On 14 November 1996, a large gathering of distinguished and experienced practitioners from the worlds of industry and education assembled in the splendid setting of the Great Hall of the Royal Society of Arts to mark a significant landmark, the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Comino Foundation. The specific purpose was to record the work which has been undertaken during a quarter of a century in disseminating, through schools, colleges and universities, the vision and principles of Demetrius Comino (Demetrius Comino OBE - a life and legacy of achievement).This extraordinary man believed passionately that all young people, whatever their background and schooling, possessed capacities which, if harnessed, could enable them to achieve remarkable results. Drawing on a lifetime's experience of sharing enlightened and empowering work practices with employees in a variety of industrial settings, he was determined to make these beliefs and methods more widely known. From 1971, the Foundation was the means by which he drew together all the elements of his thinking and practice into a systematic and yet flexible process for which he coined the acronym GRASP (Getting Results and Solving Problems).

Norman Bailey, then Chairman of the Trustees, provided this fascinating insight into the roots of Demitri Comino's ideas how these led eventually to the creation of the Foundation.

25 years of the Comino Foundation

“Welcome to this occasion to mark the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Comino Foundation. My task this evening, apart from trying to ensure that a rather complicated programme runs on time, is to give you a quick survey of the aims and activities of this educational charity. But first a little bit of history.

I first met Dimitri Comino in 1934 when, as a very naive 17 year old from a small Suffolk town, I came for an interview for a job in his printing company. I found myself in a small basement just off Oxford Street (with a ceiling so low I could hardly stand up) and given an aptitude test. I must have passed for I got the job. As a result I spent the whole of my working life with this remarkable man. Demitri was remarkable because apart from inventing a very successful product on which he built a company employing 3,000 people world wide he was constantly reflecting on every aspect of what was happening and on the society in which he lived. From the countless things which engaged his attention, two or three stood out:

· That industry and commerce were not highly regarded in this country and that few people understood the fundamental role of the wealth producing sector.

· That what matters in getting results in any area is not mainly how much money is available but how well things are thought out, how good the objectives are and how much motivation and energy are put into the product.

· That it was possible to train young people who had little formal education or practical knowledge to learn how to learn for themselves, to become confident and self-reliant, to accept responsibility and to achieve remarkable results.

It was my great good fortune that I was an early beneficiary of Demitri's convictions and skills.

The Comino Foundation has its roots in these beliefs and was set up in 1970 by Dimitri Comino and his daughter Anna in order to disseminate these convictions more widely.

How do we work?

Our purposes are pursued in two ways; directly by the Industry Fellow and the Education Fellow, actively supported by the Trustees and Administrator and indirectly by financial support for projects launched by the others which are aimed at purposes similar to those of the Foundation. We hold seminars, consultations (some of them residential) and working dinners to promote discussion on the main purposes and related concerns of the Foundation. All the Trustees are deeply committed to the principles and are involved in most of these activities.

What have we done?

You will be aware that our main concern this evening is our work in education, but before we launch into that I will give a brief review of our work on "Attitudes to Industry". We define our purpose here as "to encourage a culture which affirms and celebrates both achievement and responsible practice in industry and commerce". This work was initiated in the early 1970s and developed by the establishment of a Comino Fellowship initially at St George's House, Windsor Castle and, from 1979 to 1989, at the Royal Society of Arts. These appointments were held by Kenneth Adams who continues the task as Industry Fellow to the Foundation. The work has been pursued by writing, broadcasting and by involving leading people from the principle areas of influence in our society in residential consultations to enable them to examine the problems caused by adverse cultural attitudes to industry and to become involved in their solutions. People attending these consultations from 1975 onwards have taken action to effect a change of attitude to industry. Prominent among these initiatives have been:

• Industry Year 1986 and Industry Matters at the RSA
• The Understanding British Project of the CBI
• The Industry and Parliament Trust
• The Education for Industrial Society project of the Industrial Society
• The Understanding Industry project of the Industrial Training Foundation
• The Education for Capability movement of the RSA
• The School Curriculum Industry Partnership

The Industry Fellow played a part in the establishment of the Institute of Business Ethics and in 1990 organised a major seminar on Christianity and wealth creation. A consultation at St George's House in 1992 decided to work for the creation of a new independent body permanently devoted to the achievement of British manufacturing and industrial success. This initiative was strongly supported by the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Francis McWilliams and by many other distinguished people with the result of the Foundation for Manufacturing and Industry was launched in September 1993. Its work is now developing rapidly under the council chaired by Sir Trevor Holdsworth. It is hoped that this Foundation will be the permanent national independent forum pursuing the Comino vision of a society which affirms the activities by which it principally earns its living and celebrates the value and virtue of that task.

This is a sketchy outline of more than 20 years of our "Attitudes to Industry" theme. Now for tonight's focus.

Over many years Dimitri Comino spent a lot of time trying to work out to his own satisfaction what we actually do when we reach decisions and when we reach intended results. His thinking was rooted in the everyday problems of business. He was not trying to theorise - he was trying to tease out what we actually do to arrive at a successful outcome to a problem situation or to an unexpected opportunity. His aim was to make us more conscious of the process and thus able to improve performance. This work was of enormous importance to me and to many others. We have all been surprised and delighted to find how this work, began in industry, has been taken up and used in the field of education."