Responding to the inspiring talk by Tim Smit, founder of the Eden Project, Prof Guthrie said words to the effect that academics had to provide facts in their talk whilst entrepreneurs could just inspire. And inspire Tim Smit did. With a rambling talk of 50 minutes he held the audience spell-bound (some of who had been studying at The Eden Project recently) and received as close to a standing ovation as the students will ever give. It was a wonderful experience. This was the man who had never failed (except in his private life, he said in an aside) and has built one of the modern wonders of the UK which is responsible for some £1billion of spending in the South West.
His management techniques are unusual with anyone being negative being sacked on the spot. All managers cook a meal for their teams once or twice a year and eat around a candle lit table in the evening when people discard their office personality and reveal all. Later on I watched The Apprentice and thought that such an event would be much better than the boardroom but the catch phrase “You’re fired!” might dampen the spirits.
The most interesting fact of the evening was that the amount of leisure motoring in the UK has not increased since 1963. All the increase has been in people commuting to work, work and distribution. It seems amazing but I guess people do travel much further to work than ever before. Mind you, the roads are crowded on Sunday morning and they cannot all be going to work.
Who will change the world? The big companies as they have the skills and the techniques to manage and achieve global change.
One amazing speech with lots of talk about teams but even more about I, I and I again.
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