John Harvey-Jones

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Sir John Harvey-Jones, MBE, was chairman of ICI from 1982 to 1987. He is probably best known for his BBC television show Troubleshooter, in which he advised struggling businesses. He is a strong supporter of Wienerite principles.

Sir John Harvey-Jones was born on April 16 1924 to experience a childhood of extremes. At the time his father was acting as guardian to an adolescent Maharajah and the young Harvey-Jones' early years were a time of "almost ludicrous luxury". Early years that left him totally unprepared for the rigors of an English prep school, which he attended from the age of six through to thirteen. He then entered the Dartmouth Royal Naval College and began a career that he might well have believed would last the rest of his working life.

Toughened by his early prep school experiences, he enjoyed the draconian discipline, the certainty of the service life appealed to him, he learned German and at the end of 1940 went straight into active service as a sixteen year old mid-shipman. Fortunately, one of the few achievements at prep school had been learning to swim. Torpedoed twice before the age of eighteen, he joined the submarines, serving in the Mediterranean, Norway, Ceylon and Australia.

In 1945 the Navy sent him to the University of Cambridge, where he learned Russian in six months and qualified as a German and Russian interpreter. In 1952 he was awarded the MBE for his work in Naval Intelligence after a tour of duty commanding an 'E' boat, on what was loosely termed "fishery protection duties in the Baltic".

Jobs with ICI followed one another in quick succession. He himself suspected it was a desperate attempt by the company to find something he could do. In 1973 at the age of 49 he was given a seat on the main board. In April 1982 he became Chairman of ICI reputedly at the odds of 15-1 against, only the second split-career man and non-chemist to reach the top.

Certain that a troubled ICI lacked the time to make changes in an evolutionary way, but at the time uncertain of how to do things, he describes himself as a "high-risk Chairman".

A believer in informality, collective leadership and a high level of conflict, his sometimes strident public profile brought ICI to the notice of many millions. After only thirty months in the job, he had doubled the price of ICI shares and turned a loss into a one billion pound profit. At this time he was working with John Adair.^[1]

Harvey-Jones' astringent belief is that "people want to work for an identifiable person and the values of that person are very very important". No chairman in ICI's past was more visually apparent than John Harvey-Jones. His flowing hair and exotic ties were more recognisably ICI than the company logo.

He maintains a firm belief in "speed rather than direction", on the assumption that "once travelling a company can veer and tack towards the ultimate objective". He was also adamant that in ICI his personal drive remained "the expectation of others and the needs of the 115,000 people who work within ICI". He saw his responsibilities to both stockholders and employees as "making a profit out of the markets where the market is". At board level he concentrated on putting more power in fewer hands "to reduce the number of those who can say 'no' and increase the motivation of those who can say 'yes'," and he always maintained that "there are no bad troops, only bad leaders."

In 1985 Sir John was voted Britain’s most impressive industrialist by company directors interviewed for MORI's annual "Captains of Industry" survey. In 1988 Sir John received the title of "Industrialist of the Year" for the third year running and in 1992 was awarded the title "Motivator of the Year".

Between 1986 and 1991, Harvey-Jones served as the third Chancellor of the University of Bradford.

In 1989 he became Chairman of The Economist. He has also been, amongst other posts, a non-executive Director of Grand Metropolitan plc (now part of Diageo, Chairman of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and member of The Advisory Council of the Prince's Youth Business Trust.

His original aim on leaving the Navy on securing a 9 to 5 life-style was never achieved during his years at ICI and even since his retirement from ICI, some would doubt that he will ever settle for that.

He has always endeavoured to keep his private life private. At home he relaxes as a skilled driver of his pony and cart, an enthusiastic cook, provisioner of picnics, a swimmer and a voracious reader.

1 External links
2 Bibliography

[edit] External links

[edit] Quotes

'Leadership is the priceless gift that you earn from the people who work for you. I have to earn the right to that gift and have to continuously re-earn that right.'

'Basically I try to jolly things along. After all, the problems can only be solved by the people who have them. You have to try and coax them and love them into seeing ways in which they can help themselves'

'It is the responsibility of the leadership and the management to give opportunities and put demands on people which enable them to grow as human beings in their work environment'

'I've spent 30 years going around factories. When you know something's wrong, nine times out of ten it's the management - in truth, because people aren't being led right. And bad leaders invariably blame the people.'