Businesspeople From England

"I think things that work well start to look good as well."

"In all my years at Sony, Jason is by far my favourite human to have encountered. He is determined and artist-friendly and has a really admirable attitude towards running the company. I’ve noticed huge changes since he started, and I am now officially one of his disciples."

"Sony is committed to supporting and developing artists from grassroots to festival headliners. We recognise the vital role that grassroots music venues play in that journey, providing an essential platform for artists to be able to take their first steps and develop their audiences. These venues are the heart of our music communities, and we support the work of the Music Venues Trust to protect, secure and improve them."

"The BRIT Awards is hugely influential and an aspirational platform that showcases British music to the world – and it is important that it reflects the taste of the diverse society we live in. We need to encourage the acceptance of equality and more diversity in music, popular culture and general daily life as the norm, not the exception. I believe this year’s show is incredibly diverse, reflecting the past 12 months."

"In the past, one was aware of it but didn’t discuss mental health issues. Now, it’s just a realisation that it’s okay to talk about these issues and realise that it’s prevalent within our companies – you can’t just sweep it under the carpet."

"The UK has always punched above its weight in music on a global level and I don’t see that changing any time soon, especially with some of the artists I know are coming in the not too distant future, so I feel the British music scene is in rude health."

"Japan was provoked into attacking the Americans at Pearl Harbor. It is a travesty of history ever to say that America was forced into the war. Everyone knows where American sympathies were. It is incorrect to say that America was truly neutral even before America came into the war on an all-out basis."

"William Finch writing at Agra in about 1610 says that “in hunting the men of the jungle were on the same footing as the beasts” and whatever was taken in the game was the king’s shikar (or game), whether men or beasts."

"But with the passing of time, a peasant became a tribal and from tribal a beast. William Finch, writing at Agra about 1610 C.E., describes how Jahangir and his nobles treated them - during Shikar. A favourite form of sport in Mughal India was the Kamargha, which consisted in enclosing a tract of country by a line of guards, and then gradually contracting the enclosure until a large quantity of game was encircled in a space of convenient size. “Whatever is taken in this enclosure” (Kamargha or human circle), writes Finch, “is called the king’s shikar or game, whether men or beasts… The beasts taken, if man’s meat, are sold… if men they remain the King’s slaves, which he sends yearly to Kabul to barter for horses and dogs: these being poor, miserable, thievish people, that live in woods and deserts, little differing from beasts.”"

"“To Oude (Ajodhya) from thence are 50 c.: a citie of ancient note, and of a Potan king, now much ruined, the castle built foure hundred yeeres agoe. Heere are also the ruines of Ramchand(s) castle and houses, which the Indians acknowled(g)e for the great God, saying that he tooke flesh upon him to see the tamasha of the world. In these ruines remayne certain Bramenes, who record the names of all such Indians as wash themselves in the river running thereby: which custome, they say, hath continued foure lackes of yeeres (which is three hundred ninetie foure thousand and five hundred yeeres before the world’s creation). Some two miles on the further side of the river is a cave of his with a narrow entrance, but so spacious and full of turnings within that a man may well loose himselfe there, if he take not better heed, where it is thought his ashes were buried. Hither resort many from all parts of India, which carry from hence in remembrance certaine grains of rice as blacke as gun-powder, which they say have beene reserved ever since. Out of the ruines of this castle is yet much gold tryed. Here is great trade, and such abundance of Indian asse-horne that they make hereof bucklers and divers sorts of drinking cups. There are of these hornes, all the Indians affirime, some rare of great price, no jewell comparable, some esteeming them the right unicorns horne.”"

"Here [at Ayodhya] are also the ruins of Ranichand[s] castle and houses, which the Indians acknowledge for the great God, saying that he took flesh upon him to see the tamasha of the world."

"It is only by growing to know yourself that you do things for the right reasons and maybe have a chance to be really happy and realise your true potential as a person."

"Most cooks when they are young tend to overwork their food to hide their lack of confidence and appreciation for Mother Nature. In time they learn that she is the true artist—we're just the the cooks."

"Cooking should be a way of life—an extension of oneself—never a job."

