Broadcasts, Reviews, and other Events

• Find the latest entries on the Home Page >>
• On Tuesday September 8, 2009, the Financial Times carried a letter from Will Hopper saying that the recent discussion about banking bonuses overlooked two factors: (a) the problem was total remuneration, not just bonuses: and (b) it existed in the whole of business, not just banking. On Monday September 14, Dr Gerry Brady agreed, drawing attention to the danger of using movements in share prices as a means of assessing the performance of individuals.
• The September 1, 2009 edition of Transforming Management, published by Manchester Business School, carried an article by Will Hopper entitled ‘Going Back to the Coalface’ which argued inter alia that Canada escaped the worst aspects of the Credit Crunch because its Superintendent of Financial Institutions said ‘no’ when its banks asked for the same freedom which US banks enjoyed.
• For those not attending the Edinburgh Bookfest (see below), the Frontline Club in London arranged a special event in London on Tuesday August 25, 2009 when Kenneth and William Hopper discussed the origins of (a) the Credit Crunch; and (b) the Japanese Economic Miracle. The Frontline Club is an association of journalists and media people situated near Paddington Station in London. Frontline Club website >>
• Kenneth and William Hopper were Writers in Residence at the Edinburgh International Book Festival (15 - 31 August 2009), which overlaps with the Edinburgh International Festival of the Performing Arts. On Monday August 17, William engaged in a public debate with Gillian Tett (author of Fool’s Gold) and Philip Augar (author of Chasing Alpha) in the Spiegeltent on the motion that The End of the World Has Been Postponed. On Wednesday August 19, both authors expounded their views on the causes of the Credit Crunch in the Peppers Theatre, laying emphasis on the collapse in US corporate culture since 1970.
• On Monday August 1, the UK Amazon site declared that the three top most popular books about US history were: (1) THE AUDACITY OF HOPE (Obama); (2) THE PURITAN GIFT (Hopper & Hopper); and (3) THE GREAT CRASH, 1929 (Galbraith).
• On July 29 2009, Luke Johnson, chairman of Channel 4, said that THE PURITAN GIFT possessed a 'magnificent and original text and was required reading for everyone who cares about the capitalist system and for those in high office in the business world.' Download article from Financial Times (pdf, 37 KB).
• On June 22, 2009, Will Hopper addressed the Athenaeum, a leading London club, on the collapse of managerial culture which underlay the current Great Recession. One of those attending wrote afterwards: 'Few of us can have been made to think so radically by a single speaker'. Download speech (pdf, 52 KB) >>
• On June 17, 2009, Will Hopper spoke in French to Les Soirées Francophones de Belsize Park on the subject of the current Financial Bubble. Download address (pdf, 42 KB) >>
• On May 31, 2009, Simon Caulkin of the London Sunday Observer, said that THE PURITAN GIFT was 'bold, original and agreeably opinionated.' Download review (pdf, 30 KB) >>
• On Wednesday May 20, 2009, Will Hopper gave the keynote address on the subject of 'The Puritan Gift' at the annual Transformation Forum organised by the Deming Society at Wyboston Lakes, Bedfordshire, England.
• On Monday May 11, 2009, at a ceremony in London, William was presented with an Award in Recognition of a Lifetime Achievement in Private Equity by Susan Boedy, John Cook and Kurt Geiger on behalf of the Thunderbird School of Management, Phoenix, Arizona.
• On Sunday, March 29, Will Hopper was interviewed by Stephen Crittenden of ABC Radio National in Australia along with Prof. Henry Mintzberg and others in a series called Background Briefing . Hear 'MBA - Mostly Bloody Awful'. The programme lasted 50 minutes; Will can be heard from minute 12 to 24 and from minute 30 to 33.
• On Monday March 16, Will Hopper was interviewed by Jeremy Paxman on BBC NEWSNIGHT concerning the Credit Crunch, along with Andy Brough, manager of the Schroder UK Mid 250 Fund and William Daley, U.S. Secretary of Commerce 1997 to 2000 and part of the Obama-Biden Transition Project. Download the podcast of this prime-time TV programme (12.8 MB).
