FROM STEVE SHIRLEY TO DAME STEPHANIE

摘要

In 1962 Stephanie Shirley started Freelance Programmers (the Fl Group), with £6 and a dream of a 'different kind of company' - and her pioneering use of home working, innovative approach to software delivery and adoption of the pseudonym 'Steve' helped her to succeed.rnThe Fl Group had a customer charter and recognised the importance of corporate social responsibility long before the term of reference was widely used, and it operated a profit-sharing scheme. 'I was very inspired by the co-ownership approach of the John Lewis Partnership,' she explains.rnIn the 1980s, the entrepreneur and her husband set up the Kingwood Trust to help meet the needs of their son Giles, who was profoundly autistic, and this developed into a charity that helps people with autism to live a full life in the community.