CCL4
INFLUENCE THROUGH THE IEE
Monday, 2nd January 1967
By the first post I received my modular construction article from Gordon Edge along with his very best wishes.
At 1000 Tim Eiloart 'phoned - I was out, buying for a filing cabinet. At 1130 Tedworth, CCL’s accountant, phoned. Sheila answered the call and when I came to the phone, Tedworth immediately passed it over to Tim Eiloart, who was full of puzzlement as to how a misunderstanding could have arisen. He thought the statement in his letter of the 29th was quite accurate though it may have left some things out. I read him out the list of points I had made and told him these were quite different. I hadn’t asked him for Board minutes, etc. - I had been receiving these anyway.
I told him I had decided to clear up matters by taking strong action including, if necessary, a court case. He said I wouldn't get any definite results from that course for two years. I said I wasn't interested in damages but in bringing everything out into the open.
I brought up the question of misleading statements. He said why rake all that up from the past? I said he knew from the outset my views on manipulation. I told him that part of the trouble was that I had a very good memory for detail.
He asked about the statement in my letter about the impossibility of going on. I said I had left the door open to continue on the basis indicated in the second paragraph of my letter. He then, at his request, discussed the Livingston negotiations and then, at the end of the call he said "See you at the IEE on the 4th".
Tuesday 3rd January 1967
I received a letter of 2nd January from Tim Eiloart (thus far I cannot find it).
Later in the day, I learned that AIM had paid a visit to NPL, that Dr.H.A. Gebbie, who was one of the speakers at the meeting I was chairing the following day had been greatly impressed and it had been arranged that he would show the AIM equipment at the meeting. I protested that as chairman of the meeting I should have been consulted.
I contacted Regan at the IEE and Gebbie at NPL. I told Gebbie I had an association with AIM and that I did not wish to promote AIM through IEE meetings. He agreed not to refer to AIM in particular but to indicate it as an example of equipment needed for the apparatus he was describing, which was modular sub-millimetre wave apparatus.
Wednesday 4th January 1967
Sometime around now I received the January 1967 (“Power Game”) edition of Interface, CCL’s House journal. I quite enjoyed reading each issue even when I was certain that some of its contents were slanted at me, i.e. it was being used as another means of indirect influence. I think it was in the January 1967 issue that there was a snakes and ladders game, describing falls down snakes leading to climbs up career ladders to a much higher level than before.
Adrian
Horne, CCL’s Commercial Director, wrote this day to CCL's Management group
that my tenure was dependent on outcome of negotiations with Advance
Electronics for the licence or sale of CCL/AIM designs.
I chaired the meeting on "Modular Construction" at the IEE. Gebbie did as I had asked him - several months later, during a VIP visit I paid to NPL, Gebbie apologised if he had caused me any embarrassment.
Tim Eiloart spoke in the Discussion about hawks and doves, needing people to thrust forward with the concept of modular instrumentation, etc. There were three people from CCL/AIM there. They were greatly complimentary about the meeting - "the best IEE meeting I have ever been to" - I thought it was a satisfactory but not outstanding meeting. Afterwards Tim Eiloart hung around silent as though expecting me to say something, an approach he had adopted on several previous occasions.
This incident confirmed yet again that CCL was determined to exploit me, were underhand about it and were not to be trusted. It led to my thinking how I could dissociate my name from my services.
Friday 6th January 1967
At CCL the Advance progress review took place with a not too happy outcome. I was not present.
Monday 9th January 1967
At home I got on with CCL work on Discounted Cash Flow, Company Formation, Board Minutes and Negotiations.
Tuesday 10th January 1967
CCL Board meeting (not present). Topics covered included NPL, NRDC and Computer Technology.
In the evening I attended an IEE Measurements Dinner at the Café Royal. As what occurred at the Dinner had a link to CCL I am including this narrative in the foreground rather than as background material.
Immediately I entered the dining suite, I was informed that I was to join. the VIP party. This included the IEE President (Jack Ratcliffe), the Chairmen of two of the Divisions of the IEE, a Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Technology, Edmund Dell, M.P. and the IEE Secretary, George Gainsborough. Over aperitifs I talked with the Parliamentary Secretary about the IEE in general and about my own IEE activities. IEE Secretary George Gainsborough made some cryptic comments about wine as he accompanied me to take our places at dinner.
