Fair & Square

Our guest on this edition of the Fair & Square podcast is Graham Ruddick, a leading business journalist and now author of Risk Roulette - The surprising reasons why some businesses work and others fail. After a career in UK national newspapers, latterly as Deputy Business Editor of The Times, Graham founded newsletter venture Off to Lunch  which was bought by Business Leader magazine where he is now Editor-in-chief. Graham tells our host Adam Batstone that while he thought there was something in the quote that every journalist has a good book inside them and that is where it should stay, he wanted to share his insight gleaned from his 15 years of experience researching and interviewing the founders and chief executives of some of the world’s biggest businesses. He found there was a common and pivotal trait leaders had when it came to success: they thought about risk and going for it in a different way to other people. He coupled this insight with the increasing noise about the UK economy being held back because of the suggestion we were risk averse and should be more like the US where people took more risk – a suggestion he refutes. Graham said he felt compelled to tell the story about the people who were taking risks and why. This included puncturing a few misconceptions, such as entrepreneurs being blind to risk and buccaneers who press on regardless. ‘That’s not the case at all, ‘ he says. ‘That’s not how these people operate. They are much more calculating than that, they realise the upsides and downsides and when they are successful they can often become risk averse. ‘If you are protecting what you have you think about risk very differently.’ In his book, Graham underlines his points with case studies of some of the UK’s business success stories including value retailer B&M, fast-growing travel specialist Travel Counsellors and sportswear company Castore. Graham tells Adam that humans are fundamentally bad at understanding risk. ‘In our bones we are bad at risk. We underestimate the long term opportunity and we overestimate the short term threat, so we make bad decisions.’ While many factors can influence the success or failure of a business, Graham says: ‘Just going for it instantly puts you in a unique category.’

Our guest on this edition of the Fair & square podcast is Erin McCusker, Senior Vice President, Leader, at LIXIL Public Partners, but it is her work as leader at LIXIL’s social business SATO which is the focus of her discussion with our host Adam Batstone. More than 3.5 billion people worldwide do not have access to basic sanitation and handwashing  – a situation SATO address by designing and selling affordable toilets, sanitation and hand washing products. SATO has positively impacted the lives of more than 35 million people across 44 countries as it addresses an issue facing more than half the planet’s population and is an example of how the private sector can play a transformational role in successful change. Erin started her career studying engineering and later moved into business consultancy  where she developed an interest into: [3.54]  ‘…how the private sector  can start to contribute to (address) global problems whether that is in global health through vaccination campaigns, through drug donations for treating basic diseases, this combination of the public and private partnerships became  a complete area of passion for me.’ She adds: [4.08] “I think the role that the private sector can play in having impact on the world’s biggest problems, I immediately knew I wanted to focus my career on that.’ After focusing on global health  for many years, Erin went into the agriculture sector and  a consultancy with the Gates Foundation which gave her exposure to the fundamental daily needs of households and communities such as basic access to water and sanitation. It led her to question: [5.02] ‘How do we engage the private sector more in tackling these issues?’ Part of that was getting the private sector excited  by these issues and underlining a role for innovation, scaling and partnering more effectively with the organisations working in these areas. LIXIL – a Japanese water and housing technology group best known for its global brands such as GROHE and American Standard – is a case in point as to how the private sector – through its SATO brand - can help address sanitation and hygiene issues and develop new markets. Erin says: [8.32] ‘We’re building a market for sanitation and handwashing products and showcasing to consumers in these markets or to implementers and governments in those markets that these consumers have choice.’ [19.57: “You cannot achieve any other priority you have as a government, as a community or as a global entity without addressing basic sanitation.’ SATO started in Bangladesh – which remains its largest market -  and Erin says it is  great example of what can successfully happen when you have strong government support combined with private sector and implementing partners and how much progress can be made. SATO is also in South East Asia, India, Philippines and many African countries. However, Erin also points out that even in ‘developed’ countries such as in some southern states of the United Staes there is a lack of access to sustainable hygiene, contaminating  water systems, creating public health challenges and leading  to a lack of human dignity. Despite the challenges globally, Erin believes through partnerships and collaborations, implementing the tools which already exist to tackle  issues and adapting systems to be responsive to acute needs while also building sustainable solutions there are reasons to be optimistic.

