John Harvey-Jones
{{Short description|English businessman (1924–2008)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox military person
| name= Sir John Harvey-Jones
| image= Sir john harvey jones.jpg
| birth_date= 16 April 1924
| death_date= {{death date and age|2008|1|9|1924|4|16|df=yes}}
| placeofburial_label = | placeofburial =
| placeofburial_coordinates =
| birth_place= Hackney, London, England, UK
| death_place= Hereford, Herefordshire, England, UK
| allegiance= {{flagcountry|United Kingdom}}
| branch = File:Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg Royal Navy
| serviceyears = 1937–1956
| rank = | servicenumber = | unit = | commands =
| battles = World War II
Cold War
| awards = MBE
| laterwork = Company director, television presenter, author and university chancellor
}}
Sir John Harvey-Jones MBE (16 April 1924 – 9 January 2008) was an English businessman. He was the chairman of Imperial Chemical Industries from 1982 to 1987. He was best known by the public for his BBC television show, Troubleshooter, in which he advised struggling businesses.
Early life
John Henry Harvey-Jones{{cite ODNB|chapter-url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/99963|chapter=Jones, Sir John Henry Harvey- (1924–2008)|last=Owen|first=Geoffrey|title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|year=2012|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/99963|access-date=17 November 2019}}{{subscription required}} was born in Hackney, London, but spent most of his early childhood in Dhar, India, where his father, Mervyn Stockton Harvey-Jones (né Harvey), a former Captain in the Indian Army and bank employee, was guardian and tutor to a teenage maharajah.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/jan/11/ici.bbc|title=Sir John Harvey-Jones: Successful, outspoken industrialist who became a television troubleshooter|last=Erlichman|first=James|newspaper=The Guardian|date=11 January 2008|access-date=17 November 2019}}{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/sir-john-harvey-jones-ebullient-business-leader-who-chaired-ici-and-found-fame-as-the-bbcs-769920.html|title=Sir John Harvey-Jones: Ebullient business leader who chaired ICI and found fame as the BBC's 'Troubleshooter'|newspaper=The Independent|date=14 January 2008|access-date=17 November 2019}} He was shipped back to Britain at age six to attend a prep school at Deal, Kent. He entered Dartmouth Royal Naval College at age 13.
Royal Navy career
Harvey-Jones joined Dartmouth Royal Naval College as a cadet in 1937, and in 1940, at the age of 16, he joined HMS Diomede as a midshipman. The next two ships that he served with, HMS Ithuriel and HMS Quentin, were sunk by enemy action. Harvey-Jones went on to join the submarine service in 1942, and received his first command at age 24.
With the end of World War II, Harvey-Jones went to the University of Cambridge to learn Russian in six months and joined Naval Intelligence as an interpreter. He married Mary Evelyn ("Betty") Bignell Atcheson in 1947, and they had one daughter.{{cite news |title=Sir John Harvey-Jones |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1575205/Sir-John-Harvey-Jones.html |access-date=14 August 2023 |work=www.telegraph.co.uk}}{{cite web|url=https://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/business-news/bullying-top-industry-2202013|title=From bullying to the top of industry|website=WalesOnline|date=12 January 2008|access-date=17 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080118035703/http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/business-in-wales/business-news/2008/01/12/from-bullying-to-the-top-of-industry-91466-20342758/ |archive-date=18 January 2008}} He commanded the Russian intelligence section under the guise of the "British Baltic Fishery Protection Service", which used two ex-German E-boats for gathering clandestine intelligence on the Soviet Baltic Fleet. Rising to the rank of lieutenant-commander, Harvey-Jones was awarded a military MBE in 1952 for his work in Naval Intelligence, although his citation stated that the award was for "fishery protection duties in the Baltic".{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IsaCAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT24|title=Secret Classrooms: An Untold Story of the Cold War|last1=Elliott|first1=Geoffrey|last2=Shukman|first2=Harold2|year= 2002|publisher= Samovar|isbn=1-903608-13-9 |page=23}}
Commercial career
{{More citations needed|section|date=January 2023}}
=Imperial Chemical Industries=
Refused permission by the Royal Navy to spend more time with his wife and daughter Gaby, who had contracted polio, he resigned his commission in 1956 and joined Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) on Teesside as a junior training manager. In 1973, at age 49, he was promoted to sit on the main board of directors. In April 1982, he became chairman of ICI, only the second split-career man and non-chemist to reach the top.
