It’s my macho, rugged, go anywhere (mistaken) self image 
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All of 'em are lucky. Without a bit of luck being a mono-focussed, agressive breadhead wouldn’t be enough
Well, I think the car is really ugly!
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I’ll blend in well then.
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But you are missing the point Timothy - which is that what makes a really good business - and a really good entrepreneur - is precisely success both in making money and contributing to improved environmental and social wellbeing.
Whether most are motivated solely by money (which I don’t believe, incidentally) doesn’t alter the fact that financial ‘success’ is only one aspect of running a business.
The basis of the compensation cases against tobacco companies in America now is that they knew their products killed people, but continued to sell them, and to mislead buyers about their effects… Would you say - on the basis that these companies made lots of money - that this was ‘good business’?
But this is all part of the bigger plan… -
It all goes disastrously wrong then the toffs get the blame, Parliament is overhauled into a modern representative body, UK seeks to rejoin EU, adopts the Euro, adopts the metric system fully (abandons imperial), and drives on the right.
Wouldn’t it all just be simpler?
With respect Geof that’s what I call ‘La-La land’, in the real world the vast majority of businesses use consumer weakness for financial gain by exploitation and trashing of the environment, it’s just the way it is.
Show me one company that fits your idea of a ‘good business’ and I’ll show you a hundred that don’t.
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I have yet to meet a business person whose aim is to improve the world, their pocket yes, the environment and his fellow man, no.
That’s the real world.
I believe that it’s R&D in UK.
I’ve seen Dyson plastics being injected in Malaysia so that is definitely not being processed in UK - in fairness I can understand having plastics injected there.
TBH this is understandable as Singaporean/Malaysian company charge out rates (inc staff cost, social charges, admin, overhead and margin) for skilled electronics work (degree educated staff) was USD 6.00 ph. (2011-2017).
This is a dialogue de sourds, isn’t it?
I say: The measure of business success does not come down simply to making a lot of money.
You respond: Most businesses just want to make a lot of money.
You don’t seem to understand that your response is not to my point, but to another issue (that of what drives most entrepreneurs). I guess this means you have conceded my original point?
On the other issue (that of what drives entrepreneurs) my considered view (after a lifetime as a serial entrepreneur myself, and a business advisor working internationally with hundreds of start-up and growth projects over the last 25 years or so) is that the old idea that money is what motivates entrepreneurs is a myth. It comes from a confusion between investors and entrepreneurs which is indeed at the heart of much fundamental misunderstanding of what ‘business’ really is.
In the real world - beyond the myths - entrepreneurs are actually driven by all kinds of personal motivations, usually involving carving out their own place in the world, and also by circumstances they find themselves in. This is something I am often called on to discuss - I know many entrepreneurs’ stories - but perhaps should restrain myself here as it’s not a specialist business forum (or thread!).
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Yes, and it ends happily ever after. Age doesn’t preclude us from dreaming Mat, despite a lifetime of disappointment 
On a more serious note, the regime in China spooks me. A strong Europe will be vital. As we all know, a UK in the EU is better for both.
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You could well be right Geof but entrepreneurs are good at starting businesses, not necessarily at running them. Once a company passes the entrepreneurial stage different skills are required and nowadays these skills, IMO, are motivated by money.
Once again IMO I believe share options have driven this managerial focus, as they are intended to do. I’m old enough to have joined a firm that saw its role as serving its staff, its community/society and its share holders. The Company I left twenty-five years later was solely focused on earnings per share, by quarter to drive the share price. A lot of its senior executives became very wealthy.
I benefitted in a modest way too, so I can’ be too sanctimonious but I do lament the change.
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Interesting post John. There are 2 separate issues I think:
- As you say, entrepreneurial and ongoing management skills are not the same - indeed, entrepreneurs often make poor managers, and vice-versa.
- You are also right that many career managers In large businesses are indeed financially driven - and this is precisely why such businesses often depart from their original ethos, as you again describe. But these people were never entrepreneurs, and are never going to actually set up on their own - those that do are precisely those less interested in money and more driven by other impulses.
It is also important to get the context: the number of very large businesses is in sharp decline, and the number of small businesses in an even more remarkable increase. Over 95% of all UK businesses - for example - have less than 10 employees. It is actually in this myriad of micro-businesses that the vast majority of entrepreneurs live - and you won’t understand much about them by looking at the way big business works.
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A slum! How dare you! Have you ever been to Liverpool, either before or after the much appreciated EU cash injection? Casual nastiness like that says an awful lot about you.
Was that a “City of Culture” injection? I remember thinking a long time that it has been very beneficial to Glasgow. Another worthwhile initiative lost due to Brexit I suppose.
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The authority with the highest number of unfit homes was Liverpool with around 88,000, closely followed by Manchester.[16] By March 1963, Liverpool had only cleared around 10% of the houses deemed unfit in 1955 and was one of 38 local authorities classes as having clearance problems requiring special attention
If you have to go back to the 60’s to justify your rude comment about an entire city, it’s a very weak argument. The Shelter piece describing inner city poverty still being evident, could be extended to just about any major city in Britain. The yawning trench between rich and poor exists everywhere, including Liverpool. That does not justify your comment.
To be fair to Liverpool, it was hit very badly when the slave trade ended.
(BTW - this is a joke)
www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/17-things-european-funding-done-10925208
Queen Square benefited from the first Objective One funding scheme between 1994-99, which helped transform the acres of derelict and semi-derelict land and buildings close to Lime Street station
John Lennon has little resemblance to the old “chicken shed” that Liverpool’s airport formerly was. The airport was surrounded by crumbling infrastructure that made for a bleak introduction for those travelling into the city.