Cock-ups and Conspiracies
The Bottom Line
BBC
4.6 • 606 Ratings
🗓️ 8 March 2012
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
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. The programme is broadcast first on BBC Radio 4 and later on BBC World Service Radio, BBC World News TV and BBC News Channel TV.
Evan's executive panel discuss corporate cock-ups and conspiracies. They swap thoughts on why they occur, and how best to avoid them.
Joining Evan are Andy Green, chief executive of business and technology service provider Logica; Phil Smith, chief executive of technology company Cisco UK and Ireland; Luke Johnson, serial entrepreneur and chairman of private equity firm Risk Capital Partners.
Producer: Ben Crighton Editor: Richard Vadon.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Thank you for downloading this podcast from the BBC. In this edition of the bottom line, |
| 0:05.0 | Evan Davis and his panel discuss corporate cock-ups and conspiracies. |
| 0:10.0 | Hello and welcome to the program. Now when things go wrong in companies, we usually put the details into a file marked either cock-up or conspiracy. |
| 0:20.0 | Well, on our program today, we delve into both those files. |
| 0:24.1 | We'll ask why these things occur and how to avoid them. But before we do that, let's spend a few |
| 0:28.9 | minutes meeting my three guests. First up, Andy Green, Chief Executive of Logica, a business |
| 0:34.9 | and technology service provider. Andy, why don't you explain what Logica does? |
| 0:39.0 | We've got 41,000 great people who operate mainly across Europe. We design systems for people, |
| 0:45.4 | having done a lot of work to explain to them how those systems can improve their businesses. |
| 0:50.6 | And then if they want us to, we can operate them for them as well. |
| 0:53.6 | So give us an example of a client and a system. |
| 0:56.4 | So we, for example, all the court system in the UK, the Ministry of Justice, we will run their systems for them. |
| 1:02.7 | We've designed and implemented the police national database, which is the first time you've been able to connect together all of the suspect information in the UK as a result of the Soam Inquiry. |
| 1:12.4 | So really important things, very technically difficult. Those types of things we do. |
| 1:16.5 | And your staff, they are software writers, developers? |
| 1:20.8 | They're mainly business people who support clients thinking about business, |
| 1:25.0 | but then they're capable of integrating the software, integrating the hardware. Well, very often use other people's software and hardware, |
| 1:31.0 | you know, people from Oracle or Cisco or IBM, anybody, to make sure that we deliver the right solution for the client. |
| 1:37.9 | Okay, well, also with us is Phil Smith, who's chief executive for the UK and Ireland, of the huge US US multinational Cisco. Phil, I think of |
| 1:46.8 | Cisco as making servers, but I'm sure it's now more than that. Well, actually, interesting |
| 1:52.3 | enough, it was only recently service, what most people would call service. In fact, it's the plumbing |
| 1:56.3 | of the internet that's been Cisco's business for the last 27 years or so, building the things that |
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