We weren’t predicting an illustrious career in politics – Neil worked far too hard at getting no qualifications for that to materialise – but his future wealth. PM stood for potential millionaire. And a million quid was a lot of money in those days.
Neil broke my leg playing football 30 years ago – an impressive feat considering we were on the same team. The company, like Neil’s playing, has always had a reputation for being slightly aggressive; however, what impresses me is the way it has stood by employees who suffered misfortune outside of work, which in some cases meant they couldn’t do the job they were employed to. The aggressive spirit remains intact under Terry Smith’s stewardship and you don’t hear too much moaning coming from its employees. So does Terry have a caring sharing side to his nature as well?
Terry is known for telling it like it is – in some cases, this amounts to little more than stating the bleeding obvious about something that all too often is not understood by others involved in the business. I’m sure he must have been amused by a recent report in the UK’s Observer newspaper that revealed: “The bad and the downright ugly, The 20 companies who fare worst according to our ethical scoring of the FTSE 350”.