Sir Kenneth Olisa | Extraordinary Life Stories

0:12Sir Kenneth Alisa, thank you for joining me. Good morning, good morning. Been looking forward to this. Great. Well, let's hope I don't let you down. No, I know you won't. Tell me, who is Sir Kenneth Alisa? Well, clearly it's the chap sitting opposite you, in case you thought it went wrong at reception. I got that right. Phew. Well, it's a very long story, really. I am an IT entrepreneur. It's probably the best way to describe it. Having spent the first half of my working life in real companies and then the rest abandoning working for real companies and helping other people survive in making money out of their dreams, really.

0:47But adding to the world, I have to say the people I work with are generally people who want to make the world a better place. And whatever it is they've invented, discovered, intended to do is driving in that direction. And it's what I do as well. So I'm very lucky. I'm very privileged. I spend my time essentially making people happy. This morning may be an exception, but in general cases, that's what I do. You've got a great sense of humor. So back to a younger version of Ken, the early influences of who and what that's kind of inspired you to be able to now help people and do the things you're doing.

1:20Well, obviously the earliest influence, my mother, my father had abandoned us soon after I was born. So I never knew him. So my mother was my sole parent. My mother had a very strong view of life, which I think simply put now, when I look back on it, was you should try everything, but only carry on with the things you're good at. So music, for example, she thought I'd be a brilliant musician. So she managed to scratch the money together to buy a piano. I went to piano lessons. I was useless at it. We agreed that actually I could stop doing that, but I had to try. Sports was the same, et cetera, et cetera.

1:52So I think that deep down inside of me is this realization that one should have a go at things, as opposed to working out why one shouldn't have a go at things. Which actually breeds the entrepreneurial spirit, doesn't it? A lot of people are afraid of failing or judgment, so they won't try. Yeah. In my experience, I have no fear of failure. I've failed so many times. It's just become a habit. But I think that idea that you should have a go at things that, well, actually everything, because you don't know until you've tried whether, A, you're going to enjoy it, B, whether you're going to be any good at it.

2:22and I think one of the big disappointments in my life is meeting people who refuse to try something and one of the biggest killers is oh no that's not for people like you which is other people telling you you shouldn't try something my mother was the antidote to all of that so I think the platform on which I'm proud to stand is definitely my mum and all that she did for me one of the other things I'm I've been really lucky so many people have gone out of their way to help me I I look back on my childhood. We were very poor. And I didn't know what not being poor was like. So we were very poor in this life.

2:54But people nevertheless went out of their way to help me. Not my mum either, particularly me. There was something about me that people wanted to help. And I can point back to a small boy all the way to yesterday. People were saying, actually, Ken, if I could help you do this, would you enjoy it? And I think one of the big lessons I've learned in life is there is a lot of luck about. and so many people diss the luck as opposed to welcoming it and the second thing I would say and probably the only other thing I can honestly say about my skill is not screwing up the luck when it comes. Embrace it.

3:29Yeah absolutely. Do you believe you make your own luck because there's a mindset there you know and you're clearly giving something off that people want to help you and I guess that's you know something that people are not necessarily embracing and shut off to so do Do you believe that you make your own luck? No, I think, no, I don't actually. I think luck is, by definition, something that happens to you. You can't create it. But you can screw up your luck. You can say, actually, I'm not going to try that. I'm not going to do that. Back to my mum, actually, no, what you should do is you try these things.

3:57And if they work, whoopee. And if they don't work, that's okay. You try. So luck turns up and you go, oh, I'm not really sure about that. He was slightly dodgy. But I met a bloke this morning who claimed to be a property developer. I really want to. The answer is, I don't know. Go meet people, find out, make judgments. Make judgments after you've got the evidence. Don't do it too soon. But so many people will say, no, no, not for me. And the worst things I've just said is other people saying it's not for you. This world is not for people like you. And that's such a killer. Yeah. And you've proven that.

4:28I think we were talking off camera about who's the audience that listens to this? Is it a young person who's aspirational inspiration, learning from someone like yourself? but of course there are there are people like myself that have pivoted and actually had to start again or chosen to start again embracing a challenge and I think this this brings up to growth you know you sitting here now are fully engaged and present talking talking to people all the time and learning that doesn't feel like you'll ever stop is that how you've always lived and is that how you see yourself kind of almost ending like still working on the next opportunity to the next deal because you're very relevant right now.

