A MORI survey out this month might give anyone who flunked out at school a sickening feeling - at first sight anyway.
The survey, conducted for international human resources consultancy DDI, claims that 90 per cent of Britain's top business leaders were already showing the way at school as head boys and girls, or else excelling in the sports field. (You know, those impossibly perfect all-rounder types many of us lesser beings spent many a lunch hour trying, and usually failing, to find a flaw in.)
So does this mean there's no point in the rest of us trying? That we should all just pluck out the prefects from Bradford Boys, Ampleforth and Crossley Heath and plonk them onto the boards of tomorrow's top firms?
I don't think so. This is one area where just because X equals Y, Y does most certainly not equal X. I know many of the top performers at my school were supposedly destined for great things, but they were last seen wandering further and further into the fields of obscurity. In fact I would say one of them failed to get into his chosen university precisely because he spent so much time doing head of house duties.
I would also suggest anyone else who thinks successful leaders are easily identifiable from an early age need only look at our 42 under 42 feature this month. What I find fascinating about the kind of entrepreneurs featured is the very varied careers they have had. The respondents from the MORI survey were all from large corporations, and so no doubt followed their success on the school sports field by greasing up the corporate career pole.
Many of our entrepreneurs, on the other hand, left school at a relatively early age (something they would have in common with Paul Sykes, say, or Lord Kirkham) and were willing to try their hand at anything.
Their success, I think, lies in the ability to spot an opportunity and run with it. They are also keenly aware that, despite their still relatively young age, success does not come overnight. Many of them, in fact, have been very prepared to learn from their mistakes.
No less a person than Henry Ford would have understood where they are coming from. People tend to forget that although Ford achieved meteoric success with the Model T in 1909 he had actually first started making cars in 1896, some 13 years earlier. And contrary to popular belief there was nothing new in what he was doing. He did not invent assembly line production, nor was the Model T particularly revolutionary in its capabilities. However, it was a very well designed car that, combined with Ford's decision to produce it in a way that others had already tried, proved a business proposition that was unstoppable. In other words, seeing an opportunity and running with it. It doesn't take a school prefect to do that.
Going back to the survey, I am rather surprised that an organisation with the standing of MORI should be prepared to publish a survey that is based on only 105 respondents. Most statisticians will tell you that surveys are usually of little value unless the number of respondents is somewhere near ten times that level. Given that we are at the start of what looks almost certain to be an election year, when we will soon be overrun with polls, that is something to bear in mind.
I know MORI was only quizzing chief executives and board directors, but there must be more than 105 of them in Britain. I hope so, anyway. Otherwise the old school tie network must really have a greater stranglehold than anyone thought.
Peter Baber, deputy editor
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Much was made earlier this month of a report from an organisation called the New Economics Foundation (NEF) claiming that many high streets in Britain are becoming too similar, and too much like clones of each other, with the same chain stores dominating the streetscape.
Last month's Urban Renaissance Awards were designed to - and did - showcase great examples of projects that are revitalising many of the great cities in our region.
Plans unveiled by Kirklees Council, showing how it wants to change one of Huddersfield's key landmarks, demonstrates just how tricky some of these projects can be.
We all have to dream, don't we? And for a very
good many of us, such dreaming revolves around the idea of one day, just perhaps, setting up a business on our own. I know that's what I dream about on a regular basis, anyway - ideas for new businesses (by no means just media related) which I am not prepared to discuss here.
For three evenings next month the usually serene and restrained interior of the Leeds Town Hall will be reverberating to the sound of the Kaiser Chiefs.
But what has been exercising the minds of many in the city in the past few months is how few other bands make the same pilgrimage, not only to the Town Hall, but to the city itself.
It's true: just take a look at the tour itinerary of any even moderately successful band, and you will find that they do go to Manchester, they do go to Sheffield, they even go to Bridlington, but they do not come to Leeds. And why not? Because there simply isn't a venue big enough to take them. It is incredible that a city that claims to be such a happening place does not have a venue that can hold more than 1,800 people.
You might not think this is important. After all, we are only talking about pop music, and people who want to see the big bands can always go to Sheffield.
Well, I think it's important for the image of the city that we have a venue like that. It's important for the young people we should be hoping to encourage to either come to or stay in the city to keep it dynamic. If every one of their pop heroes passes the city by, they might reasonably conclude that life is elsewhere. Saying they can always go to Sheffield is a bit like expecting the young people of London to find all their entertainment in Brighton.
So I am glad to see that the Cultural Facilities Task Group set up by the Leeds Initiative has now reached an initial conclusion and has published a consultation paper to get people's views. I am glad to see that, having considered all types of venue, they have concluded that a large arena for pop concerts together with an upgrading of Leeds Town Hall for classical music performances would be the most cost-effective option.
But this hardly takes the matter forward. Most right-thinking people would probably have reached a similar conclusion. There is still nothing explicit about where such a venue would be, and what little there is about how it should be paid for does not give me hope. A cultural fund was proposed, with contributions from residents, local businesses and landowners, but this idea was rapidly dismissed because the partnership "did not discover any widespread support for the idea". What, even though the idea itself was highly popular? Well, folks, it has to be paid for somehow.
What the project lacks at the moment is a true champion. Almost every other similarly-sized public/private project in recent years has had one - someone who knows exactly what is needed, has positive ideas for how to achieve it, and, most importantly, is still out there fighting for the project when the setbacks come. Because they will come. I can only hope that someone will emerge in the next three months while consultations are taking place.
The partnership has also been looking at whether or not conference and exhibition facilities should be included in the project. I can see the attractions of this, but I think any such facilities in Leeds would only end up competing with what we already have in Harrogate, to the detriment of both.
What we need instead perhaps is improved railway connections between Harrogate and Leeds, so that Harrogate is actually on a main line. Sadly, given the corporate ninnies we have running our railway service at the moment, that seems even less likely to happen than a significant venue being built in Leeds.
Peter Baber
Editor
A year after John Prescott launched his Northern Way project, we gathered together representatives from all three Northern regional development agencies to assess what impact it has had on the property industry. PLUS
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