Henry Bessemer

In this respect I will cite Sir Henry Bessemer, the inventor of the Bessemer Converter which allowed steel to be produced cheaply. Bessemer said when asked why he had made the breakthrough other than others who had been far more qualified and informed than himself,

"I had an immense advantage over many others dealing with the problem inasmuch as I had no fixed ideas derived from long-established practice to control and bias my mind, and did not suffer from the general belief that whatever is, is right."

But fundamentally this is how all great inventors and scientists have made their revolutionary breakthroughs. Newton, Faraday and Einstein are prime examples of this.

It may also be a matter of interest here and although steel is one of our basic commodity still, as we are presently dependent on it in many ways, has recently made Lakshmi Mittal the richest person in Britain at 54 years of age, with a personal fortune estimated at US$25 billion that ranked him very recently by Forbes as the 3rd richest person in the world.

Therefore it may be that the University Leiden's Business School may wish to form a link with our Foundation so that we can develop these new business managers and leaders of the future. We shall have to see but our institution is willing over the coming years.

In this respect some of those who are here today will most probably become the business leaders and managers of tomorrow and where if you do not understand what I have said here today, you certainly will have to in ten-years time, for to get to the top, you will have to have the training and the knowledge that I allude to here for your organization's corporate sustainability - always changing as new innovations constantly change the fundamentals of the global business environment.

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