Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Former CEO of Tesco who transformed the lackluster brand into Britain's biggest retailer, valued at £35bn and employing 300,000 staff globally.
On the island
Eight records
I think I chose this one because it it's around 1963, and although I was a young boy then, six or seven, I remember the Mersey beat and the fact that in every street there seemed to be a pop band.
My father never mentioned music to me at all and then out the blue just before he died he this song was on the radio and he said I've always loved this song.
Paul Simon actually wrote it in Widness railway station. It's a nice song about leaving home and homesickness.
I won't ask you to play the UK subs, but instead it's Depesh mode.
Canon in DFavourite
I've always enjoyed uh classical music and and this short piece is perfect, I think, and it it reminds me that music really can change your mood, lift your spirits.
I mentioned earlier that I I've always liked folk music and um Cat Stevens was brilliant and my kids started listening to him and it reminded me just how good he was
For unto Us a Child Is Born (from Messiah)
Tenebrae Choir, London Symphony Orchestra & Sir Colin Davis
My wife Alison al has always loved uh English hymns and choral music and she introduced me to The Messiah when we first met and we've always enjoyed listening to it together
L'amour est un oiseau rebelle (from Carmen)
Kiri Te Kanawa, London Philharmonic Orchestra & Sir Georg Solti
This is the first opera that I ever went to and actually it's the last opera uh I've been to more recently and I've decided it's it's the best opera.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:19Is it an uncomfortable place for you to be, the limelight?
Yeah, this is not uh where I'm happiest, but uh I'm uh looking forward to today.
Presenter asks
4:08I think you yourself said that it was the fear of failing that powered you through. Is that right?
Yeah, and I don't think that's so unusual. You know, my parents were immigrants. I I came from Ireland, I came from a councillor state, so you don't assume things are going to be given to you. You feel that you've got to work hard to get them. And there's an insecurity there, I think, at the heart of it. You don't want to let anybody down. You don't want to let yourself down. You can't really, I suppose, face the shame of failure. There's no safety net. And it drives you on, I think.
Presenter asks
5:12Was making the shopping experience better for ordinary people at the heart of your motivation?
I always went shopping with her and I remember the shops in the early sixties, they were very poor places. People look back, I think, through rose-tinted spectacles. At that time you you'd spend half of your wages on food. Today it's less than ten percent and the choice, quality, the safety, the variety is so much better. And I think improving food in that way for ordinary families did make a difference. It was worthwhile trying to do that.
The keepsakes
Presenter asks
12:46How did you cope with all of the demands [at St Edward's College] when you were going home to a prefab where space was tight and money was tight?
Not very well. My m mum must have really struggled to get the uniform together and everything. … And I hadn't really learnt how to study. You know, as you said, there were no books in the house, and so I didn't really keep up with the homework, and at the start didn't do particularly well at school, and was rather the class clown.
Presenter asks
16:33How did you look then when you were listening to this sort of music [punk and new wave]?
Uh probably about forty.
Presenter asks
18:00What sort of leader were you?
Challenging, you know, but tried to coach people to get the best out of them. I hope I never attacked a person. I might have attacked an argument … I always wanted to try to make people feel better about themselves, to build their confidence. And I didn't used to send a lot of memos around or emails or anything like that. I was you know relatively quiet, I think, as a leader.
“People do view big organizations as faceless and impersonal. And of course they're not. They're made up of all of those people and all of their hopes and aspirations and fears, and that was the business that I knew.”
“I was this odd mix of somebody who always had ideas but was too timid to put them into action, so I had to get over it and, you know, take in a deep breath and learn how to do it. And I did. And in some senses, there are advantages of not being overconfident. You tend to be a better listener, I think, a better watcher, observer.”
“Loyalty cards don't make people loyal. What they do do is they allow you to understand a little bit more about a person, so you have the chance to alter the products, the services, the information, so that they're more useful to that person.”