Ivor Kenny's definition of leadership is "a quality of character and intellect, not a condition or empty honour. The indispensable ingredients are the ability to sense the future, to understand the aspirations of followers, to discern the limits of possibilities and to select the lines of advance which hold the best promise of success".
There are no women among the 17 executives interviewed. As he points out, women constitute 2 per cent of chief executives in the leading 100 Irish companies and an inclusion would be an insult.
What we get is a cross-section, ranging from David Burrows of Pernod to Eddie Jordan to dairy farmer and educator Michael Murphy. All fit Kenny's stringent conditions for leadership. Bill Cullen, chairman and chief executive of Renault Distributors in Ireland, delivers a fascinating account of his Dublin childhood. He was born in Summerhill in 1942 in the tenements. His family of 14 struggled to bridge the gap between his docker father's wages of £4 a week and the £8 needed to survive.
Cullen had to work to help his family and he did so by selling newspapers. He remembers being taught boxing by Sir Tony O'Reilly in the Newsboys' club as senior boys from Belvedere College helped out there.
Coming from the same city but in effect a million miles from where Bill Cullen was born, Mark FitzGerald, son of former Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald was reared in what he calls a "positive, creative and exotic environment". He went to Gonzaga, apprenticed as an auctioneer and is now chief executive of Sherry FitzGerald Group.
What comes through in this fascinating book is that being successful is down to 90 per cent perspiration and 10 per cent inspiration, with a little luck and a good eye for an opportunity. The participants speak relatively candidly about their lives, although some are more entertaining than others. If anyone is looking for a magic formula for instant success, they will be disappointed but if one settles for a combination of entertainment, advice and personal history one will be amply satisfied.
comidheach@irish-times.ie
