The Bottom Line - 30/09/2010

The view from the top of business. Presented by Evan Davis, The Bottom Line cuts through confusion, statistics and spin to present a clearer view of the business world, through discussion with people running leading and emerging companies. Evan and a panel of guests from the worlds of civil engineering, hedge funds and investment discuss the art of staying ahead of the competition. The ruthless former chief executive of General Electric, Jack Welch, often held up as a model of business leadership, pursued a strategy to establish each of GE's businesses as either number one or number two in the market. Without this approach, he believed the company's prospects would be bleak. Some companies will do anything to be big, even if it means cutting prices and making less money. Other businesses are happy to be smaller and more profitable. Which strategy wins? The panel also discusses corporate claptrap. Silly jargon, faddish ideas and vacuous concepts - why is the business world so keen on nonsense? Evan is joined in the studio by Deborah Meaden, entrepreneur and business investor; Keith Clarke, chief executive of FTSE 250 civil engineering and design consultancy Atkins; Hugh Hendry, hedge fund manager and co-founder of Eclectica Asset Management.