“All I Want For Christmas Is. ..”

Britain’s Business Leaders Give a Sneak Preview of Their Letters To Santa

On my flight to Toulouse I was flicking through the British Airways magazine, Business Life, and came across the article by Acting Editor, Derek Harbinson and thought I would share some of it with you.

What are you hoping for this Christmas?

Duncan Bannatyne – Entrepreneur & TV “Dragon”

“An end of war and conflict throughout the world so that we can all focus on ending child poverty and starvation worldwide”                                        

Jasmine Whitbread – CEO, Save The Children

“45 billion dollars. It would stop six million children dying needlessly every year and is less than half of what consumers spend globally on bottled water each year…..I also wish I could move Oxford closer to London so I could shrink my commute and spend more time wth my children”

John Timpson, CBE CEO Timson

“The services of a personal box ticker – someone to fill in the mindless forms and red tape that have become part of everyday business life”

 Craig Sams Founder, Green & Blacks and Chairman Carbon Gold

 “For the Copenhagen climate talks to come to an agreement that is universal and equitable to all. Then small-scale efficient domestic energy producers would win out over the big coal and nuclear lobbies…..”

Tim Smit Co-Founder and CEO, The Eden Project

“A small earthquake in Parliament Square which brings the House of Commons into a pile of rubble. . . . so that each day when members walked to their place of work they could reflect on the meaning of service and the shame that we all share for having built a country committed to eradicating poverty and which has failed so spectacularly in the attempt”

 Tom Aikens Chef & Restauranteur, Tom Aikens and Toms Kitchen

 ”A new law for everyone to be allowed more time off work. The extra holiday would help to give us better balance to appreciate the finer things in life, more time to enjoy our friend and family and also to unwind and let off steam”

 Elizabeth Hammond, Founder Hammond Partners

“For our politicians to realise that running the Uk is no different to being the chief executive of any company. If, as an outside consultant, I took a look at ‘company UK’ I’d wonder how we had managed to allow such wealth destruction and to employ many more thousands of peope than we can actually afford”

Alastair Sawday, Founder, Alastair Sawday Publishing

“To be able to give a little hope to our children. How? By being able to tell them that te Copenhagen summit has been a stonking – and miraculous – success”

Caroline Rowland, Founder and CEO, New Moon

“….my wish is that ‘the powers that be’ would see that we need to nurture the next generation and give young people the tools that make sense of this crazy world we live in . . Young people are seen as an inconvenience. We ought to be treasuring and nurturing them and giving them the opportunity to become amazing adults”

Brent Hoberman, Founder Lastminute.com

 “A kinder, gentler world for Christmas and not just one with less poverty, violence and wars but one in which we receive and celebrate more good news”

Julie Meyer, Founding Partner, Entrepreneur Country & Co, Ariadne Capital

“The majority of society to understand that the entrepreneur is the engine of growth in society and that the economic growth will be entrepreneur-led. The entrepreneur creates intellectual and financial wealth through which the entire society benefits and progresses and so entrepreneurs and their teams should be richly rewarded for taking the risks that they do(and which the rest of society chooses not to but from which it will benefits”