Summary
The view from the top of business. Presented by Evan Davis, The Bottom Line cuts through confusion, statistics and spin to present a clearer view of the business world, through discussion with people running leading and emerging companies.
Evan and a panel of top guests from the worlds of online retail, investment and utilities examine how young upstart companies can outsmart their well-established incumbent opponents, and how those opponents can defend themselves.
The panel also discusses company names. What makes a good one? And why the business obsession with changing them?
Evan is joined in the studio by Katherine Garrett-Cox, Chief Executive of Alliance Trust, an investment trust; Brent Hoberman, serial internet entrepreneur and founder of web-based furniture company made.com; Phil Bentley, Managing Director of utility company British Gas.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Thank you for downloading the Bottom Line podcast. This week, Evan Davis and his panel of top business guests discuss how startups can compete with the big guns. |
| 0:10.4 | Hello and welcome to the bottom line. We'll talk top dogs and underdogs today, the joy of being a big incumbent company dominating a market and the joy of being a young upstart trying to break in. |
| 0:21.5 | We have the managing director of British Gas with us to talk through it. |
| 0:24.9 | And we'll talk about company names and the obsession with changing them. |
| 0:29.2 | But before we do any of that, let's spend a few minutes meeting each of my three guests. |
| 0:35.1 | And first is Catherine Garrett Cox, who's the chief executive of Alliance Trust, |
| 0:39.7 | an investment trust based in Dundee, and a large one at that. And I mean, let's just start, |
| 0:44.9 | Catherine, explain what an investment trust is. Investment trust is a listed company whose share |
| 0:51.2 | price is really determined by what's happening in terms of the underlying assets within |
| 0:55.7 | the business. And for us, about 95, 96% of our company is invested in quoted equities. So our share |
| 1:02.3 | price is largely determined by how that overall portfolio is doing on a day-to-day basis. |
| 1:06.6 | So you're a company that just owns shares. Indeed. And people buying shares in you are getting |
| 1:10.7 | part of a little piece of all those other shares, really. |
| 1:13.1 | So it's an investment vehicle. |
| 1:14.4 | That's absolutely right. |
| 1:15.3 | I mean, I think generally speaking, we have about 80,000 retail investors, and most of them invest in us to get low-cost exposure to a very well-diversified portfolio of global equities. |
| 1:26.0 | And we invest all around the world |
| 1:27.5 | and have done so since 1888. |
| 1:29.9 | Right now, Catherine, we're going to get a little bit techy and financial here, because |
| 1:33.1 | there's a very interesting feature of investment trusts. |
| 1:36.5 | If I went out and measured the value of all the shares that are in your company, they would |
| 1:41.3 | be worth, say, I don't know, three billion pounds. |
... |
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