there is no more competitive arena than Paris.

Eight hotels in the city now carry the French government-sanctioned “palace” status, the better-than-five star classification introduced in 2010 and granted only to hotels that “symbolise excellence and perfection”, to whose ranks the venerable.

It’s quite an undertaking, then, for a little-known Swiss brand to enter this market but, on the basis of my weekend spent at La Réserve Paris. Located on avenue Gabriel, facing the Grand Palais across the wooded Jardin des Champs-Elysées, the hotel opened at the start of this month and occupies a real palace, built in 1854 by Napoleon III’s half-brother, the Duc de Morny.

That said, although the designer Jacques Garcia’s fabulously opulent interiors may look authentically antique, only the carved marble chimney pieces are original. The gilded rococo reliefs, the Versaillais parquet, the Cordovan leather panelling and the 6,000m of silk damask, taffeta and velvet that line the walls, frame the windows and upholster the chairs are all newly installed.

That everything looks as though it has been here for ever is a tribute to the skill of 120 craftsmen, some of them from the Louvre, who worked on the project. So far, so splendid — if not necessarily what one would expect from an entrepreneur that the trashier echelons of the French press used to refer to as l’ancien roi du saucisson — “the old sausage king”. For Michel Reybier is the very private Swiss-domiciled founder of the French conglomerate Groupe Aoste, purveyor of Cochonou processed ham, Justin Bridou mini-salamis and César Moroni chorizo.

There are no flags outside, no imposing porticoed entrance, no lobby busy with liveried flunkies The group was sold to Sara Lee in 1996 and Reybier has since diversified into healthcare, biotech, oil, wine and hotels, opening the first La Réserve in Geneva in 2003 (though it is nowhere near as grand as this one).

Another opened near St Tropez in 2009, the year he also became a shareholder in French budget hotel brand Mama Shelter.

Last year, he acquired a clutch of d istinguished properties in Switzerland, among them the Victoria-Jungfrau in Interlaken, the Palace in Lucerne, the Eden au Lac in Zurich and the Bellevue Palace in

Bern. Some of them may be rebranded with the La Réserve imprimatur once they’ve been sufficiently overhauled. For this is a rarefied product aimed at a clientele who don’t blanch at four-figure room rates. “I want us to have the style and life of the Plaza-Athénée and the intimacy of the Bristol,” Raouf Finan, Reybier Hospitality’s chief executive, told me late last year. “I want to attract the suite guests from all the other palace hotels — but especially the Bristol, because it’s very close by.”

In essence, then, Reybier is throwing down the gauntlet to the Oetker Collection, owners of the Bristol and another family-owned hospitality company born of a fortune made in processed food — in this case the German company Dr Oetker, known for its cake mixes and frozen pizzas.

It comes as little surprise that La Réserve’s general manager Frédéric Picard has been recruited from Oetker. It was he who, in 2012, opened Palais Namaskar in Marrakech, the hotel that signalled the start of Oetker’s expansion drive, from the four grand hotels it had held for decades to a current tally of nine, with more to come. (The latest is the revamped Lanesborough in London, due to open soon.)

It’s tempting, therefore, to look for similarities but, apart from the Mercedes limos to meet guests, La Réserve Paris is very much its own place. Will Picard, I ask, be getting a hotel cat? (The Bristol, eccentrically, has two white Birmans that bring it no end of press coverage.) He pauses then trumps the suggestion: “I was thinking of getting a dog,” he grins. “But no; no animals.”

The hotel’s entrance This may be a new rivalry but La Réserve is not about to imitate the Bristol. For a start, it’s a lot smaller, with just 26 suites and 14 rooms — another counter-intuitive decision to have taken at a time when the competition has been expanding and rooms tend to outnumber suites.

The Bristol, for instance, recently upped its room inventory by 26 to 188. And last year the Plaza-Athenée added six rooms and eight suites. But then La Réserve’s size is one of the reasons that it feels as though you’ve been given the run of a very grand private house.

As Picard puts it: “People want discretion now; they don’t all want to see and be seen.” To this end, most of the hotel — its glorious library, its basement spa and 16m candlelit swimming pool, its smoking room — is off-limits to non-residents.

There are no flags outside, no imposing porticoed entrance, no lobby busy with liveried flunkies and hovering bellhops.

The welcome is relaxed and discreet and without stuffiness or hauteur. The personable staff materialise just when you need them, with advice or smart suggestions on exhibitions or out-of-the-way museums.

Not that I wanted to leave the almost absurdly romantic fifth-floor eyrie in which I stayed, an enfilade of knocked-together former maids’ rooms under the mansard, with views stretching to Notre-Dame in one direction and the Eiffel Tower in another.

The bedroom was a warm dark space decked in crimson silk, a place so sumptuous and snug that even the bedside mats were padded. In contrast, the sitting room was light-filled, a Parisian salon with a Louis XV chaise-longue, chinoiserie commode and hung with good examples of French postwar abstraction.

The hotel was also technologically ahead of anywhere that I’ve stayed.

The staff who escort you to your rooms carry devices that scan your passport so that it need never leave your sight. In the room are free-standing glass speakers made by the French brand Waterfall (and retailing at £2,299 a pair) to which you can wirelessly stream music from your phone.

Even the kettle has a thermometer, for those of the view that the optimum temperature for brewing the herbal teas provided should be closer to 80C than boiling point.

