Editorial Standards
What a good entry looks like, and what we will not print.
The form of an entry
Every entry in the printed edition follows the same structure. This is the discipline of the book, and it is one of the reasons it will be useful for thirty years.
Each entry contains:
- Name. As you go by professionally. We will not invent middle initials.
- Tier and section. Tier I, II or III, with the corresponding sector.
- Company or companies. Currently held operating businesses, with year founded.
- The line. A single sentence, written by us, that says what you actually did. Not what your About page says. Not what your last podcast appearance said.
- The numbers. Headcount band, turnover band, and where relevant the count of customers, units shipped, properties operated, jobs created in a given period, or other operational measure that genuinely describes the business.
- The note. Two to four sentences of editorial context. Why this entry is in the book. Often something only an operator would notice.
That is the whole shape of an entry. No photographs of the listed member behind a desk. No mission statements. No quotes from the listed member about their journey.
What "the line" looks like
The line is the sentence that does the work. Here are three made-up examples written in the style we will use:
Built a £42m manufacturing business out of a single unit in Burnley, employing 184 people, most of whom have been there longer than ten years.
Founded and runs a regional accountancy firm with seven offices across the South West, the only one of its size still independent after the 2018 consolidation wave.
Sold the first company at 33, used the proceeds to acquire and turn round three regional logistics operators, employing 600 people across them.
The line is in third person. It is a record, not a self-introduction.
What we will not print
We will not print:
- The phrase "serial entrepreneur"
- The phrase "thought leader"
- The phrase "passionate about"
- Any verb in the past tense applied to a job that has not yet been started
- Vanity metrics — LinkedIn followers, podcast downloads, conference talks given
- Awards from organisations that charge to enter
- Educational credentials, unless the credential is directly load-bearing to the business (e.g. a registered architect running an architecture practice)
- Personal life material that has not been freely offered for inclusion
- Anything we cannot verify
Tone
The Index reads as a quiet reference work. Not a celebration, not a critique, not a magazine. The tone is that of a serious editor describing a serious thing with no need to perform.
Words we use sparingly: legacy, journey, vision, impact, passionate, disrupted, scaled.
Words we use plainly: built, bought, sold, hired, fired, lost, won, started, closed, kept going.
If an entry could appear in a glossy founder magazine, it is in the wrong book.
Updates and corrections
Listed members may request changes to their entry up to fourteen days after notification of inclusion. After printing, factual corrections are accepted at any time and will appear in the next edition's errata, alongside the corrected entry in the main listing.
Substantive rewrites between editions — for example, after a new venture, a sale, or a material change in headcount — are made by application to the Editor and reviewed at the same time as new entries.
A note on photographs
There are no photographs of the listed in the main register. There may, in later editions, be a small frontispiece of plates with portraits of members who have agreed to sit. The portraits will be commissioned, not stock. Nobody will be photographed in front of their own office sign.