VETERAN entrepreneur John Watson has highlighted the importance of successful business owners giving something back to the country they built their fortunes in.
Mr Watson has devoted much of his time to philanthropic work since selling his Glasgow printing business to Multi-Color Corporation of the US in a multi-million-pound deal in 2014.
The businessman has supported between 30 and 40 charitable projects in the last five years He is heavily involved in Josh Littlejohn’s Social Bite social enterprise, has been on the Scottish board of the Marie Curie charity for 15 years, and supports a variety of medical and sporting charities through his Watson Foundation.
Speaking before giving a lecture to an Entrepreneurial Scotland event at The Glasgow Academy last night, held at the Watson Auditorium he helped fund, Mr Watson cited the example of Andrew Carnegie, the famous Scottish philanthropist who gave $350 million to good causes after making his fortune as an industrialist in the US in the 19th century.
Mr Watson added: “I’m no Andrew Carnegie but he was light years ahead of his time. Here was someone who lived through the austere Victorian and Edwardian era yet who understood the need to help others. He was undoubtedly one of the greatest Scotsmen who ever lived.”
READ MORE: Bank closures are like Beeching rail cuts, Watson says
Mr Watson said entrepreneurs fortunate enough to have made a lot of money from the sale of their businesses “almost have a social duty to give something back to the country they have been successful in”.
The former entrepreneur of the year recalls being puzzled when asked whether he was happy with how much he gained from the sale of John Watson & Co.
“There are no pockets in a shroud,” he said. “It (philanthropic work) gives me a good feeling. Rather than giving gazillions (sic) to me sons, it is good to know there are others that I have been able to help while I have been here.”
John Watson & Co specialised in printing labels for the Scotch whisky industry, printing as many as 20 million labels a week during Mr Watson’s tenure.
He said his decision to focus on whisky had helped him thrive while others in the traditional printing industry were faced with structural decline.
Mr Watson’s lecture was titled: “An Evening with… John Watson OBE. Passion, Printing & Perfection: The ideal blend for entrepreneurial success.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here