Our guest on this edition of the Fair & Square podcast is James Ashton , Chief Executive of The Quoted Companies Alliance, which champions the UK’s 1,000 plus small and mid-sized publicly traded businesses and the firms that advise them. James is a former senior business journalist and editor, and author of several books, including most recently The Everything Blueprint – a fascinating insight into how British microchip designer Arm became a global gamechanger in its market. But it was primarily as head of the QCA that James spoke with our podcast host Adam Batstone and told him that the storytelling craft he learned as a journalist was a useful tool in his role campaigning on behalf of the UK’s growth companies. ‘I think good trade bodies have to be able to tell stories … we have to be talking to the outside world, talking to the media, to policy makers and government,’ he said. Founded more than 30 years ago, the QCA was a key voice in helping establish the Alternative Investment Market – London’s junior stock market - which remains home to many of its members although others range from constituents of the Aquis market to the FTSE 250. Small and mid-sized publicly traded companies represent 91% of the quoted sector, employ 2.1 million people and contribute more than £25 billion in annual taxation. James said common themes among members were that they believed in the public markets and wanted them to work as well as they possibly could. ‘Generally what I hear from members is the cost and complexity is a little bit more than it should be, we want more liquidity and there is hope there is a better narrative that we can champion our entrepreneurs that have gone public.’ The QCA takes its messages to government, regulators and the media, through frequent policy submissions – on average one a fortnight - and original research – such as a recent study into the soaring cost of audit. James said he welcomed the recent publication of the Financial Conduct Authority’s final Listing Rules designed to boost growth and innovation on UK stock markets which have been threatened by the growth of private money alternatives for businesses in the form of private equity/venture capital. ‘We can’t have the whole of the UK economy operating in private hands …. There is so much value in operating in front of the veil not behind the veil … that’s good for staff, for stakeholders for the wider economy and for society…so you can see how these companies are operating.’ However, James added that the ‘thicket’ of rules and regulations that listed businesses faced did need to be reformed. The QCA’s own research into annual reports found they were growing by about 6,000 words a year and were now longer than a Jane Austen novel!

Our guest on this episode of the Fair & Square podcast is Lisa Gordon whose career has spanned financial services and the media and was at one time the youngest ever female director of a listed company. Among her current roles, Lisa is chair of Cavendish which is a UK champion for ambitious growth and investment companies, but she has also been a financial analyst, a music industry executive and was co-founder of regional newspaper group Local World. Lisa told our host Adam Batstone that her career had taken unconventional routes. “I took a fairly unconventional route. Many people do and I hope more people will because it is very rare that people do their entire career in one sector or with one company,” she says. Journalism was her first love and she edited her university newspaper, but work experience at a stockbrokers made her interested in investing and after sending hundreds of letters to potential employers she landed a job in the City of London and later became an investment analyst. Her executive career after leaving the City was mainly in media so she was able to combine her two passions. Her first role was at the music industry’s world trade body IFPI where her horizon scanning training as an analyst meant she spotted the rise of digital as a threat and opportunity to the industry. “One of the biggest lessons in my business life was witnessing the reluctance of the major record companies to recognise what was coming down the road and address it and therefore they found themselves playing expensive catch up and ultimately that was a race that they lost.” Music industry entrepreneur Chris Wright the founder of stock market listed Chrysalis - whose artists included Blondie and Spandau Ballet - was on the board of IFPI representing independent labels and had seen her in action and offered her a job. At 27 she became the youngest ever female board director of a listed business. She says while that was unusual then times have changed now and meritocracy – regardless of age – rather than time served is how modern businesses ensure they have the best people. Lisa said the music industry taught her many things, including the capacity to take risks which can be missing in business, and she remembers Wright telling her: “When the boat is leaving the harbour don’t be the one standing on the wharf.” Lisa says businesses can suffer from short-termism and those that can ask the ‘What if?’ questions and redefine themselves can be the most successful. She says people can be so busy that they fail to look longer term and she encourages them to lift up their heads and look down the road and think where you are going as a business, as a country,  as a family. “I just think people have got to be challenging, curious, questioning and reflective.” Lisa says she is not complacent about the outlook for the UK economy and there is a need to be careful about the polarisation of wealth and lack of financial education in the UK. Growth must be encouraged and we need to get behind business, entrepreneurs and UK capital markets because without it we will struggle to tackle the demand on public services. One area Lisa would like to see addressed is the unlevel tax playing field for private equity and tech companies who are not contributing fairly to the public purse compared to UK-listed companies. Lisa believes media has a role to play in celebrating the success of businesses and highlighting what we as a nation are good at – entrepreneurism. The Fair & Square Podcast is produced and edited and edited by Adam Batstone Media & Communications.

