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In the spotlight

Peter Cruddas Position Founder, CMC Markets
Nationality British

The rags-to-riches career of Peter Cruddas has been a staple of City of London folklore for some time. As of November, when Goldman Sachs splashed '€195m to acquire a 10% stake in his company CMC Markets, he has gained an international profile.

Born in a deprived district to the east of London's trading centre, he left school at the age of 15 to support his family, working as a telex operator for Western Union. After working his way through a succession of back-office roles at City banks, in his mid-30s Cruddas branched out on his own to form the internet securities dealer CMC Markets. His startup capital in 1989 was Â£10,000 ('€14,000). Extrapolating from the Goldman Sachs investment, the company is now worth close to '€2bn.

The investment is an amazing result for Cruddas, who vetoed a flotation of CMC in May 2006 at the 11th hour due to stockmarket volatility. At this point the company was valued at '€1.1bn and many felt that Cruddas had missed his opportunity. Goldman Sachs's valuation has vindicated that decision in spectacular style. And with Cruddas and his wife still holding 90% of the company, the biggest gains could still be to come.

How to...

Become a business guru

Despite bookshops annually struggling to offload tonnes of discounted business self-help books in the post-Christmas period, publishers' appetites for commissioning more and more of them appear as insatiable as ever. Those considering putting pen to paper need only follow a few simple guidelines:

Use your imagination Since non-fiction publishing is by and large a singularly unprofitable enterprise, those plying the trade are arguably the least qualified to give advice on entrepreneurship. However, a total lack of practical business experience need be no barrier to writing on the subject. Those who can do business do it. Those who can't write about it instead.

Find God Or Muhammad, or Krishna or anybody else who can provide both a veneer of spiritualism and a rich source of counsel and instruction that you can re-word and pass off as your own work.

Play the game The world of sport is traditionally fruitful territory for finding dubious business analogies. Particularly popular are ghost-written words of wisdom and motivation from sporting personalities. Ron Dennis's Guide to Personnel and Talent Management is waiting to be written.

Embrace cliche Stretching one half-decent idea to 300 pages is a process that requires patience, intellectual dexterity and a lot of essentially meaningless cliche. Lists, arrows and bullet points are also crucial weapons in the business guru's armoury.

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