5:05Well, thank you. I'm very glad I came to see you this morning. This is going rather well. I'm so old, I can't remember what I used to be like. What was I like at school? I didn't really know what I was like at school. School was a bit of a mystery to me, as I think it should be. Every day was a new lesson, something learned, etc. But I do remember teachers going out of their way to help me, to push me, to persuade me to do something. I went to a great university and again, people there went, friends, both in the next room would spend time helping me do something else. So it's my point about luck, isn't it?

5:38There's some magnetic thing that makes me want to help me. I think it's purpose. I'm living in real time with you now, meeting you, right? There's a genuine interest. You asked me lots of questions before we started filming. You've got questions all the time in your mind about me and why am I asking this? I've got more questions about you now than I had to start. And I bet there'll be a whole separate interview after this. But what I'm picking up on is that you show an interest as a conversation develops with something you're looking into. And I want to bring that whole purpose side of things up.

6:07What's your purpose now and how has that changed? Because when you introduced yourself, it was about helping people, about passions there. Dare I say an element of mentorship that you may well not have had from not having a father figure when you were younger. Your mother made up for it in spades, clearly. But that element of them being able to give back feels hugely present about you. Well, it certainly is. We have a family motto. My wife and I conjured up a family motto in the place where you do family mottos and coats of arms and so on, which is another amazing thing that would have been unimaginable when I was a small boy or even at school or university.

6:43But our motto is do well, do good. Do well is what my mum said. Get on with it. Do your best, et cetera. But do good is the other side of that coin. And I mean, we get a thrill out of helping other people. There are people I know get a threat of harming other people so it's not universal but I'm pleased to say I'm on the good end of that of that particular spectrum so I get a threat of helping people and you know what then they get a threat of being helped and it's a it's a win-win so I would I call that purpose probably I suppose I would have under pressure but up until now it's my motto you've not labeled I didn't mean to label it but I think you've also been recognized for that OBE knight of the realm you know that's something that going back to I can tell there's a very humble young boy in Kent, you know, who clearly had ambition but didn't know how well you were going to do.

7:31Do you recognise, sitting here now, those achievements and are you kind of proud of them or they just sort of almost happened along the way? So I think, no, I should be proud of what's happened. But the way I express that is probably better put by saying I frequently find myself in situations where I have to pinch myself. How on earth did this boy who started out in the back streets of Nottingham end up in, I don't know, sitting by the altar in Westminster Abbey at the coronation. How on earth does that happen? I have to pinch myself. So I don't take my luck for granted. It's very precious. And it's quite an important point.

8:09You know, I'm digging deep into me here. But it is a very important point, which is so many people feel that they are entitled. And entitled people are, I think, the kiss of death for society and for community and so on. I know one of the great things I get to do in my capacity as Lord Lieutenant Greater London, the King's representative in the capital city, is I get to present honours to people who've been recommended by other people for what they've done. The British Empire Medal is the first level of the order of the British Empire, and I present perhaps 60 or 70 British Empire Medals at two investitures a year in the Tower of London in a very formal, very important, it's a mini version and what would happen if you went to the palace, really.

8:52So it's terrifying if everybody arrives until they've got their medal and they've seen all the other people and heard the other things, the things that other people have done. And then they skip out, off to lunch with their loved ones who they no longer want to murder, whatever, divorce, et cetera, because the day has now gone really rather well. Whereas at the beginning of the day, it starts under pressure because you're late, your clothes don't fit. It's really quite scary. But that change from terror to joy is a really important thing. And I get to present these medals to people and to watch them be transformed from anger because the train was late, panic because their shoes don't fit, to skipping out with their loved ones to go and have lunch.

9:30And every one of them has done something worthy of the monarch's recognition. And it will have been 50 years running a swimming club for disabled people. I mean, just wonderful, wonderful things. and I look at that and I see that that's the essence of society and community and humanity and so on and those aren't people who are even privileged really they just got on with it and then I meet people who consider themselves to be entitled and and I detest them I have to say to summarize a longer point and and I'm happy not to be there and I'm very happy to be privileged enough to be able to make other people feel happy.

10:06I really want to come back to I can only imagine how lovely that experience must be for people that have done so much good and then to be awarded and honoured by you as an individual, let alone the principle of what's happening, because you've got so much empathy, you've got so much charisma and understanding. So that must be fair. But I want to touch on ego, because you sit with huge credentials as an IT entrepreneur and you are mentoring and helping people in the space of entrepreneurship as well, ego is something that really needs to be managed, doesn't it? Because if that person feels entitled or thinks they've got a magic gift to build a unicorn business, I guess that takes some managing.

