Jim Goodnight points to a story on the front page of his Financial Times. He is slightly agitated. "China leads in growth of scientific research", runs the headline. "I have been telling people this for years," he says with some exasperation. The west, he feels, is sleepwalking to disaster. "PhDs are the key to innovation in scientific research."
Mr Goodnight is entitled to speak plainly. For 34 years he has been leading his business, SAS, in his own highly successful way. It is the world's largest privately held software business - as co-founder he still owns two-thirds of the company - and he says it has been profitable, without interruption every year of its existence. He won't disclose profit figures, but last year the company made revenues of $2.3bn (€1.6bn, ￡1.4bn).
As a former professor - of statistics at North Carolina State University - Mr Goodnight understands what a commitment to learning entails, but also what it can help people to achieve.