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 what good leadership consists of - how do you turn a mediocre manager into a brilliant boss? They also swap thoughts on surviving on 20% less of everything. How would their companies cope, and what would they look like?
Joining Evan are Martin Gilbert, chief executive of fund manager Aberdeen Asset Management; Allan Leighton, chairman of set top box maker Pace; Nigel Whitehead, group managing director of BAE Systems.
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, |
| 0:05.6 | Evan Davis and his panel discuss the essence of good leadership. |
| 0:10.2 | Hello and welcome to the program. Now, can you turn a mediocre manager into a brilliant boss? |
| 0:17.0 | Self-help books and management courses may try, but good leaders are still hard to come by. |
| 0:21.8 | I'm going to ask my three guests today just what it is that good leadership consists of, |
| 0:27.0 | and more pointedly, whether they have those skills. |
| 0:30.4 | We'll also ask how we would cope if we had to use 20% less of everything. |
| 0:35.4 | But before any of that, let's spend a few minutes meeting each of my guests. |
| 0:39.1 | First up, Martin Gilbert, who's chief executive and co-founder of Aberdeen Asset Management, |
| 0:44.8 | its Scotland largest money manager, Martin. |
| 0:48.6 | Yep, it is. |
| 0:50.1 | But not that that's much competition, of course. |
| 0:52.6 | But we're still number two in the UK to Schroeder's. |
| 0:55.0 | I'd love to be bigger than them. That's my ambition. Right. Now, you have had a pretty good year. It's been a fantastic year. How come? It's been a difficult year for everyone. We've been in the right place at the right time. We're one of the world's leading emerging market asset managers. And the world is putting money into |
| 1:13.0 | emerging markets and especially Asia. So if someone in America or UK or Europe decides to put |
| 1:20.7 | money in there, they'll usually come to us and give us the money. So our problem's actually, |
| 1:25.3 | we've got too much money to invest, which is a fantastic |
| 1:28.5 | problem to have. Ten years ago, I mean, the company really did sink, didn't it? It was, |
| 1:33.0 | people I think were really wondering whether it would survive. What was going on? It was, there |
| 1:36.9 | was some kind of scandal, misselling scandal. Yeah, we were the market leader in a product called |
| 1:41.9 | Split Capital Investment Trusts. And I did two Treasury Select committees and an investigation by the regulator. |
| 1:49.9 | Our share price went down 95%. |
... |
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