In her reply to an article yesterday [To boldly go …] one of our most prolific bloggers, Tracy Carter FAPA (aka TC) said the following:“This blog has touched on a subject that is on my mind at the moment. In my free time I'm a leader for Girlguiding and work with 5-7 yr olds (Rainbows). I showed the girls a photo of the Queen - they didn't know who it was, I played the national anthem, they didn't recognise it etc. In a fun way I am introducing them to Britain and the reasons to be proud of Britain - after reading this blog I will now introduce them to some of our heroes, I know Helen will certainly be on the list.”
I’m with Tracy here, who are our great heroes today and who really knows about them? It seems that hero status has gone from endeavour to celebrity; where we sometime know too much but surely a hero should be so much more.
As a community of PAs I would like to know who you consider a modern day hero and who you would regard as great business leaders (a business hero if you like). Who sets the standards so high that we can’t fail but to admire them? Your thoughts would be interesting. The payback is that I will promise to approach their PAs and attempt to enlist them.
Gareth
7 comments:
I would have to nominate Simon Cowell!
What he is doing to bring opportunity to the masses through 'Britain's Got Talent' is impressive. Sure Simon makes money by enabling those talents to succeed but they wouldn't do it without him. Mr. Nasty is a name that could be equally applied to many successful entrepreneurs and he is certainly that; entrepreneurial that is.
Business hero for me is Nick Buckles, Chief Executive, G4S.
I started my Career at Securicor Security Services and met Nick when I was promoted to the marketing department at Securicor Guarding.
Nick at the time was Deputy Managing Director and was being groomed for greatness and he has certainly achieved that.
I got on famously with Nick as he always had time for the troops, which even extended to a game of football on the odd occasion on the ground floor of the offices when they were being refurbished.
He accelerated through the ranks of the security division and secured the top job after the successful merger of Group 4 and Securicor.
Nick to this day will still call me 'Sonic', my nickname at Securicor, when he sees me, and I will never forget the time I was walking through a corridor at Securicor HQ in Sutton when he was the CEO of Securicor and I was a Sales Executive for Securicor Recruitment Services. Nick saw me talking to my MD. He ran up to me shouting Sonic and gave me a high five and asked how I was. You can imagine the look on the faces of my MD and colleagues.
The point of my comment is, you can accelerate to the dizzy heights of the top in a number of ways. Nick chose to do this by including and respecting others and I try to emulate this myself. He got 110% of my time, commitment and respect and the same from others to. Maybe that's how he got there!
Great post, really took me back to a great time and place.
Colin
Gotta be Branson - what a role model; Music, Flying, Adventure and Mucho Moola. Moola Magnifica!
Can I add Martha Lane-Fox, what a woman.
Martha Lane Fox (born 10 February 1973) is a British e-commerce business woman, charity trustee, board member of Channel 4 and non-executive Director of Marks & Spencer. She co-founded Lastminute.com, an icon of the dotcom boom of the early noughties.
No doubt, Sir Richard Branson and Sir Alan Sugar.
I should add my own; Ray Kroc, owner and principal developer of McDonalds - not for the food but for the genius that became a global brand, generous contributor to charity and starting point for many a career.
When the business growing and he counldn't give his PA a Pa-rise he gave her 6% of the shares in McDonalds. Just imagine what those shares became worth!!!
Another vote for Simon Cowell from me.
I like the site guys.
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