Baroness Martha Lane Fox, one of the UK's most inspirational businesspeople, fascinated Union Kirk last night as she shared stories of her rise to prominence during the dotcom boom, staring death in the face after a horror car crash left her with 27 broken bones, and being part of the Twitter board when Elon Musk took over.
Baroness Lane Fox, who is also the President of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), also spoke about the current UK Government and how she believes they ensure economic growth to be a success.
The 'vile' takeover of Twitter
Baroness Lane Fox was a non-executive director on the board of Twitter during Elon Musk's controversial takeover in 2022.
“I was chair of the compensation committee and the nominations and governance committee," she said.
"Elon decided he wanted to be on the board of Twitter.
“I was about to go out on a Sunday evening to get a pizza for my sons and I got a text message from a colleague on the board from San Francisco saying: ‘Elon Musk wants to get on the board, can you get on touch?’
"We followed the process, but of course he didn’t actually just want to be on the Board, what he wanted to do was buy the company.
"So we had this torturous process, and then he went into this even more torturous process of him wanting to buy the company.
"It was really hideous, actually.
"In my opinion, he displayed such a lack of integrity.
"I was also part of the transaction committee so was really up against all the stuff that he was doing on a daily basis.
"But he offered a price that was way above what the company had been valued at so we had to accept it for shareholders. Nobody had got out of bed wanting to sell the company to Elon Musk.
"That whole thing was so far removed from what any of us wanted to do as directors but that’s what we had to do."
Homeworking
After a fascinating discussion about Baroness Lane Fox’s work with the British Chambers of Commerce, and how she and BCC believe the government can ensure growth, she weighed in on the pros and cons of homeworking.
The debate around bringing people back into offices has been an ever-present in the media since the country emerged from the pandemic.
Recently, Jonathan Reynolds, Labour’s business secretary, has called for employers to “judge people on outcomes and not a culture of presenteeism".
Baroness Lane Fox said: “I don’t think this is an area that government should get too heavily involved in,” a statement which was met with nods throughout the room.
“I said this to Jonathon Reynolds’s face, I think it really depends.
“I’m a 51-year-old woman with a disability and I have two small children. It’s absolutely phenomenal to me that I can work flexibly and that I can do some virtual calls some days. That is really, really important.
“Only 30% of jobs can work from home, so we’re not talking about the vast majority of the workforce.
“I think it should be up to individual business to decide what their structure is and what they can do to motivate their people and keep people the most productive they can be.
“I also think that, if I had not been in an office, there’s no way I’d have learned how to do the things I do so well.
“Chatting to my people colleagues, annoying people at the coffee machine, all that stuff. I think it’s really important young people learn and train by being around people and it’s very isolating if you don’t get that.”
“I think it’s about different phases of life, different kinds companies, different styles of working. You just need to work out what flexibility is right for you."
A world record holder
The most inspirational moment of the evening came when the Baroness spoke about her near-death experience in Morocco.
"I find it hard to talk about, not because it gets me emotional, but because something like that doesn't really end.
"It changed my life forever. I had to completely reorganise my world and my personal life."
Driving with her then-boyfriend (and current husband), she was thrown out of a car, which led to 27 broken bones and two years in hospital.
"I sometimes joke that I'm the only person on the planet that survived the extreme dotcom crash and then an extreme real world crash."
Baroness Lane Fox, who still feels the effects of the crash two decades on, spoke about a presentation she was asked to do in her children's school, during which she spoke about the incident.
"I'm climbing the three highest peaks in the UK to raise money for charity, so my kids were allowed time off school to do this, if I went to talk to the school.
"I don't know if anyone has talked to a school of 5 to 13 recently but it's absolutely terrifying.
"I had to find a fun fact to talk about, so I found out that I'm actually the woman that has broken the most bones and survived, ever."