Thank you for your contributions.

You claimed on the basis of what you have read in the Harvard Business Review that "quite a few" Chief Executives and Finance Directors of FTSE 100 companies gained their positions by working in a "small one man shop or hotdog stand" and are sending their children to work in a "small one man shop or hotdog stand".

I asked which ones.

You cite Stephen Green, who you say is "CEO" of the HSBC Group. (He is in fact the Executive Group Chairman) and give us a quote from him which states:

"'Most of our recruits are recent university graduates."

He makes no reference to recruiting as managers people working in a "small one man shop or hotdog stand". I doubt that he has suggested that any of his own children do so either.

You mention Richard Branson. He is not a CEO or Finance Director of any company in the FTSE 100.

You throw Bill Gates into the argument. He won a place at Harvard University, having excelled in mathematics and science as a child and having become a computing child prodigy.

You mention Sainsburys having been a market stall. It is not a market stall now and neither its CEO or Finance Director got their roles running a multi-billion pound business by working in a "small one man shop or hotdog stand".

You mention "Woolworths was small time at one point". It isn't now. It has annual turnover of £2.7bn. I doubt that its senior management got their roles by working in a "small one man shop or hotdog stand" (unless, of course, you have read something to the contrary in "several issues" of the "Harvard Business Review").

I am afraid that I do not see how what you have posted actually supports your claims at all.