"When I made the decision to retire, I had three options. The first option was, I don't retire, I stay in the kitchen, I continue to work six or seven days a week, I kiss my children goodbye in their beds while they're sleeping in the morning and I kiss them goodnight when they're sleeping in their beds, but I retain my status and my position within my industry. My second option was to live a lie, to pretend I cook when I don't cook, question my integrity and everything I've worked for these 22 years, continue to charge high prices. My third option was to pluck up the courage, give back my stars and abdicate my position and reinvent myself as a person. Those were my options, and one Sunday morning I was fishing and it came to me. I was being judged by people who knew less than me. So what was it all worth?"

"Success is born out of arrogance."

"Success is born out of luck. Luck is being given the opportunity, but it's awareness of mind that takes advantage of that opportunity."

"As far as I'm concerned, if someone is paying a huge amount of money to come to your restaurant and eat your food, then you have a duty to be in the kitchen."

"Apply the cook's brain and visualize that fried egg on the plate. Do you want it to be burned around the edges? Do you want to see craters on the egg white? Should the yolk look as if you’d need a hammer to break into it? The answer to all three questions should be no. Yet the majority of people still crack an egg and drop it into searingly hot oil or fat and continue to cook it on high heat. You need to insert earplugs to reduce the horrific volume of the sizzle. And the result, once served up in a pool of oil, is an inedible destruction of that great ingredient—the egg. Maybe that’s how you like it, in which case carry on serving your disgusting food."

"Great chefs have three things in common. The first is the understanding that mother nature is the true artist and they are the cook. The second is that everything they do becomes an extension of them as a person. Third, they give you insight into the world they came from, the world that inspired them. They show that off on their plates."

"Most chefs, unfortunately, cook by numbers. It doesn't come from within. Molecular cuisine is basically branding food. There's nothing new to it. Its foundation is still classical."

"Cooking is a philosophy, it's not a recipe. Unless it's pastry, then it's chemistry."

"Rudeness is not "having fun", and if it is, it's at the expense of another person."

"To start giving three stars straight away from year one makes you question Michelin and its value – they dish out stars like confetti now."

"It's very important to me that I share my story, and my knowledge and my philosophy. A story is more important than a recipe. A recipe can confuse you, but a story can inspire you."

"Most of my reputation is a product of exaggeration and ignorance."

"No, I didn't make Gordon Ramsay cry. He made himself cry. That was his choice to cry."

"I actually campaigned for Brexit, and I made it very clear in every speech I gave that we would be economically worse off."

"Not one job in Britain is at risk because of losing our EU membership, not one, because there would be a free trade agreement, because we're so important to Europe."

"The vision for Europe needs to renew its commitment to true subsidiarity. Having structures of economic, political and social relationships that liberate subsidiarity will make accepting complexity more realistic. It seems to me that current debates about what Europe is have fallen into the trap of equating strength and unity with simplicity. As I have just said, the opposite seems to be true. Attempts to explain European structures and identity with a single overarching story have ended in failure because they have not allowed sufficient flexibility for these structures to be lived out below the continental level."

"It is to the Church of England’s eternal shame that it did not always follow Christ’s teaching to give life. It is a stain on the wider church that some Christians did not see their brothers and sisters as created in the image of God, but as objects to be exploited."

"But our response does not end there. We are called to transform unjust structures, to pursue peace and reconciliation, to live out the Beatitudes in big ways and small."

"We need 21st-century answers. And we will find satisfactory answers only if they are grounded in a vision we can all recognise, and one that seeks the common good. It is no use treating God as a means to a 21st-century Europe: to do so is the creation of an idol, not the service of the true God whose revelation in Christ is the foundation of our values. I shall be seeking to argue that Europe's future lies in a process of subsidiarity, re-imagination and inclusion, especially the development of concepts of intermediate communities of many kinds. This is a theological vision, one that allows commonality of vision, but sets strong boundaries to what is acceptable."

", the migration crisis, religiously-motivated violence and terrorism, and many other issues - must be to reach for the common good, intermediate institutions (schools, charities, companies, churches, , families above all) and subsidiarity, rather than the barriers of the past. We must eliminate the barriers, tear them down - but not erect others, even more dangerous. You may be sceptical of a British cleric talking about the common good and a shared vision for the next century - and with reason. To view the United Kingdom's decision to leave the European Union as a raising of the drawbridge from all of our relationships with the European continent is something that none of us can afford. A vision for Europe must go beyond the boundaries of the European Union."

"When we look at the progress made since the end of the Second World War, it is hard to argue that economically, European cooperation has been anything other than a great success. Of course, since 2008, this has not been the whole story. In Southern Europe particularly, talk of economic success would be met with confusion and anger."

