Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Director General of the CBI, championing British industry at home and abroad.
On the island
Eight records
Nimrod (from Enigma Variations)
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle
So many times in our history we've sent young people to die in the name of freedom all over the world. And for me, when I stand and listen to that every November, I just remember that I couldn't be [t]he independent soul I am. I couldn't be free if it wasn't for the people who laid down their lives for us, and that's what this means to me.
Younger Than Springtime was one of the hits from South Pacific, which was around when I was sort of five, six, seven years old. And so it reminds me of a very happy childhood of parents who had no money, but they gave me love and enthusiasm. And I own, and whenever I hear it, I think of them.
Choir of St George's Chapel, Windsor
A mixture of sadness and happiness is that some of those people in your forties and your fifties don't make it. And we've all got friends, haven't we, who've succumbed to cancer or heart disease or whatever. And a couple of them our friends have, and at their memorial services and at their funerals we've sung Jerusalem and we've raised the roof. And so to me, on a desert island, I would definitely want to be able to listen to Jerusalem often. It would remind me of good people who are no longer here.
Neil Diamond is my favourite performer and if I was on a desert island I could only have one performer, it would be him, and my favourite song would be Hello Again.
George Benson's In Your Eyes was one of the songs of the time that whenever I hear it, I will remember that you really can just pick yourself up, dust yourself down, and start all over again. And that is precisely what I did.
We always used to end up singing the song that we thought just epitomised what we were at the time, which no matter how conceited and arrogant it sounds, we were simply the best.
(Everything I Do) I Do It for You
I would very much like to listen quite often to a song by Brian Adams called Everything I Do, I Do It For You. Because I think the words more than many things in my life. Just sum up what motivates me. You're either going to do it a hundred and fifty percent and give it everything you've got, or don't turn up.
Wind Beneath My WingsFavourite
It's our song, it's the one that we play and listen to when we have those big moments of celebrations like anniversaries and big birthdays. And it is Bette Midler singing Wind Beneath My Wings, because that's what she is to me.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:47Are you like [this] in your personal life as well? Do you ever lie down? Do you ever stop?
Well well, I'm I'm one of these people who I need about five and a half, six hours sleep a night. … And people say I have great energy, great enthusiasm. I've never done anything other than 150%.
Presenter asks
4:39When you were headhunted for the job at the CBI, your wife took one look at the job description and said, 'It's you, Digby.' What did she see? Why was it you?
I remember Pat picked me up from the airport one night and she said, this has come through. I've read it and it's just you. And she just saw something in it about how I could hopefully fashion the wealth creative process, put in with it something I've believed all my life, what I call socially inclusive wealth creation.
Presenter asks
8:09Where did you get this posh name Digby from?
Well, mum was pregnant with me and she read Beauchest. And if I came out a boy, I was going to be this name from Beauchest called Digby, because Jones was such a common surname that I was going to be different. … I have to tell you, as a kid at school, I used to come home in tears saying, They've teased me, I'm gone. Why wouldn't I be called David or Simon?
The keepsakes
The book
Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World
Niall Ferguson
And it is written as if Britain is a person, and it's written in the development of the United Kingdom, roughly from sort of when Elizabeth came to the throne in the sixteenth century, right up to the modern day. And I would sit on my desert island and I would read that and just be incredibly proud of being a Brit.
The luxury
a video or a pictorial book of about a hundred different examples of excellence
by excellence I mean Churchill's speech, I mean the speech Kennedy gave in Berlin, Martin Luther King's famous speech in Washington, Margot Fonteyn at her very best.
Presenter asks
23:39What does Gordon Brown say when you stand in [Number 10 or 11] and say, 'Look what you're doing [to business with taxes]?'
He says, and I think he's wrong, but he says, but the economy is growing, companies are doing well, so they can afford to do this. What really worries me is that they have never turned their eyes straight and honestly to the electorate and said, all of what we're doing costs more money. You should pay your fair share, because they vote and business doesn't.
Presenter asks
25:02Is the business landscape going to change dramatically, do you think? Do you think we are complacent about how it might change?
I think Britain gets globalization more and better than America or France or Germany or Japan. But. If we don't stay ahead of the game, it's no good politician, no good Tony Blair or Gordon Brown sitting there and saying, oh, it's okay, we're doing number one on this, we're fine. … Oh, we are in definitely in danger of being complacent, certainly, on tax rates, on regulation, on thinking it's going to be all right, on resting on our laurels.
“I'm a great believer in sumo. I mean, it's something to do with my size, I think. And that is, shut up, move on. And if today didn't work, well, tomorrow is up for you.”
“I do think and I've I've learnt this in this job, you know, you there are people who are excellent at building things and teams and inspiring people and driving them forward and growing. And then there are other sorts of people who are really good at running something. And they're not often the same people. And I think I'm more in the first and the second, to be honest.”
“The 21st century belongs to Asia, and we have a chance. You can either use it to advantage. or fight it and lose.”