Bunhill: Lording it over the presidents

JEFFREY ARCHER was much in evidence at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Lane last week. The occasion was the London conference of the Young Presidents Organisation.

A business club for those who have reached the top of a significant organisation by the age of 40 (they are drummed out when they reach 50), the YPO supposedly draws its members from around the world - although judging by accents, most hailed from the United States.

Alas, Lord Archer himself is not a member - too old at 51. But he was a 'keynote' speaker and large piles of his books were on sale at the bookstall, alongside sex manuals, management guides and the works of Sir Ranulph Fiennes.

Besides his lordship, speakers included the Yugoslav-born US management consultant Ichak Adizes, and his theme - 'How to Predict That Your Company Will Be Successful' - was suitably New Age. 'The source of economic success and prowess is internal peace,' he pronounced, before admitting that his own attempts to solve the problems of his homeland had failed.

Lord Archer doubtless enjoyed the address on 'How to Build a Great Top Man'. It promised to explain 'How to be a great leader at work, and also to be your best at home.' Scintillating.

(Photograph omitted)