Having a good network can be invaluable. It opens doors for you and allows you to enter into opportunities that are beneficial to your business. In this sense, 'who you know' is undoubtedly important, but to me 'what you know' is more important because once an opportunity shows itself, it is up to you to make the most of it, and this is down to your knowledge and skill.

Your brand name is only as good as your reputation

Our model is to develop each business separately with its own shareholder and management - this way we can concentrate on the job in hand, rather than be part of some enormous and faceless conglomerate.

We've always had a pretty competitive and pretty ferocious battle with British Airways... It's lasted now about 14 years, and we're very pleased to have survived it.

Don't bother doing something unless you're radically different from the competition.

If people are jumping down people's throats all the time, in the end, they'll just shrivel up like a flower shrivels up that's not watered.

Red tape will often get in your way. It's one of the reasons I often carry scissors!