Mentored in part by John Adair,{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4rDYY3DlF7gC&pg=PA64|title=How to Grow Leaders: The Seven Key Principles of Effective Leadership Development|page=64|last=Adair|first=John|publisher=Kogan Page Publishers|year=2006|isbn=0-7494-4363-4}} Harvey-Jones saw his responsibilities to both stockholders and employees as "making a profit out of the markets where the market is".{{citation needed|date=November 2019}}
He maintained a firm belief in "speed rather than direction", on the assumption that "once travelling a company can veer and tack towards the ultimate objective." Thus, at the business level he cut non-profit making and what he saw as non-core businesses, so that at board level he could concentrate on putting more power in fewer hands "to reduce the number of those who can say 'no' and increase the motivation of those who can say 'yes'", maintaining that "there are no bad troops, only bad leaders". After only 30 months in the job, having cut the UK workforce by one third, he had doubled the price of ICI shares and made ICI the first British company to make a profit of more than £1 billion.{{cite news |title=Sir John Harvey Jones |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/sir-john-harvey-jones-5zf36vfrprd |work=The Times |access-date=14 August 2023 |date=14 August 2023 |language=en}}
=Media career=
According to one newspaper, it was the BBC's Troubleshooter series, first broadcast in 1990, that made Harvey-Jones the most famous industrialist since Isambard Kingdom Brunel.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6285160.stm|title=Obituary: Sir John Harvey-Jones|publisher=BBC News|date=11 January 2008|access-date=18 October 2015}}{{cite news|url=http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/business/manufacturing/former-city-lawyer-digby-jones-6939901|title=Former city lawyer Digby Jones debuts as BBC's Troubleshooter|last=Laws|first=Roz|date=10 April 2014|newspaper=Birmingham Post|access-date=18 October 2015}} It ran to five series and several specials in the 1990s and also won him a BAFTA award. His advice was at times controversial—in particular he was critical of the Morgan Motor Company. Morgan ignored his advice and is still trading successfully.{{Cite web |date=1995-09-22 |title=Ha-ha, ha-ha, ha, Harvey-Jones |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/motoring/haha-haha-ha-harveyjones-1602523.html |access-date=2023-08-14 |website=The Independent |language=en}}
=Other positions=
In 1989, he became chairman of The Economist,{{cite news |url=https://www.economist.com/obituary/2008/01/17/john-harvey-jones|title= Obituary: John Harvey-Jones | newspaper =The Economist | date= 19 January 2008 | page= 94}}{{subscription required}} was a non-executive director of Grand Metropolitan plc (now part of Diageo), and honorary vice-president of the Institute of Marketing.
Harvey-Jones was chairman of the Burns-Anderson Group plc, a conglomerate spanning merchant banking (Burns-Anderson Trade Finance), financial services (Kelland & Partners Ltd headed by Steve Kelland), recruitment (Premiere Recruitment headed by Dorian Marks), marketing and business services (Ultimate Response headed by Eric Baskind) and stockbroking (W.H. Ireland Stephens & Co Ltd).{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}
Between 1986 and 1991, Harvey-Jones served as the second Chancellor of the University of Bradford. A commemorative painting exists in the University of Bradford collection,.[https://archive.today/20120723104605/http://www.cornucopia.org.uk/html/search/verb/GetRecord/8716 University of Bradford portraits at Cornucopia] Harvey-Jones also agreed to sit for the sculptors Jon Edgar and Steven Whyte. Edgar made a terracotta portrait at Clyro in July 2004.[http://www.jonedgar.co.uk/artwork/harvey-jones/ Picture of bust at Jon Edgar web site]
He was chairman of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and member of the Advisory Council of the Prince's Trust. In 2001, he became the president of the MS Trust.{{cite web|url=http://www.mstrust.org.uk/information/opendoor/articles/0802_03.jsp|title=Sir John Harvey-Jones 1924–2008 |publisher=MS Trust|date=February 2008|access-date=15 January 2009}}
Personal life
Described by The Guardian as one of the best-known British advocates of Transcendental Meditation, Harvey-Jones said, "I don't make a drama out of a crisis. If I gave it up now, my wife would leave me."{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/aug/15/health.healthandwellbeing|title=All you need is love and peace|last=Honigsbaum|first=Mark|work=The Guardian|date=15 August 2005|access-date=13 February 2014}} Having lived most of his post-retirement period at Rudhall Manor, near Ross-on-Wye, he died in his sleep after a long illness, aged 83, at the Hereford County Hospital.
Awards
- In 1952 he was awarded a military MBE for his work in Naval Intelligence
- In 1985 he was voted Britain's most impressive industrialist by company directors interviewed for MORI's annual "Captains of Industry" survey
- He was knighted for services to industry in 1985
- In 1986, 1987 and 1988, he received the title of "Industrialist of the Year"
- In 1992 was awarded the title "Motivator of the Year"
- In 1992 he won a BAFTA for his Troubleshooter series
Bibliography
- All Together Now (1994), Heinemann ({{ISBN|0-7493-1960-7}})
- Getting It Together: Memoirs of a trouble shooter (1991), Heinemann ({{ISBN|0-434-31377-7}})
- Making It Happen: Reflections on leadership (1988), HarperCollins ({{ISBN|1-86197-691-7}})
- Managing To Survive (1993), Heinemann ({{ISBN|0-7493-1502-4}})
- Troubleshooter (1991), BBC Books
- Troubleshooter 2 (1992), BBC Books
- Troubleshooter Returns (1995), BBC Books
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|1830127|John Harvey-Jones}}
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/avdb/news/business/video/144000/bb/144112_16x9_bb.ram A look at the varied career of Sir John Harvey-Jones] – RealPlayer
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/working_lunch/3194532.stm BBC Working Lunch]
- [http://www.trustedleader.org/sir_john_harvey-jones_g.asp?page=71 Trusted Leader]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20080118063201/http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/search/article/591696/the-mt-40-interview-sir-john-harvey-jones/ Interview: Sir John Harvey-Jones] – Management Today
- [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2953181/Turnarounds-test-imagination-and-courage.html Turnarounds test imagination and courage – article by Sir John Harvey-Jones] – Daily Telegraph
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20050103062156/http://www.intelligence-history.org/jih/Hess-1-2.html British Baltic Fishery Protection Service] – Journal of Intelligence History
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{{succession box|title=Chancellor of the University of Bradford|years=1986–1991|before=Baron Wilson of Rievaulx|after=Trevor Holdsworth}}
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{{Imperial Chemical Industries Chairman}}
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Category:English expatriates in India
Category:People from Hackney Central
Category:Royal Navy submarine commanders
Category:Royal Navy personnel of World War II
Category:English industrialists
Category:Imperial Chemical Industries executives
Category:English television presenters
Category:BAFTA winners (people)
Category:Chancellors of the University of Bradford
Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire
Category:Alumni of the University of Cambridge