"On the one hand we look at the progress since the war and see a huge increase in the material wellbeing in the vast majority of Europeans. But on the other we see policies that are pushing and keeping large sections of entire countries in increasingly desperate circumstances, with no apparent vision for how the circumstance might be overcome."

"In December, 1915, I took the further step of appointing Mr. B. Seebohm Rowntree Director of the Welfare Section of the Ministry [of Munitions], which I invited him to organise. Mr. Rowntree is well known, not only as a great employer of labour, but as one of the foremost and most successful pioneers in the development of improved conditions in his works. I should like to pay tribute here to the skill, energy, sympathy, and address with which he organised this new department. The work he did helped to transform the conditions for munition labour during the War, and has left a permanent mark upon conditions in our industries."

"Mary Follett devoted a lifetime to searching for the true principles of organization which would ensure a stable foundation for the steady, ordered progress of human well-being. That her search was not in vain will be evident to all who read the lectures. Her teaching is not theoretical, but is based on a close study of the practice of a large number of business undertakings. She chose this field of enquiry to supplement her work on local and national government because she realized that the principles which should determine organization are identical, no matter what the purpose which that organization is designed to serve."

"MAJOR URWICK and Dr. Metcalf have rendered a conspicuous service by editing this collection of Mary Follett’s lectures on business management. They contain teaching which was of importance when the lectures were delivered, and which many people felt should be preserved in a collated form and given a wider public. The circumstances of today have increased that importance. Many people are being called upon to fill new administrative posts, and these lectures teach the principles which should underly all administrative method."

"Industry shares a need common to every social enterprise from church to guild, municipality to empire, war to university."

"William Lever was one of the most successful of the late Victorian industrialists, who built up his company from a tiny regional base to become one of the first true multinationals. Described as a ‘born marketing man’, Lever built his success on the back of powerful marketing campaigns and the creation of some of the first internationally recognised brands in consumer goods. He was one of the most respected businessmen of his day, and his management methods were admired and widely imitated in Europe and America. Although he was very much a product of his own time, many of Lever’s business methods seem surprisingly modern, and in terms of abilities and reputation, he compares favourably to such giant figures of modern business as Jack Welch."

"Aye, nay, we won't argue: you're wrong."

"Half my advertising is wasted but I do not know which half."

"A child that knows nothing of God’s earth, of green fields, or sparkling brooks, of breezy hill and springy heather, and whose mind is stored with none of the beauties of nature, but knows only the drunkenness prevalent in the hideous slum it is forced to live in, and whose walks abroad have never extended beyond the corner public-house and the pawnshop, cannot be benefited by education. Such children grow up to depraved, and become a danger and terror to the State; wealth-destroyers instead of wealth-producers."

"It is my hope, and my brother’s hope... to build houses in which our work-people will be able to live and see comfortable. Semi-detached houses, with gardens back and front, in which they will be able to know more about the science of life than they can in a back slum, and in which they will learn that there is more enjoyment in life than a mere going to and returning from work, and looking forward to Saturday night to draw their wages."

"My happiness is my business. I can see finality for myself, an end, an absolute end; but none for my business. There one has room to breathe, to grow, to expand, and the possibilities are boundless. One can go to places like the Congo, and organize, organize, organize, well, very big things indeed. But I don’t work at business only for the sake of money. I am not a lover of money as money and never have been. I work at business because business is life. It enables me to do things."

"There can be no reason why man should not make towns liveable and healthy... just as much subject to the beneficent influence of bright sunshine, fresh air, flowers, and plants, as the country."

"On one level, then, Cadbury can be seen as a classic example of Victorian industrial paternalism, albeit carried to greater lengths than in most other companies of the day. On another level, however, the Cadbury system resulted in a very strong, highly flexible organisation which, thanks to the strong levels of employee commitment and participation, could draw on a large bank of experience and intelligence to solve problems and undertake what amounted to continuous improvement. The employee participation system in particular meant that Cadbury was constantly upgrading its processes and products. Herbert Casson regarded Cadbury in the 1920s as one of the best-run companies in Britain, if not the world, and summed up the key to its success very succinctly: ‘At Cadbury, everybody thinks.’"

"Preference is given to applicants just leaving school, as they have not yet lost their habit of discipline and obedience, and they retain more of what they have learnt there."

"[The younger employees] do not appreciate fully the great change that is taking place in their lives, nor do they realize the added responsibility that "growing-up" brings with it."