Our guest on this episode of the Fair & Square podcast is James Thomson, whose varied career has spanned private and stock market listed businesses to policing and education in the public sector. James’ current business interests include chairing affordable housebuilder MJ Gleeson, but it was his roles in the world of policing and fraud prevention that formed the discussion with our host Adam Batstone. As Chair of City of London Police*, Non-Executive Director of the Serious Fraud Office* and Chair of The National Cyber Resilience Centre Group*, James sits at the heart of organisations tackling the rising threat of fraud against UK businesses and citizens. “Economic and cybercrime effects more people more often than any other crime,” he says. “In the UK alone fraud accounts for 40% of all estimated crime and combined with cybercrime, fraud is the most commonly experienced crime with some 6.1 million reports in 2021-22.” James was first interested in policing during his university days, but not knowing anyone in that world he trained as an accountant then went into investment banking before the corporate sector. As a young accountant at Price Waterhouse he worked in the firm’s forensic unit and was involved in the investigation into the Maxwell directors following the financial scandal after Robert Maxwell died. “I think that planted the seed around fraud,” he says. After leaving banking in the early 2000s, James realised you could become a policeman in your spare time and became a Special Constable of the City of London Police – where he is now chairman which is equivalent to a Police and Crime Commissioner elsewhere. James talks about the complex network of organisations which exist to police fraud and other financial crime and their responsibilities, activities and how they work effectively together. He also highlights long-standing partnerships with the private sector including banking and insurance and the rising impact of technology. “Fraud has grown significantly as new technologies are exploited and the City of London Police reckon about 89% of fraud is facilitated by the use of digital technology such as the internet and the UK is considered an easier target with our English language and frictionless payment systems making it attractive to UK and international criminals alike.” He talks about the importance of relationship with overseas law enforcement and private technology and social media platforms, highlighting a partnership between the City of London Police and Microsoft whose activity has included closing fraudulent call centres. James also mentions how law enforcement agencies are harnessing technology and developments such as AI, turning it back onto the fraudster by using chatbots to lure criminals. Finally James provides some practical advice on how to recognise fraud and some tips to avoid becoming victim of crime, ensuing this edition of Fair & Square is educational as well as entertaining and informative. *City of London Police Authority The local police service for the Square Mile with national responsibilities in policing for fraud, economic and cybercrime. *Serious Fraud Office The SFO is the specialist prosecuting authority tackling the top level of serious or complex fraud, bribery and corruption. *National Cyber Resilience Centre Group: National Cyber Resilience Centre Group (NCRCG) is a not-for-profit company, funded and supported by the Home Office, policing and Ambassador partners, set up to help strengthen the reach of the National Cyber Crime Programme with focus on the cyber resilience of small and medium sized enterprises.

