There are plenty of British entrepreneurs who have created successful multinational businesses from scratch, to minimal public acclaim. Ranking pretty high among them is Richard Harpin, the former management consultant who set up HomeServe as an insurance-based repairs business in Walsall in 1993. In essence, HomeServe will send out an engineer in double-quick time to fix leaky pipes and faulty boilers in exchange for a monthly premium.
While it’s hardly the most glamorous of activities, HomeServe is now a £3.6 billion operation with a position in the FTSE 250 share index, having previously scaled the heady heights of the FTSE 100. Its valuation makes it bigger than both Hiscox, also an insurer, and Centrica, the owner of British Gas, its main competitor.
But that doesn’t