Although, in the pursuit of perfection, I would say that the wine fridge was set too cool for the two vintages (2004 and 2007) of the St-Estèphe second-growth Cos d’Estournel stored within. Priced at €192 and €180 respectively, they, like all the wines in the in-room bar, come from vineyards belonging to Michel Reybier.

La Reserve Paris, Hotel and Spa Address: 42 Avenue Gabriel 75008 Paris, France Phone: +33 1 58 36 60 60 Pictured is Jean Luc Naret, CEO of La Reserve Paris Hotel, Paris This article was originally published in The Times.

Pictured: Jean Luc Naret All La Reserve, Hotel, Paris, Images (c) G. Gardette

Nigel Lamb Red Bull Air Race Pilot (Ret).

Interviewed by Vincent Abrams

Can you talk a bit about what inspired you to start flying in the first place?

I always fancied the idea of flying. My father was a fighter pilot in the second world war, although he didn’t talk about it much I guess the interest stems from there. We lived on a farm in Rhodesia, in the middle of nowhere; had no television but my parents were avid readers.

The house was full of books, thousands of them, I read all of the aviation related ones.

When we climbed the mountains on the farm, we would always see eagles soaring along the cliffs. Looking down and imagining the freedom to fly gave me a tremendous buzz.

I know you were originally in the RAF, how did you make the transition to Red Bull Air Race pilot?

Through many hours of flying aircraft!

During my time in the airforce we were given basic aerobatic training.

The three-dimensional freedom was something that I really enjoyed, so when I left the airforce I moved to England to join an formation aerobatic display team and to continue my training. I successfully competed in many unlimited aerobatics competitions, and running my own aerobatic team, continued to fly at air shows all around the world including Asia.

As soon as I heard about the Red Bull Air Race I immediately knew it was something I would like to be involved in, so made a few phone calls. In 2005 I had a call asking me to attend a training camp..I must have done ok because the rest is history, as they say..

Can you think of a particularly incredible experience you’ve had whilst flying?

I feel as if I’ve enjoyed an infinite number of wonderful experiences. Most relate to other other people sharing the experience but one that stands out is circling the active Mayon volcano near Legazpi in the Philippines at 8,000 feet in a tiny bi-plane and feeling phenomenally vulnerable.

Where’s the best place you’ve flown?

As far as air race locations go I always really enjoy the incredible atmosphere at Ascot, the home crowd are sensational and particularly loud!! Spielberg is also a spectacular and challenging track, with the most exhilarating takeoff then landing on the F1 finishing straight. Flying a helicopter along the great Zambezi river at sunset and seeing all the animals takes some beating.

Is there anywhere you want to fly that you haven’t been to before?

Apart from the Air Races we flew in Rio, I’d love to fly more in South America . . and try some tundra tyre bush flying in Alaska. Like you can see so much on YouTube.

Can you talk a bit about the process that goes into preparing for a race? Are there any particular rituals?

Physically you have to have very strong body-core and neck muscles to withstand the high ‘G’ forces and stress from the 400˚/ second roll rate. You need to have good techniques and exercises for looking after your back and your neck. We specifically train these muscle groups to deal with the pressure. Good aerobic fitness is essential so I aim for 40mins running or racquetball 3 times a week. My preference is racquetball, which also helps improve mental agility as well as strategy, reflexes and satisfying the competitive spirit! In addition, I have some exercises I try to do 3-4 times a week for about 20 minutes each time. It’s a mix of Yoga and Pilates, stretching and core exercises, also using a TRX suspension trainer. All this is easy to do in your hotel room.

A lot of being prepared though comes down to mental aspect. Somehow you have to find a balance between being too relaxed and too ‘hyped up’. You need to be feeling‘sharp’ but not under so much pressure that you do not fly in a natural precise and smooth manner.

It’s very important that when you start the engine you are looking forward to the race and that you’re mentally and physically prepared. You need to be in a frame of mind where you can get the best out of yourself

and the machine and feel that you are absolutely on top of your game. You’re focused, know exactly the line you want to take and you’re not thinking about anything else. I have a fantastic track analyst in my son Max, who tells me the best lines to fly, then it’s up to me to put them into practice!

Of course, none of this is possible without being surrounded by a top team to shield you from distractions and provide you with the perfect platform to go racing.

You won the series back in 2014, is that your most memorable moment in your air race career?

My first win in Malaysia was, without doubt, the most emotional and memorable moment but winning the Championship came after several years of striving to become competitive so the sweet feeling from Spielberg lasted a very long time.

Can you remember your first race and what was going through your head at the time?

My first race was in 2005 at Longleat, UK and I’ll always remember that one because it was tough in my old ‘slow roll rate’ Extra 300 two-seater with the undulating track, down amongst the trees.

I’d had very little time in a track and at the end of the only day we had to practice I was very concerned that I would not be able to get through the track at all. Fortunately it all came together the next day and I achieved my aim of not coming last!

You’ve been an air display pilot for over 30 years, how have you seen the industry change since you started?

It has changed in a big way. In the 80’s we flew well over one hundred displays each summer in the UK with many at military bases. After the end of the Cold War, there were far fewer military displays and commercial pressure on the civilian shows has increased over subsequent years so I very much doubt that any display team could average anything like 25 displays per month in a UK summer nowadays.