Our guests on this episode of the Fair & Square podcast are Charles Peattie and Russell Taylor – the duo behind the long-running Alex cartoon in the The Daily Telegraph. For almost 40 years the successes, trials and tribulations of investment banker Alex Masterley – drawn by Charles and mostly written by Russell - have chronicled and satirised the Square Mile, its people, its institutions and its businesses. The pair created Alex in 1987 as a strip in The London Daily News – a newspaper owned by press baron Robert Maxwell. The paper closed after just a few months and that same year Alex then appeared in The Independent before moving to his current home in The Daily Telegraph in 1992 – a transfer heralded with nationwide billboards. In conversation with our host Adam Batstone, Russell and Charles discuss the longevity of the strip, its Yuppie satire origins, the real-time ageing of the characters and how the type of jokes have had to change in the last four decades. Charles said both he and Russell were quite politically correct but they still found it funny for Alex to be snobbish and materialistic and they had always been careful about the themes and content of the strip. “I think of the strip as being a document of life as it goes on in a particular segment of society but also spreading wider…and there isn’t a lot of that around in terms of narratives in popular culture,” he said. Russell and Charles discuss AI and whether it poses challenges for cartoonists. Charles suggests it raises exciting prospects in the area of animation, but has limitations when used for cartoon strips. Russell said: ”AI can do pictures of Alex, although they are not quite right, but I have asked AI to write Alex jokes, but it doesn’t really understand what humour is!” The pair admit they have never really explained what Alex’s job is and say they have heard of bankers giving interns copies of Alex books to read with the comment, ‘this is how the City works’. Russell said sometimes they could run stories in the strip that for various reasons journalist on the paper couldn’t, citing the example of a real banking merger reflected in the gossipy strip as Mega Bank taking over Metro Bank. ‘We made up the name Metro Bank, and then they stole the name,’ said Charles referring to the high street banking challenger Metro Bank which was founded in 2010. ‘To be fair the guy who started it did buy me lunch once to apologise,’ said Russell. A popular theme in recent years has been working from home - 128 jokes and counting – but a current theme is bosses wanting a return to office. Something the pair have some sympathy with. Despite both working from home to produce the strip, Charles said: ‘Russell and I always said after a while with any job the most interesting thing about it is what’s for lunch and salacious gossip about other people in office.’ Now ensconced in his own financial boutique, Alex is not contemplating retirement any time soon. “But could we write jokes about him in retirement? Yes!’ said Russell.

Our guest on this episode of the Fair & Square podcast is Ed Warner, sports leader, writer of Sport inc. a book and now a weekly Substack blog as well as a regular columnist in The Times newspaper. Ed is also chair of leading FX exchange LMAX and two investment companies while his previous roles included chair at Grant Thornton UK, Air Partner and Panmure Gordon. As former chair, for more than a decade, of UK Athletics and separately World Para Athletics, and current chair of GB Wheelchair Rugby, Ed speaks to our host Adam Batstone about the role of money in the world of sport. The wide ranging discussion touches on topics from governance to disabled sport, women’s sport and innovation and the pressure which leads some athletes to dope. Ed highlights that while there are many sports played worldwide, it is football and the Olympics which are the clear global giants in commercial terms. ‘When you go into the marketplace to find sponsors, backers, anyone prepared to put money into the sport you’re operating in a completely different league if you are not top end football or the Olympics,’ he says. In terms of putting money into sport the petrodollars of Saudi Arabia have recently grabbed the headlines and Ed believes they are here for the long haul and the move is more to do with diversification than sportswashing and reputation management. He thinks in the next 20 to 30 years the football world cup and the Olympics could both be hosted by Saudi Arabia and suggests they might also seek to back niche sports such as giving a platform to disability sports, disability rights and disability awareness to create a potential force for reputational change. Effective sports administration is crucial for any sport to flourish and Ed suggests there is often a  collision between professional staffers and those who sit above them on boards and govern them. He described himself as an enthusiastic amateur when he joined UK Athletics as chair in 2007 and he learned on the job with no one to teach him and he doesn’t think that situation across many sports has changed which can mean unstable and unproductive boards for a professional executive to manage. Ed thinks broadcasters have an important role in promoting sport, but, with a few exceptions – such as Barry and Eddie Hearn championing sports from snooker to fly fishing and darts – broadcasters will always rather buy rights for sports with strong existing followings - such as cricket - rather than build an audience almost from scratch. Ed mentions the England and Wales Cricket Board working with television to develop The Hundred family-oriented format as one interesting development and said at wheelchair rugby they were always looking at ways to collaborate to make an event attractive to those in an arena and on television.