• March 14, 2009: in a thirty-minute podcast interview with the authors, Chris Gondek/Heron & Crane (Portland, Oregon) described 'The Puritan Gift' as 'an extraordinary book'. Download mp3 file >>
• March 11, 2009: Annabelle Quince of Australian Broadcasting Corporation interviewed Will Hopper and three others on 'Management Culture and Gurus: their Part in our Downfall' for her series, ‘Rear Vision’.
  Hear the full thirty-minute audio >>
  For a short edited transcript comprising observations by Will Hopper (pdf, 32 KB),
  click here >>
• March 9, 2009: Ruth Rach of Deutschlandfunk interviewed Will Hopper in a programme called 'Abschied von der City; der Niedergang des Londoner Finanzviertels' (Bye Bye Square Mile; the Decline of London's Financial Quarter'). Click here for interview voiced over in German (mp3, 13 MB); and here for an edited transcript in English and German (pdf, 28 KB).
• March 9, 2009: Andrew Billen reviewed 'The Puritan Gift' in a London 'Times' article: 'Goodbye to glib gurus and their gobbledegook'. Download the pdf (17 KB) >>
• On November 3, 2008, Peter Day of BBC Global Business interviewed Kenneth and William about THE PURITAN GIFT. Click for audio file (mp3 format, 11 MB, 23 mins).
• On Sunday August 10, 2008, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a half-hour programme entitled THE PURITAN GIFT in which Sir Mark Tully interviewed Will Hopper, co-author of the book of that name. Click for audio file (mp3 format, 65 MB) >>
• On Tuesday July 15, 2008 Will Hopper was interviewed by Lesley Curwen in the BBC's World Business Report. Lesley introduced him as ‘the author of THE PURITAN GIFT, which predicted problems ahead for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’.
• BBC HARDtalk, January 16, 2008: Stephen Sackur interviews William Hopper:
  - video of edited version of interview
    (7 minutes)
  - video of full interview
    (23 minutes, requires real player)
  - brief description of broadcast (pdf)
  - edited transcription of broadcast (pdf)
• According to Stephen Evans, of the BBC World Service’s Business Daily Program, THE PURITAN GIFT is a ‘must read of the year 2007’. (January 1, 2008)
• The BBC’s Stephen Evans declares that THE PURITAN GIFT ‘foretold’ the current global credit crisis. Listen to his interview with Will Hopper on the Business Daily Program, September 19, 2007. (mp3, 1 MB)
• Manchester Business School blog discusses THE PURITAN GIFT >>
• The Financial Times selected THE PURITAN GIFT as one of the ten best business books of 2007. The book is characterised as follows: ‘The Hopper brothers, long-time admirers of the American business model of old, voice their concerns about the developments of the past 30 years in this ambitious and stimulating story covering more than four centuries of history.’ (December 8, 2007) - (jpg, 580 KB)
• In a 1,200-word Financial Times review, Richard Donkin declares that THE PURITAN GIFT is ‘a real book, full of fascinating insights, intellectual rigour and challenging authoritative arguments’. (September 20, 2007) - (pdf, 78 KB)
• On pages 239 to 244 of his book ‘India's Unending Journey/Finding Balance in a Time of Change’ (pdf, 550 KB) - Sir Mark Tully quotes extensively from The Puritan Gift.
• In ‘Top executives no longer paid to play as part of the team’ (Financial Times, May 8, 2007) - pdf, 33 KB - Stefan Stern comments favourably on The Puritan Gift.
• Manchester Business School Professor Peter Kawalek insists that all his students read THE PURITAN GIFT, April 12, 2007 (pdf, 41 KB)
• BARCLAYS EXECUTIVE EARNS 1,000 TIMES AVERAGE WAGE, William Rees-Mogg (formerly Editor-in Chief of The Times, London), The Daily Reckoning Australia, March 29, 2007. Lord Rees-Mogg has been credited with accurately forecasting glasnost, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the 1987 stock market crash. He refers to THE PURITAN GIFT as an ‘excellent new book’. (pdf, 15 KB)

The CEO is an American invention. There is no real counterpart ... in the management of any country.

Peter F. Drucker, author of the bestseller, The Practice of Management, who encouraged the authors to write THE PURITAN GIFT

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