My seat was in a quite prestigious position (10) on
top table (A). The table plan showed a Professor Westcott, Vice-Chairman
of a Division, on one side of me and a person I understood to be a senior
MinTech official (J.W.Nichols) on the other. However, someone had
switched name cards and instead of the MinTech man I had the Sales Manager
of an instrument company (W. Bamford of Hilger and Watts) beside me.
I was by this time on the lookout for deliberately introduced topics and in this category I learned as the dinner proceeded that Mr. Bamford once lived in Harpenden and that there was a local Director of Barclays Bank living in Harpenden who knew who the up and coming people were, who to back and so on. In like manner, Professor Westcott spoke enthusiastically about running a very small instrument company. He added that he was Chairman of such a company, to his great joy and pleasure.
During the speechmaking, the President (who had been a colleague at the Cavendish Laboratory) referred to me as deputising for the Chairman of the Electronics Division. This was news to me and naturally I was very pleased. At the end of the speechmaking, as he led the way out down half the length of the top table he paused when he got to me and said I should not find it too difficult to puzzle out what he had in mind.
A different meaning to the one Jack Ratcliffe had in mind became clear at CCL 10 days later.
Friday 13th January 1967
It was reported in the Management Committee Minutes that CCL wrote this day to Copisarow at McKinsey, the St. James's Street consultancy (No.76?, close to what became Mark Masons' Hall). It was exactly a year since the fraught Measurements Dinner, which I attended the day after I had signed the resignation agreement at M.I. Was he involved with the McKinsey project which, I had been informed in 1965, had identified me with the Office of Chairman in the English Electric Group?
Wednesday 18th January 1967
Cryptic comments about Company Chairmen after an IEE meeting on Design
Thursday 19th January 1967
There was a reply from Copisarow to CCL. I did not see it.
Friday 20th January 1967
To AIM/CCL, Cambridge. I was told that CCL was having difficulties with its bank and how good it would be if someone of influence could put in a good word for them . . . . . Their bank was Barclays! The meaning of the message at the Measurement Dinner 10 days before was now apparent. I had discovered there was indeed an Area Director of Barclays residing in Harpenden but I did not approach him on CCL's behalf.
Clearly on 10th January there had been much stage-management behind the scenes, aimed at both encouraging me in the IEE and influencing me to become more closely involved with CCL/AIM. Perhaps the most significant feature of the Dinner, however, was that there was more than one source of behind-the-scenes activity. It is very likely that what the IEE President had in mind and all he thought was being signalled was that I was in line to become the Chairman of a Division, if not more. The same goes for the Secretary, who must have assisted him. The switching of table places, with the Barclays 'plug' and the highly significant "small instrument company" input of Professor Westcott, shows that there was another layer of influence operating beneath the surface of which they would be unaware.
A "Top 10 Priorities" paper I had been working on at the request of CCL was issued.
I decided to try a little reverse pressure and sent in a bill for £40 per day. There was no response. I later explained that I had compounded work on more than one day so that the rate remained the same.
THE DAY OF MAXIMUM SNIDE
Wednesday 1st February l967
This was what I called the Day of Maximum Snide. I had devised a Snide Index to cope with the many ploys directed at me. Regrettably I have no record of the marking system.
When I arrived at CCL, I found everything prepared for maximum inducement to join them. My desk had been polished and a comfortable armchair provided in place of the utility chair I had used up till then. A sexy calendar had been fixed to the wall nearby and a CCL diary with my initials thereon in gold letters was on the desk. Another particularly nice touch was that for the first time three members of the staff were wearing IEE ties.
There was a report of negotiations with a Mr. Hendon of Telomex, a physicist who had built up a small instrument business into a large successful Company, saying how excellent AIM was etc. There was an indication from a report of a meeting that NRDC (National Research & Development Corporation) might inject capital. A letter from STAL (the teaching apparatus company I had been associated with while at M.I.) and a copy of “Small World” (about Tim Eiloart’s balloon adventure) lay around.
During the day there was talk of AIM Electronics going into the Very Low Frequency field which I had advocated at M.I. and there was much talk of visits to the USA and other places abroad. An ex-Muirhead representative had been engaged by AIM. The expansionist policies of AIM were stressed. I was asked to fix the date of my next visit.
To cap it all there was a
cutting on the notice board entitled “The Thoughts of Chairman Harold”.
It was a cutting from the Daily Express of Friday January 20th 1967 - it
was of course about Harold Wilson but given the context and the past
history of items on the notice board at CCL there is little room for doubt
that Harold Beck was the reason it was displayed.