Our guest on this episode of the Fair & Square podcast is Ranjit Mathrani, Chairman and co-owner of MW Eat, the Chutney Mary, Amaya, Veeraswamy and Masala Zone restaurant group. Before running some of the most prestigious Indian restaurants in the UK, Ranjit had a multi-faceted career including as a senior civil servant, a merchant banker, an international project financing expert and a former High Sheriff of Greater London. Recorded at the newly opened Masala Zone restaurant in the historic Criterion building in London’s Piccadilly Circus, Ranjit tells our host Adam Batstone how his earlier career experiences provided the inspiration and discipline to create his influential Indian restaurant group. “(My) restaurant involvement was a function of my merchant banking desire to monetise talent and the other of that talent being there to be monetised,” he said. The talent was Camellia Panjabi and her sister Namita, Ranjit’s wife, who, among their many accomplishments, are leading authorities on authentic Indian cuisine. Chutney Mary opened in 1990, although Ranjit’s involvement was purely as a financial backer through a Business Expansion Scheme with other investors including Neville Abraham, founder of restaurant business Groupe Chez Gerard. Masala Zone was the subject of a recent glowing review by Jay Rayner in The Guardian newspaper. At that time Ranjit was working in merchant banking, a career which included senior roles at Lazard Brothers, Standard Chartered, West LB and his own international advisory company. He pioneered private power projects in Pakistan and Hong Kong and in the UK was one of the founders of the Private Finance Initiative. PFI was initially a successful policy, but Ranjit laments its later incarnations. “Hospitals and schools came later and were an abuse of the PFI,” he says. Merchant banking was his second career after 17 years in the civil service in Whitehall which he joined in the 1960s, starting work in the Department for Economic Affairs, which he describes as the then prime minister Harold Wilson’s attempt to get a counter weight to the Treasury. Later responsibilities included deciding which industries could access power during the then prime minister Edward Heath’s Three-Day Week measure to conserve electricity at a time of industrial unrest. In his role now as chairman of a leading restaurant group, Ranjit welcomed government support for businesses during the pandemic. However, he believes the support was too widespread and money was given to some industries that did not need it. For restaurants and retail, rating and leasing framework structures should be looked at, he suggests. A current issue for hospitality is labour shortages caused by a combination of Covid and Brexit, which is leading to an inevitable increase in wages. Despite these challenges MW Eat – a £30 million annual turnover group, employing about 500 and serving one million diners a year – has now opened its largest restaurant to date with the 150 cover Piccadilly Masala Zone. “If we had to expand our view was we had to have larger sites. So when this opportunity came up we weren’t necessarily seeking it out…but these opportunities come very rarely. In addition the economy was recovering and the worst was over,” says Ranjit. The MW team has overcome the challenge of designing a restaurant in a large, listed building featuring a stunning gold leaf ceiling, through creating separated dining spaces and combining Indian decorative idioms with contemporary design. But for Ranjit it is food that comes first and foremost. His vision has always been to build a restaurant group which would serve real, proper Indian food and demonstrate that the complexity and sophistication of Indian cuisine was second to none. Next on the menu is further expansion in London and outside the capital. He has also been approached about licensing and franchising abroad, particularly the Middle East, and is looking at these opportunities.