10:51And you've got to work out how, I guess, to advise and mentor that. What advice would you give to someone that's ambitious, driven, a dare I say wants to make money but also needs to have that side of things managed with compassion the smart and answers that question is all of the answers that question lie in my as yet unpublished book on how to be an successful mission addicted disruptor entrepreneur my the my clientele are people who are obsessed with doing something that they think will make the world a better place they're not obsessed by making money it's it's I can say with all of my clients for all of my clients making money is a consequence of this thing they're trying to make happen and and it doesn't drive them i've got i've got one one particular company i'm chairman who raised 100 million dollars in the last three years the chief executive keeps saying i don't i don't really think that my pay is right my remuneration is right but you know we'll have to sort it out next year because at the moment so his focus is on the mission of this business this dream he's got this holy grail this focus and all of my clients it's not a huge number of my clients are all people who've got a holy grail vision, and that holy grail will make the world a better place, whatever it is that they've invented.

12:02So I find that very fulfilling. I've worked in the past. I've worked for big companies. I've worked for IBM in my formative time. And maybe the people at the top were trying to make the world a better place. I obviously didn't meet them. I was a junior at the time. But it was a company, and it had all the things that companies have with people who don't really understand why they're working there. They're not doing it for the purpose. They're not trying to change something. It's a job. they gave them at 5 or 4.59 or something. Really, really frustrating. I'm happy to say I don't have to deal with anybody like that now.

12:33I deal with people that will do 24-7, five days a week until they've got the effing thing to work or the thing to be bought or whatever it happens to be. And that's, again, very, very uplifting because that's how mankind progresses. It's people that say, I'm obsessed with making some fundamental difference. And I get the privilege of saying, well, I tried that 20 years ago and here's how I screwed up. Here's perhaps a better way of tackling it. Perfect mentor again. And I think you'll agree with this. I've got my own personal experiences as well. There's actually that fulfillment and, again, purpose and passion for what you're pursuing.

13:06The money will come. Yeah. I remember when I worked, I was responsible for running marketing, the big IT company in America. So it was the best possible job. If you had a job in IT and marketing, you know that everything comes from America. So basically, if you're not in America, you're at the wrong end of the fire hose. And one day, it was my fire hose. So I was in seventh heaven, and I discovered how to get advertising campaigns on TV in America to work. It was all wonderful. One day, my stockbroker, I had a stockbroker in those days, called me up to say, great news, we've just sold XYZ shares and made a decent profit.

13:41And I said, well, that's brilliant. And he said, you're not interested in money, are you? So that's an insult, right? That's a bit like saying you have a small personal part. No, not a good idea. So I said, of course I am. Why do you say that? He said, well, you never ring me. I said, well, I don't need to ring. You ring me when there's something to tell me. What would I ring you about? He said, well, you could ring me about things we might do to make you more money. So I said, well, but I'm quite happy for you to work those out without, I don't know, I've got anything to add. If I knew how to do it, I said, I wouldn't need you.

14:08He said, I'm very happy for you to get on. I trust you. Yo, President, I trust you. We deal with that. He said, no, you're not interested in money. So I'm now insulted. And I said, well, hang on, hang on. We bought those shares. I agreed with the purchase. We've just sold them. I made some money. I'm delighted. and he said famously, even blind squirrels find nuts occasionally. Put the phone down. And I remember thinking, hmm, I didn't really win that argument. I have to say, none of my clients, none of my clients cares about how much money they make. They know they will. It's a consequence or something.

14:39But they're trying to, I've got an AI client, change the world. The$100 million one is to change the way that we connect public companies with the economic beneficiary. despite all the fund managers and people in between them. And this chap wants to democratise share ownership. And when he's done that, he doesn't know what he'll do next. He has a plan. He'll do something else. But he hasn't done that yet. So these people are really exhilarating, really, because we spend our time talking about how we can make the world better. It's beginning to sound a bit hokey, this, but it's true. All these people, and I've been doing it for 20-something years, all of these people are trying to make sure that their legacy will be this place was better than when I started.

