Grit, Rigour & Humour

Grit, Rigour & Humour

The INEOS Story

Summary

'Manual for success' The Athletic

With an opening chapter by Sir Jim Ratcliffe

To mark the 25th Anniversary of the founding of INEOS in 1998, seven leading specialist authors explore the main strands of INEOS's business, including its core chemical business to its ventures into sport, automotive, consumer goods, sustainability, next generation and philanthropy.

* Dominic O'Connell on INEOS' core petrochemicals and energy business
* Patrick Barclay on INEOS's involvement in sport from the America's Cup to cycling, athletics to Formula 1 and football
* Quentin Willson on the building of the Grenadier from scratch in response to the demise of the Land Rover Defender
* Steph McGovern on INEOS' move into the consumer goods sector with brands such as Belstaff and INEOS Hygienics, so vital during the pandemic
* Sean Keach on INEOS' journey to Net Zero and sustainable investment
* Lord Sebastian Coe on the vital importance of exercise for the next generation, with a particular focus on INEOS's worldwide children's exercise initiative, 'The Daily Mile', and the 'Forgotten 40', the 40% of the UK's young who are affected by a lack of basic resources to remain fit and healthy
* Sir Andrew Likierman on INEOS' philanthropic projects and investments

Grit, Rigour & Humour offers an extraordinary and balanced insight into the rise of one of the world's most successful companies, which produces the essential building blocks used in most of the products you use daily from medical products and packaging to electronics and transport, and has expanded rapidly over the past decade into one with interests in many diverse walks of life.

Reviews

  • The book tells us more about why Ratcliffe wants to buy Manchester United, how he would fund it and what an INEOS-run United would look like than anything produced in the past eight months of best-intentioned guesswork.
    The Athletic

About the authors

Sir Jim Ratcliffe

Sir Jim Ratcliffe began his career at Exxon Chemicals where he completed his MBA at the London Business School. He moved to Courtaulds and in 1992 led the successful buyout of Inspec Group plc. He left in 1998 to acquire INEOS plc from Inspec and has been chairman of INEOS ever since. Under Sir Jim's leadership, INEOS has grown to become one of the world's biggest chemicals companies, while also expanding into oil and gas, automotive, sport and consumer goods.
Learn More

Dominic O'Connell

Dominic O'Connell is the business presenter on Times Radio, having previously held the same with BBC Radio 4's Today programme. He also writes a business column for The Times and was previously business editor of the Sunday Times for six years.
Learn More

Quentin Willson

Quentin Willson is one of Britain's best-known motoring media faces. He presented BBC Two's Top Gear for fifteen years along with Channel 5's Britain's Worst Driver, The Classic Car Show and BBC Two's The Car's the Star.
Learn More

Patrick Barclay

Patrick Barclay began his career in football writing with the Guardian in Manchester in the mid-1970s, a few years after Sir Matt Busby had relinquished management and joined the Manchester United board. Barclay became one of Sir Matt's many acquaintances in the newspaper world and in 1994, having moved to the Observer by way of the Independent, attended the unforgettable match against Everton at Old Trafford that swiftly followed the great man's death. In that year Barclay was voted Britain's leading sports writer.

He later worked for the Sunday Telegraph, The Times and the Evening Standard in London before retiring from regular journalism at the end of his tenth European Championship in 2016. He covered nine World Cups. Barclay has written acclaimed biographies of Sir Matt's successors Sir Alex Ferguson (Football - Bloody Hell!) and Jose Mourinho (Further Anatomy of a Winner) and is also the author of The Life and Times of Herbert Chapman.
Learn More

Sebastian Coe

Lord Sebastian Coe is the president of World Athletics, where he is serving his second term, and non-executive chairman of CSM Sport & Entertainment. As an athlete, he won Olympic gold medals in the 1500 metres in 1980 and 1984 and set twelve middle-distance world records.
Learn More

Andrew Likierman

Sir Andrew Likierman was dean of the London Business School for ten years from 2008 to 2017. He has also been a non-executive director for the Bank of England as well as Barclays, Beazley and the market research firm MORI.
Learn More

Sean Keach

Sean Keach is one of the world's leading technology and science journalists, with over a decade of experience in the media industry. He is currently head of science and technology at the Sun and the U.S. Sun.
Learn More

Steph McGovern

Award-winning broadcaster Steph McGovern is the presenter of the eponymous Steph's
Packed Lunch
, broadcast daily on Channel 4. Prior to this, Steph worked in financial
journalism for over fifteen years and spent seven years as part of the BBC Breakfast family.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more