IN THE TV adaptation of Edward St Aubyn's
That pretentious excerpt might seem a world away from a discussion of the struggles of
British entrepreneurship, Hoberman argues, has been historically scuppered by a deep-rooted suspicion of effort and self-motivation from the wealthy classes. As a result, our great national products are in danger of becoming not fintech, AI and space travel, but schadenfreude and tallpoppy syndrome.
"The psychology of the British - particularly if you look historically at the aristocracy - [is people] who are bred to be very comfortable and not to be strivers," Hoberman tells City A.M. in an interview.
"It used to be that entrepreneurs were seen as people who are challenging class structure, so they were a negative force," he adds. That mindset has created in his view a "national psyche" that "revels in the failures of others".
But, he argues, it is changing. Entrepreneurs are now "very much seen as part of a modern meritocracy" and the
TALL POPPIES Shifting the British mindset is a task that is not only puzzling Hoberman but a host of top City and political figures, as they look to reinvigorate the
A recent report commissioned by stock exchange chief
Hoberman is still optimistic the change is happening - as serial entrepreneurs are. He set up
He now splits his time between his early-stage venture capital firm
While he admits the
"The competition between
"I think there's a lot of change in government," he says. "I mean, we had a minister of science, technology and innovation] and we now have another one already."
While the government has in name said it wants to turn the
Hoberman says there needs to be a point at which Sunak's team finally puts their money where their mouth is.
"It's still a relatively new team. They've had to fight a lot of fires. But now, we do really need to see some action.
"We're hoping that London Tech Week could be a good flagship moment for the
Tech firms and start-ups thrived on a healthy stream of international talent before 2016 which has been threatened by Brexit - and he argues we are in danger of scaring away top talent.
"I don't want to bang on about Brexit, but obviously that's been a negative. And then, within that, I think the bigger issue is the rhetoric about immigration [which] is really confusing internationally," he says.
"I think ignore the hard right of the Tory party who say immigrants are bad. Go back to saying the best entrepreneurs are immigrants. We need more of them in the
CHANGING MINDSET It would be quite the shift in mindset, but Hoberman argues a necessary one after a bruising period in which the
In business terms, he argues that the fear of being outcompeted can conversely be a healthy thing, however.
"Great business leaders have a healthy paranoia, an energy, and they use stress productively," he says. "Short-term bouts of adrenaline and stress get you out of bed and get you doing exciting things."
Hoberman will now be hoping that the
We need more entrepreneurs and migrants. We need to make this the place where they want to come
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