Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Founder and CEO of WPP, the world's largest advertising agency, often called the most influential adman.
On the island
Eight records
My Funny ValentineFavourite
In that there's a specific track where the trumpet playing is sort of magical. It's the sort of music that moves you, or certainly moves me.
Brazil has always been important in my life. ... Rio and Corcovado in particular has a special place in my heart.
Harry Leon, Leo Towers and Will E. Haines
My mother used to play the piano. Her name was Sally. She used to play this song and roll out the barrel.
Partly because my father was a violinist, so Itzhoch Perlman is playing violin. Partly to remind me where we all came from. And last probably but not least, wonderful film.
It neatly bridges my three years at Cambridge, which ended in 1966, and my two years at Harvard, which it ended in'68. So this will remind me of Cambridge, Harvard, Simon Sharma, and everything else at that time.
EIAR Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
It will remind me of when I was sitting on my on the beach of my of my wife. Christiana, who's from Rome, so it's important in that context. It's also important that Turindo is about China.
I've been travelling to New York on and off for very many years. So Englishmen in New York will always have a special special place in my heart.
National Philharmonic Orchestra
The most beautiful film I think I've ever seen is a Stanley Krubrick film called Barry Linda. Say to remind me of that. There's Sarabandi by Handel, which is the theme from Barry Lyndon.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:10Is building a company that intense and personal, rather than just business?
Um it didn't no, it isn't just business, because you c you create something or you start something, which uh for me was at the age the ripe old age of forty, which is very intimate and very personal.
Presenter asks
7:33Are you comfortable with your pay package?
My own view is that the system should work is that if you do well, and do well means do well comparatively, you get rewarded for it. If you don't, you get punished for it.
Presenter asks
10:57What kind of people were your parents?
My mother and my father their parents came from Eastern Europe. ... My mother and my father sacrificed a lot for me because of the challenges and the lack of opportunities that that they had.
Presenter asks
20:46How did visiting Theresienstadt change your view of the world?
The keepsakes
The book
My dad used to quote tracts from the Talmud, so he must have studied under his father the Talmud when he was young. So I would have some time on the island for that.
The luxury
It made a very deep impression because, in a way, it's what what I said before in relation to Shenzhen's list reminds you of where you. Came from and to be grateful. for what you have and really um To uh not complain about your lot when you think about what your lot could have been.
Presenter asks
27:55How did the near-collapse of WPP in 1991-92 affect you at a personal level?
From a personal point of view, I felt I got us into this mess. I had to get us out of it. ... I was determined to you know, it was my baby. I got us into this situation. I had to get us out of it.
“When I started off, what I wanted to do was to build a company and manage it. I wanted to be an entrepreneur and be a manager”
“When I see the controls on immigration and when I see point systems, I sort of intuitively dislike them and think that I wouldn't be here if those rules were in force at that particular point in time.”
“I've uh imbalanced my life at various stages and probably emphasised career more than family.”