Our guest on this episode of the Fair & Square podcast is Arnolda Shiundu , Sustainability Lead, Africa for Diageo, the global drinks giant. An award winning communications and sustainability expert who has worked in the public and private sectors, Arnolda oversees Diageo’s sustainability strategy in Africa. In her previous role as Head of Sustainability and Community Engagement at Diageo-owned Kenya Breweries Limited (KBL), Arnolda was responsible for developing and implementing the company’s pioneering sustainability agenda, which is also a blueprint for Diageo Africa and Diageo Global. In conversation with our host Adam Batstone, Arnolda says successful businesses cannot be built in isolation from their communities and she highlights the importance of telling an effective story about sustainability, backed by measurable and proven outcomes. Arnolda says while not labelled ‘recycling’, there is a long tradition in Africa of ‘repurposing things’, always looking for another use for something and giving things away rather than disposing of them. In Ghana, Diageo, has established plastic buyback centres – Guinness Ghana Breweries | Where we operate | Diageo - creating jobs for local people in the community. They collect discarded plastic and bring it to the centre where they are paid and the plastic then gets recycled and reused. The project not only repurposes plastic – making senses from a business point of view - but through the payments helps the community support itself. Arnolda points to the relevance of partnerships in the sustainability world and Diageo’s collaboration with governments on water stewardship, a vital ingredient for a drinks company but also to ensure safe water for communities. She says companies must measure their sustainability activities to avoid accusations of greenwashing. “What doesn’t get measured, doesn’t get done,’ she says. She also tells Adam about the need for corporates to recognise the importance of ‘progressive portrayal’ in areas such as advertising. Arnolda talks about the power of smalls steps in the sustainability world – like working with schools to encourage women engineers - and the danger of waiting for big things to get done causing inertia. Finally she says Africa has a lot to teach the rest of the world about sustainability particularly when it comes to looking after your neighbour by sharing today and using resources responsibly so your neighbour has something tomorrow.

Our guest on this episode of the Fair & Square podcast is Richard Charkin, founder of Mensch Publishing https://menschpublishing.com/. Richard is a publisher with half a century of experience in an industry which has undergone dramatic changes in those years and which he has now chronicled in his memoir My Back Pages from marblehillpublishers.co.uk and all good bookshops. From Madonna’s book SEX to the CD-ROM version of the Oxford English Dictionary, Richard estimates he has published 30,000 books during a career which has seen him work for family and public companies alongside personalities from Robert Maxwell to Paul Hamlyn. Richard was a non-executive director of the Institute of Physics Publishing, and still at Liverpool University Press, Bonnier Books UK, and Cricket Properties Ltd who are licensees for Wisden. He is also currently Vice-Chair of Bloomsbury China. He is a member of the international advisory board of the Frankfurt Book Fair, President of The Book Society, and Advisor to nkoda.com. He has also held senior positions at Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, Macmillan, Reed Elsevier, Oxford University Press and Pergamon Press as well as serving the book industry through the presidency of the UK Publishers Association and the International Publishers Association.  Richard tells our podcast host Adam Batstone that since he joined the industry in the 1970s the major changes have included; the rise of women into senior roles which has improved publishing immeasurably, the transformative role of technology and the globalisation of language – in particular the ubiquity of  English – and the power of the media in promoting books from articles to films based on books. In setting up his own publisher, Mensch, his approach is to address some of the aspects of the industry which he has found deeply frustrating. This includes saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to an author quickly and, while not paying advances, paying authors 25% of all the cash he gets in for the book, paying royalties quarterly on the day he gets paid. Richard said the true measure of publishing is not the sales or profits but the assets – the contracts with authors because there is copyright protection for 70 years after the death of the author. He thinks there are enough powerful vested interests from the pharmaceutical sector to the arms industry to ensure copyright protection will persist. In terms of the future of publishing, Richard predicts in the same way as national boundaries have diminished languages will diminish as AI auto-translation improves, so publishers will not be English language publishers, but just publishers. He also suggests authors are becoming and will become much more multi-media in their approach to audiences from platforms such as Substack to podcasts.