A deep well of business insights from a corporate leader more admired than liked

BOOK OF THE DAY: Beyond Business – An inspirational memoir from a visionary leader, By John Browne, Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 336pp, £20

IT IS not a pleasant sight to see a hero, someone who was elected “the most admired leader” for four years running, having to resign in a scandal that covered the front pages of Britain’s dailies for days when it broke, due to his swearing an untrue affidavit denying he was introduced to his partner through an escort agency. But that is only a small part of the story of Lord John Browne, the chief executive of oil giant BP.

I suppose all autobiographies are bound to be used by the writer to explain his side of the various controversies in his life. Beyond Businesscertainly does that. However, it also has its share of what he calls "power, sex and lies" and what he terms "the betrayal" he encountered at the end of his career.

It is also an interesting geography lesson, as each chapter is based in a different part of the world. From Colombia to Azerbaijan, and Alaska to Angola, he weaves a tale of disasters and triumphs that introduce us to some well-known personalities.

His dealings with Bill Clinton and Margaret Thatcher are described with a certain amount of awe. He admired Vladimir Putin but got a ticking-off from Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez. His ventures into Russia and China put us into the middle of recent history.

Any business person hoping to get a foothold in China should learn from Browne’s experience in Beijing in 2005. During his meetings he wondered whether Chinese government officials might actually be listening in; he was never sure whether hotel rooms were bugged but decided that it would be a good thing for them to hear what was going on. He could not figure out what was causing the deadlock there and only learned afterwards that the official he was dealing with had been given a suspended death sentence after being convicted of taking $28.8 million in bribes.

There is little sign of modesty in the character of the noble lord. He admits that at an important presentation he had to make in New York he showed the slides in the wrong order, not that it seemed to matter, he says. However, he blamed his assistant for dropping the carousel of unnumbered slides on the floor.

He is quite critical of some of his postings in the US and claims that the difference between Cleveland and the Titanicwas that Cleveland had a better orchestra!

Browne doesn’t come across as likeable. He was a successful chief executive who increased profit by a multiple of five during his term.

The real meat in Beyond Businesscomes in his advice to business managers: limit your objectives to just four meaningful targets. He told Tony Blair:"You can have five targets if you like but 10 is too many." Setting the wrong targets gives you the wrong results. Speaking to the World Economic Forum in Davos, he took UK hospital waiting lists as an example: the target was achieved as the lists were indeed reduced, but this was done by spending less time with each patient and did not achieve the best outcome for patients.

In 2002 John Browne was elected “the most admired leader” due to his commitment to putting the challenge of climate change high on the agenda of British business. For an oil magnate to espouse renewable energy must have seemed a contradiction. His views were that people think of renewable energy as an alternative to fossil fuels, whereas he claimed we must find ways that are both cleaner and smarter and for some time both renewable and fossil fuels would provide the bulk of the supply.

He argued for the need to expand the safe use of nuclear power plants, using natural gas in preference to coal and making electricity the energy source of choice for ground transportation.

An ambitious young manager will want to read this tale, if only for the advice that “you cannot do everything yourself”.

Feargal Quinn is a member of Seanad Éireann and author of Crowning the Customer