You contrast it with magazine covers today, when they are dictated by links to advertisers, or make-up manufacturers Again, commercial considerations are uppermost. With his latest scheme soon to hit London - a shop in a Notting Hill townhouse that will be like visiting someone's home - Smith offers an illustrated guide to how to make yourself stand out in the crowd, and makes a plea to anyone who has ever thought of selling anything - be different (he is). But I think I'm working for myself."It may be that Rupert Murdoch is the exception and that he has discovered the secret of prolonging the life of his dynasty beyond its natural span But at the London Business School they doubt it. "I think Murdoch-type firms are in deep trouble because if the family continues to insist on control, the key people will leave," says Stopford. Also a consultant to the Department of Culture, Smith continues to produce the innovative ideas that have kept him at the forefront of the fashion world, and in demand from industry and advertisers.
From humble beginnings in Nottingham 25 years ago, clothes designer Paul Smith (above) has developed into one of the brightest stars in the retail firmament, with a worldwide business that has an annual turnover of pounds 142m. But the trouble here is that these days top talent is not content to work for the family: it wants its piece of the action." This point was crisply made by Terry Robinson of Lonrho who was hired by the Vesteys to rescue their ailing Union International subsidiary "The bankers think I'm working for them The Vesteys think I'm working for them. According to David Kynaston, the author of a definitive history of the City of London, Barings was just one of a number of family-run merchant banks that renewed themselves during the 19th century by twice hiring non-family talent. "Their ambitions were global, but they lacked the ability to achieve them.
Like most other British merchant banks, they were sadly under-capitalised."As Professor Stopford points out, any family's gene pool is limited "In time, it's bound to run out of talent. Or, to put it another way, the family's greed exceeds its talent - as in the case of Gucci, the Italian fashion accessory company," he says. And the more global the company becomes, the greater the problem.Families like the Rockefellers, the Mellons or the Du Ponts who built the great edifices of American capitalism, relied heavily on talented outsiders to administer, guide and sometimes rescue their empires It was the same story in Britain. But the lesson of the Baring story is, he says, that twice is not enough. The problems begin, he thinks, when the family company grows in size beyond the capacity of the family itself.