Sir Arthur Knight

Courtaulds chairman who believed in capitalism with a public purpose

Arthur William Knight, industrialist: born London 29 March 1917; staff, Courtaulds 1946-79, director 1958-61, finance director 1961-70, vice-chairman 1970-75, chairman 1975-79; Kt 1975; Chairman, National Enterprise Board 1979-80; married 1945 Joan Osborne (née Oppenheimer, died 1968; one son, three daughters), 1972 Sheila Whitman; died Chichester, West Sussex 5 April 2003.

Arthur Knight was of that generation which grew up in the difficult years of the Depression, fought in the Second World War and then played their part in building the new post-war Britain – where private enterprise was imbued with a public purpose and businessmen were happy to serve the government to improve the quality of public intervention.

He dedicated his life to managing one of the best-known of British companies of the post-war period, the textiles manufacturers Courtaulds, ending up at the top of it after 33 years of service, and was knighted for his services to industry in 1975. As chairman of Courtaulds between 1975 and 1979, he had the tough task of restructuring the company after years of expansion in the midst of stagflation and increasing competition from home and abroad under the watchful eyes of the Monopolies Commission. He was then asked to head the National Enterprise Board in 1979, but quit after a year due to disagreements with the political masters.

Knight was born in 1917, the son of a railway porter from north London, and went to Tottenham County School. He joined Sainsbury's as a clerk at 16 years old, but had the good sense to attend evening courses at the London School of Economics. There he came under the influence of Professor Sir Arnold Plant, who educated several cohorts of students to become managers in Britain as well as the Commonwealth. Plant taught them the sensible use of economics, which came in handy for Knight when, as the finance director of Courtaulds, he pioneered discounted cash-flow analysis.

The association with the LSE was to be the second great passion of Arthur Knight's life after Courtaulds. He was a member of the Court of Governors of the LSE from 1971 to 1994 and was made an Honorary Fellow in 1984. He stayed active ever afterwards in the intellectual life of the school. He would be seen in the Senior Dining Room, sitting next to anyone he could engage in a lively conversation about what they were up to.

Knight believed in a capitalism which had a public purpose. This was the Keynesian consensus which in the Fifties and Sixties was thought to be the answer to unbridled private enterprise as well as centralised Communist economies. Andrew Shonfield, who was a friend of Knight's, called it "modern capitalism" in a book of that title which he published in 1966. Knight remained an active member of the Andrew Shonfield Society, which gathered many who were interested in pushing that vision forward.

In the last decade of his life, Knight launched a seminar at the LSE Centre for the Philosophy of Natural and Social Sciences on ways of fashioning a capitalism of the kind he liked at the global level. He was worried that globalisation would lead to a capitalism devoid of a public purpose. Humane governance of the global order became his theme in those seminars, where many younger colleagues participated. We never failed to be astonished at the intellectual energy Knight displayed in writing, reading and debating the latest ideas. He was also devoted to research and education in economics and management. He was on the Council of Manchester Business School, 1964-71, and on the Council for Industry on Management Education, 1970-73.

Arthur Knight's life is perhaps best captured by what he himself wrote in his Private Enterprise and Public Intervention (1974), wherein he summarised his Courtauld experience:

Success in management is painfully achieved through patient fostering and renewal . . . The qualities of an individual's immediate seniors in the early years of a career appear to be the most important single factor in success, and the good teacher shows an interest in the young and the patience to find the time for it.

Knight had the good fortune to have such seniors and he in turn became one of those who could foster and renew the talents of many who worked with and under him.

Meghnad Desai