For James, there was no sense that expanding Tescoās sales onto the web was what the human race urgently needed. It didnāt have to be. This was a ladder. And yet: heād come first in the most prestigious course at the most famous university in the world, and he was sitting here in his boxers copying and pasting the item code for ironing boards. It didnāt feel as if he were ascending to greatness.
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When I joined the board in 1991, āthe Halifaxā was the largest mortgage lender in the world. Its head office was still in the modest Yorkshire town of Halifax (which it now dominated), and most of the people who worked there had been born and brought up locally. The organisation ā like the Marks & Spencer of that time ā was a powerful illustration of how strong systems and culture can enable otherwise unremarkable people to do remarkable things. The contrast with Oxford University, which relied on the services of remarkable people but as an organisation was remarkable only for its ineptitude, was striking. I could not help noticing that even the most junior teller in the Halifax would use the pronoun āweā in talking about the organisation, while in Oxford even the vice-chancellor would talk about āthe Universityā as though it were an organisation over which he had little real influence ā which was perhaps true.
James said he couldnāt spare the time from working. But surely ā surely ā that was a lie. Meanwhile, James lived in fear. Because the only students he knew were the handful that the timetable paired him with, it was entirely possible that in other tutorials there would be dozens of people far better than him.
He couldnāt see how it made any difference to Tescoās grand plans if he gave his presentation on Friday instead of tomorrow. But his manager insisted. It was irritating to be subject to someone elseās arbitrariness. It was just a culture of performative zeal. McKinseyites were supposed to be the shock troops of capitalism, sacrificing themselves to smash through problems. James was supposed to be eagerly hurling himself into the fray. But he couldnāt quite get himself geed up.
Javier might make a better head of engineering than Alan. Maybe. It was premature. James needed to watch him for a while. Javier was not a follower; he would try to impose himself on the company. That would cost stress and effort to restrain. But better a strong beast you had to fight to keep in harness than an obstinate little mule with no imagination who only ever said that it couldnāt be done.
James didnāt worry. What greater purpose could these people find? And with so many minds applied, the pace of improvements to the machine was accelerating into another order of magnitude. He wasnāt having to shove things forward any more; the company was moving of its own accord.