Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship Case Study
David Levin and The Capital Group
The First Steps: Up to 1969
The initial desire David Levin was born and grew up in the close Jewish community of Pollokshields, a leafy suburb of Glasgow, Scotland, the son of an electrical wholesaler. Home life was comfortable but constraining and the young boy longed to escape its confines. He resented school and admits to being a difficult student, thinking that it was a complete waste of time; few of the subjects taught seemed to have any relevance. Family holidays in the resort hotels of Britain after the war provided the young David Levin with his first glimpse of hotel life and the possibilities that it offered. He was fascinated by the Hotel Patron; master of all he surveyed, never accepting anything less than perfection in order to deliver a memorable experience for customers. His father and the friends of his father were in business and David grew up understanding the values of working hard to achieve personal goals. This led to him seeking work, whilst in his midteens and still at school, at the local Central Hotel’s Malmaison restaurant, which very quickly reinforced his view that this was not only a world he wanted to be part of, but also something at which he could excel. It became his ambition to not only get into the hotel business, but also to one day own his own luxury hotel. In those days, although there were four-year apprenticeships for chefs, a career in hotel management could only be initiated by a spell at a Hotel School. Therefore, against the wishes of his family, in particular his father who went ‘mad’ at the news, having harboured ideas that his son would study for a more professional career; David attended the Glasgow Hotel School (now the Scottish Hotel School, University of Strathclyde). The Hotel School proved to be a reprise of David’s experience of school, boring and irrelevant. From his brief time working at the Central Hotel, he was only too aware that learning
David Levin and The Capital Group
The First Steps: Up to 1969
The initial desire David Levin was born and grew up in the close Jewish community of Pollokshields, a leafy suburb of Glasgow, Scotland, the son of an electrical wholesaler. Home life was comfortable but constraining and the young boy longed to escape its confines. He resented school and admits to being a difficult student, thinking that it was a complete waste of time; few of the subjects taught seemed to have any relevance. Family holidays in the resort hotels of Britain after the war provided the young David Levin with his first glimpse of hotel life and the possibilities that it offered. He was fascinated by the Hotel Patron; master of all he surveyed, never accepting anything less than perfection in order to deliver a memorable experience for customers. His father and the friends of his father were in business and David grew up understanding the values of working hard to achieve personal goals. This led to him seeking work, whilst in his midteens and still at school, at the local Central Hotel’s Malmaison restaurant, which very quickly reinforced his view that this was not only a world he wanted to be part of, but also something at which he could excel. It became his ambition to not only get into the hotel business, but also to one day own his own luxury hotel. In those days, although there were four-year apprenticeships for chefs, a career in hotel management could only be initiated by a spell at a Hotel School. Therefore, against the wishes of his family, in particular his father who went ‘mad’ at the news, having harboured ideas that his son would study for a more professional career; David attended the Glasgow Hotel School (now the Scottish Hotel School, University of Strathclyde). The Hotel School proved to be a reprise of David’s experience of school, boring and irrelevant. From his brief time working at the Central Hotel, he was only too aware that learning