The ISI (Integrated Snide Index) for the day was as high as 62! I hope - indeed I am fairly confident - that the ISI scheme allowed deductions of marks for humour for it must be said that there was something quite enjoyably amusing about The Day's events. The atmosphere was ecstatic but it did not impress me for being stage-managed. I would of course now call the day's inputs as a series of PEPS.
I do not think that at that time I had read Schein's paper on Management Development in Leavitt & Pondy's Managerial Psychology but when I did I recognised the "saturate the environment with the message to be received" technique.
Monday 6th February 1967
Meanwhile to deter CCL from misusing my name I had registered myself as a business rejoicing in the name Product and Managerial Policy Consultants. PMPC came into existence on this day and I asked CCL to use it instead of my name from now on in billing or in publicity about my involvement with CCL. No notice was taken of my request.
Saturday 25th February 1967
I commenced approaches to selected individuals to reveal what had happened at M.I., find out what was going on and where appropriate to enlist their help. The first meeting of this kind was with Gordon Edge in Cambridge (I was en route to an Alma Mater Lodge meeting) to see if could glean anything about what was happening behind the scenes at CCL. We had a pleasant meeting but I gleaned nothing.
Monday 27th February 1967
In the morning I went to see A.B. Eiloart, Tim Eiloart’s father and a Director of CCL, at his home in Kensington. I showed him the yellow page papers I had shown to Sir Gordon Radley but I do not think he took in their content. One pointed remark made by A.B. Eiloart during our conversation was that a Sunday paper had tipped Mr. Maxwell as next Minister of Power. He also greatly commended Maxwell for having a card index covering every scientist and engineer in Britain.
I lunched with Percy Dunsheath at the Atheneum. During the lunch and in conversation afterwards he went out of his way to ensure that he didn't read any of the yellow-page documents I had with me. He had clearly been warned in advance.
Saturday 4th March 1967
M.I. forwards Career Development with friends on Board
Monday 6th March 1967
Tuesday 7th March 1967
CCL Board at Pergamon HQ (not present). As usual I received the Minutes. Evidently, Robert Maxwell thought that CCL had too diverse a range of interests.
Wednesday 8th March 1967
Urgent invitation by M.I.'s John Brodrick
Sudden interest by M.I. explained
Thursday 9th March 1967
AIM Management meeting (not present). Interestingly English Electric and Marconi - but not M.I. - people were offering to work for CCL. Thus it was reported that Mr. Eric Fearon, late of the English Electric, had offered to work for AIM Electronics (a Mr. E. Fearon later joined Business Publications Ltd). A few days before Col Elford - ex Head of Marconi London - offered to work for AIM.
CCL Management meeting (not present). My sales forecast for AIM Electronics was achieved exactly - I was suspicious about this because in the last week of the forecast period a substantial gap between the actual and forecast figures was bridged by an order from an RAF friend. There was nothing wrong with that but in the normal course of events I would have expected such an order to be much later in the development of AIM Electronics and to be among hundreds of other orders rather than one among just a few.
Bearing in mind that my social contacts had been well charted I saw a possible hidden hand of influence at work. I therefore took no encouragement from what had occurred because the same behind-the-scenes processes which brought a favourable result could equally well be used to produce an adverse outcome.
Wednesday 15th March 1967
I continued visiting CCL, helping in a number of areas, taking part in meetings etc. and when necessary making it clear that I was an independent consultant providing services to them. I was being sent all the Minutes of Management and Board meetings and given the tasks one would associate with a part- time Chairman.
Around this time Gordon Edge visited me in Harpenden and begged me (that is not too strong a word) to act as his alternate on the CCL Board while he was in the USA. He said that his future and that of his wife depended on my agreement. Much as I liked Gordon Edge I felt bound to refuse. For some reason it was essential for CCL to have me as a Director or failing that to give the appearance that I was a Director and I felt I could not go along with whatever bargain had been struck about me without my knowledge or whatever deception was being practiced. If someone - including Gordon - had come clean about what was happening, as from time to time I had encouraged them so to do, my response might have been very different.
Monday 20th March 1967
CCL meeting with Copisarow. I was not present. A remark by Copisarow that the “Exception that proves the rule” was recorded in the Minutes.
Wednesday 22nd March 1967
It was probably around this time that the Academic Sheep & Research Goats paper by Liam Hudson (which had been published in New Society in October 1964) was pointedly drawn to my attention by Tim Eiloart.
