Sir John Harvey-Jones who died on Wednesday aged 83, was a flamboyant chairman of ICI who later turned himself into a television celebrity as”The Troubleshooter”, dispensing frank advice on the art of management

After a career in the  Navy. He joined ICL on Teeside, recruited by the head of the Work Study Department, Russel Curry, as a work study officer,  he rose through the management ranks, becoming commercial director in 1967. He became chairman of the petrochemical division in 1970 and joined the main board in 1973.

In his autobiography he acknowledged that in addition to the concept of work measurement there was also a much more interesting and exciting field of study for the Work Study Officer, which was called method study. This was and remained an extremely valuable management tool, the principles of which, he applied throughout his career.