William Beardmore

William Beardmore (later Lord Invernairn) made a considerable impact on the Scottish engineering industry at the turn of the 20th century. Legend has it that he summed up his strategy in a simple sentence: 'Transport is the thing'. Beardmore products included aero engines, motorcycles, cars and zeppelins, while the company also built airstrips and the first flat deck aircraft carrier. William Beardmore was a great innovator but made several strategic business mistakes - a historian of the Glasgow scene described him as "a man whose enormous vision and imagination were probably only matched by his poverty of judgement and lack of business skills."