CBI Conference 2006 Day 2 (continued)

After a break Jean-Louis Beffa, Chairman & CEO, Saint-Gobain gave a keynote address. I found him really interesting. As a French businessman he had a fascinating point of view regarding capitalism. He argued that there were many brands of capitalism (French, British, Japanese) and each brand of capitalism supports its own economy. He also spoke about the success of the French model of state funded capitalism has been a success, (with programmes such as Airbus, nuclear etc).

Beffa argued that France did believe in open markets, but also believed in employee involvement and participation and employee ownership. Beffa also spoke about how the Euro has benefited the UK.

In the Q&A session Evan Davies asked Beffa whether he found Anglo-arrogance annoying. I think he manages to avoid answering….....

Next up was the panel session on globalisation and company ownership, which Beffa was also involved in. The panel included Stephen Nelson of BAA, Andy Bond of Asda, Harvey Nash’s Albert Ellis and Alex Brummer of the Daily Mail.

Nelson was first up, As a CEO of an organisation that had been acquired by a Spanish firm, he chose to talk about the sale of BAA and made five points:-

Foreign ownership doesn’t have to lead to a lack of control

Change in capital structure doesn’t mean those who invest in BAA are any more or less British

BAA now only has three shareholders, which actually is more efficient

High levels of debt gearing helps to’ focus the mind’ (perhaps looking for a silver lining from a bad sitation?)

BAA is price regulated

He continued by addressing the question of whether national strategic assets exist, with an overwhelming yes - since the treaty of Rome governments have been able to intervene in a sale.

Bond spoke about how, despite being part of the Wal-Mart Group, Asda is still a British company, how there was no US person on the Asda board, and how there were great benefits for Asda being part of such a successful global brand (best IT, best sourcing and the ability to share and identify talent). His personal view was that the consumer was the main beneficiary from Wal-Marts acquisition.

Albert Ellis was next to air his thoughts. He argues that the big issue wasn’t just about Capital it is also about Talent and how in an age of globalisation and global benchmarking of talent, Britain must keep up. He spoke about graduates leaving university with irrelevant degrees, about how the post-graduate interest in education seems about getting a piece of paper and having fun and about how the business school culture is too theoretical and not results focused enough.

And to add a bit of spice to the debate the session finished with Alex Brummer of the Daily Mail. Brummer agued that he was ‘concerned’ by the level of foreign ownership, even in the financial sector. He argued that the London Stock Exchange is part of our excellence and should be considered a national champion. He spoke about the many firms that the UK has sold overseas in recent years, citing Pilkington, P&O, British Oxygen. He also cited the case of RWE’s ownership of Thames Water and how this disengaged the owners with the consumers. Like I said, Brummer was indeed brought on to add the spice.