Dennis: McLaren will only grow

Speaking at the 'Leaders in London' business leadership conference in Westminster on Wednesday evening, Dennis said that the determination that had helped him guide his team back to the top in Formula One was as strong as ever.

And he insisted that any action he takes in the future, even when it becomes time for him to step aside as F1 team principal to take on another role within McLaren, will only be done if he believes it will make the team stronger.

"I'm 61," said Dennis during the conference, which also features speeches from two-time New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, chess legend Garry Kasparov and Jack Welch, the former chairman and CEO of the General Electric Corporation.

"I can't imagine a time when I won't be involved in McLaren's leadership. I can't imagine a time when I won't have a hand on the compass. I can't imagine a time when I won't be showing the way.

"But finding the way? Reading the map? That's management. And, in all companies, management evolves. Management changes. Managers' careers evolve and change, and the result is further change.

"That's a positive thing, and it applies to McLaren just as it applies to all companies. And, through change, McLaren will grow. It'll grow because there will be change. And all change leads to opportunity."

Dennis revealed during the speech, which received two standing ovations and was praised by event chairman business guru Rene Carayol as 'truly inspirational', the key factors that he believed had helped McLaren become an F1 success story.

"If you decide to do something, you should aim to do it well and if you aim to do something well, you should realise that you can do it well," he explained. "You can combine attention to detail with big-picture thinking. You can make the impossible, possible.

"And your workforce must be incentivised to deliver in that way. To be honest, I even incentivise my kids to deliver in that way. I give handsome rewards when they secure good exam results, for example - and not simply because it's their birthday or Christmas Day.

"No, in order to keep them grounded, and ambitious, they've been incentivised to achieve from when they were very young. And my message to my kids, to my employees is this: The human spirit is unsuppressable. There's no such thing as 'ordinary people' because people are extraordinary.

"So there's simply no limit to what we can achieve."