Thursday 30th March 1967
I was concerned to see a CCL Minute that an offer was to be made to Mr. A. Popple. Some weeks before, when Tim Eiloart mentioned John Coales, who was then a Reader in the Engineering Laboratory, I spoke favourably of him and also of his University Assistant, Mr. A. Popple. I was becoming aware of a management development practice in which movement between departments or organisations is facilitated by transferring staff of whom the manager approves to the destination department. I had come across the practice at M.I. Soon A. Popple joined Cambridge Consultants, as it happens just after I severed all connection. I later heard that he was dismissed by CCL.
March/April 1967
Shortly after I commenced my revelations Interface, the CCL house magazine, reproduced an article on muck and smells. The article was headed:-
CAN RAW MUCK BE SOLD?
Excerpt from a report presented at the International Poultry Show on Poultry Waste Disposal and reprinted here as an allegory.
Tuesday 4th April 1967
CCL Board meeting. Gordon Edge's visit to States. Proposals were received for a merger of CCL with a company called B.E.E.Co. to handle a possible manufacturing contract from the Litton Group, a large U.S. conglomerate. M.J. de R. Richardson of Panmure Gordon seemed to be the driving force behind this and Mr. Maxwell was at that time very enthusiastic. Later, however, the proposals were dropped.
Friday 21st April 1967
Entry in my diary, in Sheila's handwriting: 7.30 Take wife to cinema! The darling! It was a terrible time for her.
Tuesday 25th April 1967
I must have thought that Tim Eiloart genuinely held
the adverse views he had expressed of Lord Nelson for I remember being
quite surprised when he told me he had written to "Project" praising Lord
Nelson. His letter had appeared on the OPINION page. I got hold of a copy of the relevant issue (Spring
1967) and saw that he had indeed made comments on Lord Nelson and which
seemed to be favourable. They were as follows:-
The article on Lord Nelson was defensive about his being his father's son almost to the point of satire. I'm afraid it made him seem a much less able man than he is. If one wants to defend the position of someone who inherits an empire then maybe it is best to show how immensely he enlarged it. This may well not be an isolated instance. But this does not diminish his achievement.
CCL Management meeting. Growth proposals to be submitted by HVB.
Thursday 11th May 1967
Attended a UNESCO meeting in Paris.
Friday 12th May 1967
I had a 30-minute conversation with de Vitri in Paris.
PARTING FROM CCL
Friday 26th May 1967
I replied to a letter (untraced) from Tim Eiloart giving my comments on CCL and I also received a copy of a letter from Tim Eiloart to Pope of Advance about a new agreement. No doubt these communications prompted me to seek clarification from Robert Maxwell himself and I therefore wrote to him at Headington Hill Hall, Oxford.
Dear Mr. Maxwell,
I wonder if I might see you for fifteen minutes or so to
discuss my position vis a vis Cambridge Consultants, Ltd.
As you probably know, CCL offered me a post, or rather several
posts. I am not quite sure
how the matter lies, with the prospect of the association of B.E.E.Co. and
CCL, but your own views would considerably influence any further steps
that might be taken in the matter.
I very much look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
Tuesday 30th May 1967
It was probably on this day that Tim Eiloart said apropos of nothing, that Michael Richardson of B.E.E.Co (nothing to do with M.J. de R. of Panmure Gordon) had been to see Maxwell, had not managed to get a word in edgeways and had left very much discomfited. I had not told anyone about my request to see Robert Maxwell - clearly, Tim Eiloart had been contacted and had probably vetoed my request and his 'message' about Richardson's experience was probably intended to discourage me in my efforts to obtain an interview with Robert Maxwell.
Thursday 8th June 1967
Undermining of job applications continuing
Tuesday 13th June 1967
I
had just completed a viability assessment of CCL projects using a
Discounted Cash Flow method. Tim Eiloart had been particularly anxious
for me to be present at CCL on this day - he said there was some vital
matter coming up and he wished to have me on hand to advise him. Soon
after I arrived I discovered that the vital matter was that John Coales
was coming to lunch and I was deemed to be just the person to look after
him. I decided I would have no more of these subterfuges and contrived
contacts with friends and former colleagues. I left, without saying a
word to anyone, before John Coales arrived. In a last symbolic act I took
the coffee mug with Harold Beck glazed upon it with me. I never returned.
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