Damaged Goods

De: Oliver Shah

Narrado por: Oliver Shah

Penguin Audio presents Damaged Goods, by Oliver Shah.

In March 2015, British businessman and the chairman of Arcadia Group Sir Philip Green sold BHS for £1 to Retail Acquisitions, owned by Dominic Chappell, a serial bankrupt who filed BHS for administration shortly after. By April 2016, BHS had debts of £1.3bn, including a pensions deficit of £571m.

Damaged Goods follows Green's journey to the big time, the sale of BHS and the subsequent investigation that concluded with Green paying £363m to the Pensions Regulator.

In Damaged Goods, Oliver Shah, the award-winning journalist who first broke the story, shines a light on Green's past and Arcadia's uncertain future; this is the extraordinary account of the retail magnate Sir Philip Green's life and his relationship with the high street.

©2018 Oliver Shah (P)2018 Penguin Audio

Well written, well read and well done!

Sir Philip is a remarkable character! These observations of the making of a real-life tycoon highlight the unglamorous climb to the top.

Well-written, punchy tale of a wheeler-dealer

If you like a business story with colorful characters, quotes and events, this should be to your liking. The author reads his story and does a great job all around. He knows how to craft a sentence out of short, high-impact words, coming out listenable and easy to understand. He knows how to tell a story through little action scenes between people one can relate to. That includes trades of some sophistication, where this author shows a real gift of simplicity and clarity. The icilng on the cake is a very skillfully paced reading by him, breaking sentences into punchy phrases.
Beyond the level of the principal characters, is a wider story of changes in British retail business, banking and culture, from the 90s into the 2000s. Of interest is the shifting of the old Eton type elite crowd (in banking, politics, fashion and so on) toward finally kissing up to a character as crude and blunt (though charismatically so) as this one. Many were attracted by this charisma but ultimately were ejected from the ensuing pig-wrestling match with some harsh lessons, bruises and sometimes some nice cash. The world keeps generating these sorts, born traders with big hungers and sharp mouths and elbows, in a hurry. And when the time comes to throw others under the bus, they are poised and ready. Meanwhile various bystanders like this author and myself (myself as a prof) interpret all this to a public. It takes all kinds.