15:19What a great legacy as well. That's fascinating. And actually, you manage something that these guys have got to go through, which is that exiting as an entrepreneur and having a purpose that you move into. And I think you're the perfect person to have that as a mentor because there are people that sell a business for 100 million and then get depressed. It was all about the money. It was all about a vision, an image that actually money doesn't make you happy. And I think you're what an amazing mentor and partner to have for these people when they go through that journey. It is worth saying, money does make some people happy.

15:53So some people, money is their objective. They're just not my clientele. It's just not my world. Well, we both use the word fulfillment. I know that's what I was lacking. And it's clear you've got that from conversations this morning. You've got that from whatever you'll end up doing this afternoon. And that's the same for me. Right, I want to get the terminology right. Lord left tenant. Well done. Greater London. Yep, 10 out of 10. Well done. Thank you. which means that you are ultimately incredibly close to the king. And I want to know the journey. I want to know how that came about. How did you become Lord Lieutenant Greater London?

16:27And what almost is the job role? So you put that far better than most people do. So many people say to me, how on earth did you become Lord Lieutenant? So thank you. I take that as a compliment. You absolutely should. Thank you. I mean, first of all, what is a Lord Lieutenant? It's a very ancient, it's a very old position. So King Henry VIII introduced the concept of Lord Lieutenants, and essentially back then they were the military governor in a county. So the Lord Lieutenant of, say, Lincolnshire would have raised the army and quelled riots in Lincolnshire. In fact, the Lord Lieutenant of Lincolnshire would have raised the army, the militia for Lincolnshire, right up until the early 20th century.

17:05So it's got that long military connection. If you were to come to my office, you see the photographs of all my predecessors for Greater London. it's basically field marshal, field marshal, field marshal, field marshal, field marshal, field marshal, field marshal. You get the general idea? Field marshal, field marshal. And my predecessor was the law mayor of London and his predecessor was the head of the police and all the rest were essentially, with one exception, field marshals. So you get the historic piece there that once upon a time it was about upholding the dignity of the crown by quelling the riot and raising the militia.

17:37In the 21st century, upholding the dignity of the crown means something quite different, obviously. We have the Metropolitan Police for the riot quelling, and we've outsourced recruiting the militia to various agencies. So that's a subject for another time, perhaps. But upholding the dignity of the crown remains fundamentally important. Sadly, in our country, people just take the crown of the monarch for granted. And to my depression, there's a lot of misunderstanding about how our system, our social system works. For example, the constitution. People say, well, we haven't really got one. We've got an unwritten constitution.

18:11Well, we have obviously got a constitution. America's got a written constitution, and they're fighting all the time. So the writing, not writing, isn't the important bit. The important bit is that people behave because they are the rules of the game, as it were. And at the top of that pyramid of what we have to do in the country is the monarch. Mao the king, before that, his mother, the queen. And part of what they do, the monarch, is to be the repository of our national values. so things that go well for example we're just talking about handing out honors presenting honors you know somebody says this person spent 75 i gave a british empire medal to a management 70 years volunteering for the scouts some people get together and say you know what this is a symbol of what's great about our country our values and this person should be recognized they fill out a form the form goes into a system i if it's in london get to look at it as well and see whether we can find any more out about the person.

19:04It goes into a committee, the committee then makes a recommendation, and eventually the monarch signs off the fact that that person now becomes a member of the British Empire. That process is part of binding our society, because the chap I just mentioned actually was a Greek Cypriot who moved here 60 years ago, having spent 10 years in Cyprus helping the scouts, and then devoted his private time to helping the scouts in this country. uh it's another great story just another quick story but there's a a nepotese man who came over here um gurkha family etc and started a restaurant an indian restaurant and then covid hit and covid hit suddenly he didn't have a restaurant it's a great story because i gave him an award for what he had done but he called his mother back in nepal and said mum it's all gone wrong we haven't got we haven't come any customers covid's blown it up we're closing the business and she said we don't exist to close businesses, we exist to build them.

20:00So that was the end of that. He then had to work out what to do where there were no customers. And he turned his restaurant into a dark kitchen and made 100 ,000 meals, which he was then given free to NHS workers in COVID. So somebody who didn't grow up here but got our value, did something, and he then, this last weekend, got an MBE. So the king, the monarch, has said that person, on advice, that person deserves to be recognized. It's a wonderful system. Brilliant. And I get to be privileged enough to pin these medals on the chests of people. Very humbling. Thank you. Oh, it is amazing. I remember the first Holocaust survivor I presented a medal to in the story, hiding in a hole in a forest somewhere in, it doesn't matter where, but in Eastern Europe where the Nazis are looking.

