Businesses I really admire

We ask successful entrepreneurs to tell us which companies they most respect. This month, former cabinet minister and Cable & Wireless chairman turned private-equity investor David Young

Apple Inc

The airline magazine on my flight back from the States in September 1977 contained an advert for a computer with the odd name of Apple; up to then I had used a programmable calculator. Intrigued, I rang Apple in California; it had just appointed a UK distributor. I met him and we opened the first consignment together. Thus I bought the first Apple II in Britain. Alas, after a few years, I was tempted by a PC and had to stay with Windows. But being an inveterate early adopter, I bought an iPod as soon as it was released, and upgraded yearly. Then, earlier this year, the Macbook Air was announced; I immediately ordered one and it was love at first sight. Before long, I had changed over to Mac for everything. Apple has been a leader in industrial design for over a quarter of a century and increasingly dominates its sectors, with the iPod, the iPhone and its computers. It is truly a global brand and the only company to succeed in both hardware and software.

EBay Inc

In 1995, when I was running Cable & Wireless, I was about to go to the West Coast on an annual trip to discover the latest developments in technology. Despite being very much a corporate man at that time, I was an entrepreneur at heart and I decided to invest a reasonable sum in an Internet start-up. After a search I was left with two choices: an online wine merchant with, I thought, good prospects, and a rather zany company conducting online auctions and claiming to have just sold a Rolex for $14,500. Naturally I made the wrong choice. Wine.com lasted only a few years, while eBay became one of the great global Internet businesses, providing a marketplace not only for individuals, but also for many thousands of small businesses in a way that simply could not happen but for eBay. When I occasionally buy things on eBay I console myself, rather inadequately, with the thought that if I had chosen to invest in it early, I probably would have made too much money for my own good!

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