John Henry Harvey-Jones was born in Hackney, London, but spent most of his early childhood in Dhar, India, where his father, Mervyn Stockton Harvey-Jones (né Harvey), a former Captain in the Indian Army … See more

Harvey-Jones joined Dartmouth Royal Naval College as a cadet in 1937, and in 1940, at the age of 16, he joined HMS Diomede as a midshipman. The next two ships that he served with, See more

Imperial Chemical Industries
Refused permission by the Royal Navy to spend more time with his wife and daughter Gaby, who had contracted polio, he resigned his commission in 1956 and joined Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) on Teesside See more

Described by The Guardian as one of the best-known British advocates of Transcendental Meditation, Harvey-Jones said, "I don't make a drama out of a crisis. If I gave it up now, my wife would leave me." Having lived most of his post-retirement period at See more

• In 1952 he was awarded a military MBE for his work in Naval Intelligence
• In 1985 he was voted Britain's most impressive industrialist by company directors interviewed for MORI's annual "Captains of Industry" survey See more

• All Together Now (1994), Heinemann (ISBN 0-7493-1960-7)
• Getting It Together: Memoirs of a trouble shooter (1991), Heinemann (ISBN 0-434-31377-7)
• Making It Happen: Reflections on leadership (1988), HarperCollins (ISBN 1-86197-691-7) See more