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Watch the Replay of our Meet the Leaders webinar with Tom Levitt and Sir John Kay.
How did business historically respond to global upheaval? Would they survive today’s?
Watch former MP, Tom Levitt, and and businessman, academic and esteemed advisor to Governments around the world, Sir John Kay, with Chair of Fellows at Radix Big Tent, Vicky Pryce, in conversation about Tom’s new book The Business of History, recorded on Wednesday 4th June in a Radix Big Tent Meet the Leaders interactive webinar where guests were encouraged to contribute.
Tom’s new book takes a fresh look at 100 years of corporate evolution, collapse and resilience. A century ago, WH Beable wrote Romance of Great Business, a love letter to 32 iconic British companies. Tom has revisited those stories, extending them into the present day—with all the twists Beable left out, from fraud and failure to environmental recklessness and even murder. How did the businesses evolve, how can they best help us rebuild the planet and, importantly, why did some survive and not others?
John’s original and brilliant insights into business put him in a unique position to respond to Tom; his recently published book The Corporation in the 21st Century: Why (almost) everything we are told about business is wrong redefines our understanding of successful commercial activity and the corporation.
Tom Levitt
Tom is a former Labour MP who has been working with responsible businesses since 2010. Co-founder of Fair for You, the ethical lending social enterprise, and author of business books 'The Business of History' (2025) and 'The Company Citizen' (2018), also the biography 'The Courage to Meddle: the Belief of Frances Perkins' (2020), and the political thriller 'A Fallen Man' (2022). Currently employed by the University of West London. Season ticket holder at Brentford FC.
Vicky Pryce
Vicky is the Chair of the Fellows at Radix Big Tent and a leading economist whose career includes being Director General for Economics at the Department for BIS, Joint Head of the UK Government Economic Service and Chief Economist and Partner at KPMG. She is currently Chief Economic Adviser at the Centre for Economics and Business Research. She is also Chair of the Economic Advisory Council for the British Chambers of Commerce and a visiting Professor at KCL and BCU. She is co-founder of GoodCorporation, a company set up to advise on Corporate Social Responsibility.
Sir John Kay
For 20 years, John wrote a regular column for the FT. He holds many academic positions; he is a fellow of St John’s College, Oxford having been elected at the age of 21; he has also been a professor at the London Business School and the University of Oxford, and is currently a visiting Professor at the London School of Economics. He was the first director of Oxford University’s Said Business School. In 1986 he founded Britain’s largest independent economic consultancy, London Economics and is a director of many investment companies. He is the author of numerous books including Other People’s Money (2015). His work has been mostly concerned with the application of economics to the analysis of changes in industrial structure and the competitive advantage of individual firms. His interests encompass both business strategy and public policy.