20:49I mean, these people, what did this lady do? She turned her life into going to school and to talk children about evil and good and what they should do. So the king is at the top of that pyramid and the queen before that, the top of that pyramid. And I'm lucky enough in London to be his representative to try to find ways to amplify that. And I do it through faith groups, helping faith groups. I do it through other community things, the military, the cadets, and, and, and. And I spend a good third of my time basically thanking people and making them happy. brilliant again come back to fulfillment it's wonderful and how much actual interaction do you have with the king himself well every time he comes to london on a formal visit i'm there to receive him make sure that well i'm there before he gets there obviously to make sure that anything's set up properly i'm there to receive him to make sure all goes okay and i then get to say goodbye to him when he goes so i see him two or three times a month i suppose and there are lots of events at which i see him as well and because of who you are as a personality you aren't someone that just chaperones.

21:51You have such incredible relationship skills. Have you got to know the king well? Because I can imagine without, can I call it a friendship? I can imagine that's what it must be. No, I'm sure not. I mean, you think about how many people he has to see every day. But do I fairly trust me? Yeah, I mean, I can tell a story. I don't think this is spoiling anything. The Met Police Commissioner told me that he, just after all the riots happened a couple of years ago in the UK, you would like the king to do say something about about multi-faith relationships and did he did I think that's a good idea I said well it is a good idea and if I get a chance to mention it in the next week or so I will and I did and the king said that's a really good idea and he called a meeting of 45 people for all different faiths in Buckingham Palace and we sat three different tables one focusing on on that's right on the women one focusing on young people one focusing and communities generally, and we debated amongst ourselves what the messages ought to be, what were the real pinch points.

22:52And then the king came in, he spent 10 minutes or so at each table listening to us, and his Christmas speech that year was all about interfaith relationships. Really important. Now, I claim no credit. It was the commissioner's idea. I just happened to be the messenger in the whole process. But my point of that story isn't about me. It's about how the system works. It's about the fact that we've got somebody in the country who's not political, is not a celebrity, is a repository of values, and helps us all look at something. And we see that. We see the way the royal family, particularly the late queen and the king, are celebrated by the people.

23:27It's so uplifting. In one sense, it's ridiculous. Try and explain logically why having a monarch makes sense. Actually, try and explain logically why having politicians make sense. Actually, nothing we do is really logical, but somehow it's visceral. It's anthropological. court and seeing that whole system work and and the king and the queen the current queen you know they're doing this all day every day all over the country he did a day trip to canada to give that speech on the opening of parliament in canada i mean this is this is real service and i'll finish all that by saying because it is a wonderful circle to the point you'll be making you may remember at the coronation you may not notice but at the coronation the very first thing the king came in.

24:10I mean, obviously a lot of people came in, things happened, but then the king came in and it basically started. And he sat in a small throne before he got into the big throne, up near the altar. And a small boy welcomed him to the abbey. And the king said, I come to serve, not to be served. And I think that's such a, I'm going to cry saying it, it's such a powerful line, because it draws a distinction between people who are entitled and people who are merely privileged and they're using that privilege for the right reason. You've articulated that beautifully. Thank you for sharing all of that.

24:43But the role that you've got, tell me, and forgive me if you did mention it, but I don't think you did, how you got it, and also the tenure, and how you go about replacing it. Are you part of that? Do you choose the replacement? Do you have influence on that, or is there like a committee that chooses the role? Right. So the answer is I got a letter from the clerk to the Privy Council explaining that he was charged with the job of finding the replacement for the retiring Lord Lieutenant, so that's how it happens, and would make recommendations to the king, and that my name had been put forward, having taken soundings.

25:19I thought it was a spoof. I thought that a chap I was at university with on whom I played the most monumentally successful trick in 1973 had finally found a way of getting his own back. So actually, I nearly didn't respond because it couldn't possibly be true. I wisely, though, took the letter to somebody who used to be the clerk to the Privy Council, who I happened to know, and asked him to give me his view on it. And I sat while he read it three times. I thought, you know, he's going to say, Ken, this doesn't look right. I'm really sorry, old chap. And when he finished it, he put the needles back together again and famously said, well, it's not the way I would have written it.