With his gong, two homes, luxury car and a clutch of handsomely paid directorships, Sir Digby Jones seems to the manner born. But it wasn't always that way.
As a young boy he recalls that, while his family wasn't exactly poor, life could be a struggle and some years there weren't many presents under the Jones family Christmas tree.
"I was born above my father's grocery shop in Alvechurch, a village just a couple of miles from the Austin car works in Longbridge (near Birmingham)," he explains. The giftless years tended to coincide with lean times up at 'The Austin' as the Longbridge factory was known locally. "Whenever Longbridge caught a cold, my dad's shop would contract pneumonia".
Whenever Longbridge caught a cold, my dad's shop would contract pneumonia.
The periods of "having to be careful" left Jones junior with an unusually deep insight into the nature of wealth creation and the intimate connection between big and small business. "From very early on I saw first hand the link between micro and macro issues, the interdependence of business and its importance to the community and society at large," he says.
The experience of growing up above the shop also left him with an acute appreciation of how undervalued entrepreneurs are in our society. "Running a small business takes an incredible commitment and hard work. You risk everything, but if you become successful people start accusing you of being a fat cat," he says indignantly. "Somehow lottery winners are seen as more noble and entitled to their wealth."
Until last July, Sir Digby was director-general of the Confederation of British Industry where, over the course of six and a half years, he earned a reputation as one of the most forceful voices business has ever had in this country.
With his lantern jaw and barrel chest, you can see why. He looks like just the sort of bullish character you would want pushing your cause. He talks like a bluff everyman, voicing common-sensical Clarkson-like attitudes to issues such as 'compensation culture', 'political correctness' and 'health and safety'. For the record, all have gone "a bit mad" in his book and are conspiring to stifle enterprise.
"There is a huge pandering to vociferous non-accountable NGOs, which are making enterprise increasingly difficult in this country," he says. "It seems that these days we all have rights but no responsibilities," he says.
Somehow lottery winners are seen as more noble and entitled to their wealth.
He reserves particular scorn for Britain's creaking planning system, which he says is simply not fit for purpose and has become a major inhibition to economic activity. "The current planning regime was created in 1947 for a completely different business environment. It's just not in touch with current reality. It needs to change to become quicker and more flexible. If the great crested newt is so rare, why is it living on every building site in the country?" he asks with a mixture of bewilderment and irritation.
At times his bullishness spills over into 'John Bullishness' – an intense pride in Britain and being British. But this pride is no jingoistic celebration of a Britain that never was. It's an historical appreciation of the openness and multiculturalism that created Britain today.
"We are in many ways a mongrel race, built up by different waves of immigration over the centuries," he says. He points out for instance that The City of London was born out of Eastern European Jewry escaping persecution, coming to a fair-minded (but not perfect) home. French Huguenots did wonders for our textile industry. "We even relied on immigration for our royal family – every time we ran out, off we went to Europe and got another lot."
It is important that people understand this, he says, because in his view it plugs into three major issues: immigration, labour shortage and the skills gap that are rapidly becoming the most important problems facing British business today.
"It comes down to the fact that immigration is a good thing. Britain is wealthier because of immigration. But at the moment it is managed willy-nilly. Yes people need to speak English and have a skill to offer. But there's a huge labour shortage in this country and we need to manage the problem properly."
You cannot blame a migrant for the fact that we don't have sufficient numbers of skilled British-born people to do the jobs.
He argues that a key cause of labour shortage is the lack of a strong work ethic in sections of British society and illustrates his point with a story about the docks at Peterhead, an area with one of the highest unemployment rates in Scotland. "They needed 20 people to unload fish so they advertised in a local newspaper. On day one, 12 people turned up. On day three, two people turned up. By the end of the week, not one person was turning up for work. So they advertised in a Polish paper and got 120 replies.
"You cannot blame a migrant for the fact that we don't have sufficient numbers of skilled British-born people to do the jobs. Half the kids who took GCSEs last year did not get grade C or above in English and Maths. One in five of the adult population in this country cannot read and write to the standard required of an 11-year-old."
Some small businessmen have a tendency to feel that what happens in the big world doesn't really apply to them – because they are only little. But if anyone thinks these observations do not apply to their business because they are too small, they have another thing coming, says Jones.
"These macro issues are everything to do with SMEs," he says. "They need workers. They certainly need people to service their business. Even though they tend to keep their heads down and get on with running things, sometimes they need to understand more readily that they are part of a wider, deeper picture."
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