He's the 62-year-old maverick who brought a lion into a finance meeting and machine-gunned a vending machine on stage. As global chief executive of Saatchi & Saatchi, he invented Lovemarks and turned the struggling agency into a world-beater. We travelled to the Lake District to meet the legendary Kevin Roberts and hear what he had to say about leadership, motivating Generation Y and the one thing Britain must do to become great again

We arrive at Lancaster railway station at 11am. A cab picks us up to take us to the Lake District home of Kevin Roberts. We have a short address – no road and a two-hour slot in which to take our photos and do the interview. The Lakes take our breath away as we drive through the countryside wondering where Roberts lives. We climb halfway up a hill, guessing at the house and feeling very townie.

We arrive, and a figure walks to the gate. Black shirt, black jeans, a grin on his face and a glint in his eye. There's a touch of the Jack Nicholson about Roberts: "You found it then, that was the first test." His accent is a mash-up of Kiwi, Manhattan and Manchester. He ushers us in and says: "Let me show you round." The house is visually brilliant. Everywhere are images of the stuff that makes Roberts tick – Manchester City (he advises the club), Marianne Faithfull, The Who, Debbie Harry, Union Jack prints and lots of hearts – nods to his trademark Lovemarks. "Do anything you want, and go anywhere you like," he growls. "But don't make it safe. I hate safe."

Roberts was born in Lancaster in 1949. His first job was as assistant brand manager for Mary Quant Cosmetics in 1969. He worked for Gillette, Procter & Gamble and became regional vice president at Pepsi, Middle East in 1982. At the end of his keynote speech in his first chief executive role (at Pepsi Canada) he had a Coke vending machine rolled onto the stage. He picked up a machine gun – borrowed from a police officer – and blasted the machine. He'd rigged it so that he only had to fire one blank to set it off spectacularly.

Roberts became chief executive of Saatchi & Saatchi in 1997 and dropped the word advertising from the company's name that December – Saatchi & Saatchi became The Lovemarks Company in 2008. Last year, the owners, Publicis, reported an organic revenue rise of 5.7 per cent to £5.8bn.

Roberts now splits his time between the Lake District, New York, St Tropez and New Zealand. This global view, I venture, must give him an interesting take on UK plc. What's his diagnosis?

"Lethargy. At every level. From government down. Imagine a football pitch: everyone playing at the moment – the UK, France, Germany – is in midfield, so we're all just not moving forward. And the UK's not even playing in the Champions League, it's in the Premier League, and is mid-table. It doesn't have strong belief, strong commitment or strong ambition. We're leading in very few fields – we seem to be ambling along. Everyone's relatively OK but are we striving for happiness, are we striving to change the world, are we striving to transform? What's the dream of the UK?

"When I was growing up JFK talked about putting a man on the moon and bringing him back before the end of the decade. All that was a dreamy way of saying 'we're going to invest and lead the world through technology' but he put it in a way that everyone went 'I want to be part of that' and 'I can be part of that'.

"So in the UK, first, we don't have the dream, second, we don't have the appetite to win – the Chinese are going to eat our lunch. We've lost the desire to win because winning has been ugly in the last economic environment. And the third thing Britain's getting wrong is execution. We live in a 'Vuca' world – a world that is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous but British companies keep having strategy meetings! What the f***? We have no strategic plans at Saatchi – instead we have 10 things to do in 100 days. Have a dream, get on with it and if you fail then fail fast, learn fast, fix fast.

"In America you can fail as long as you learn to fix. In England it's not in our education and it's not in corporate life – you get fired, or whacked or ignored. In England it's not so much whether you win or lose, but how you place the blame. Look at News International – it's just a blame thing going on. Stop hacking, say you're sorry, make reparation and hire new talent. Let's all get over it and move forward. We need a free press."

WORK-LIFE BALANCE
But is this lack of passion to win lethargy or arrogance, I wonder?

"England isn't an arrogant nation but it's a nation of shopkeepers. Everyone talks about work-life balance but that's just a crock. We've got to integrate our work and life, but the English like balance. My view is that in order to succeed today you must avoid moderation. The way to succeed is excess. Steve Jobs, the most compulsive leader we've ever seen, built the greatest company of our times. [Sir] Richard Branson is a complete compulsive and obsessive – you cannot disintegrate his life and his work."

But how do you preach excess to Generation Y, the generation which has said repeatedly that work-life balance is its priority. The average age of a Saatchi & Saatchi employee is 27 – Roberts must face this issue daily? He leans in. "My kids are aged between 27 and 32, too. They are very different. I was a baby-boomer driven by Darwinian needs of survival. In the Sixties we felt that we could transform everything. If we did great work we could all make a lot of money, be famous and have loads of power.

"These kids, however, are not driven by those things. They're driven by connectivity, collaboration and social stuff. They don't have survival fears. They say 'we're probably going to have five or six jobs, we'll get by and life is good. My friends are all around me and I can be who I want to be on Facebook, etc etc'."

These generational changes of connectivity and collaboration must have an impact on business?

"These kids see being multi-skilled and multi-tasking as a big strength but it's a huge weakness. I don't multi- task not because I can't but because I focus on what I am doing at the time. I will give laser-like focus to this – I have done no preparation and I will do no reflection. Then I'll focus on the next thing. They are constantly doing four or five things. They claim that their minds can cope with that but I have 5,000 of them and their performance suffers because they cannot determine the difference between the important and the urgent."

But Saatchi & Saatchi is one of the most successful agencies in the world, with big clients and cabinets packed with awards. How has he motivated his people?

"First, realise that you can't train these eagles to fly in formation. They're unmanageable, right? Management is dead. You can only do it through inspiration. Mario Balotelli is a classic example. He could be one of the world's greatest footballers. [Patrick] Vieira is mentoring him, [Roberto] Mancini's personally driving him and the team love him but you can't get Balotelli to conform. What you can do is inspire him to play for the team.

"And it's the same with these kids – they need inspiration. Most of my time is spent trying to inspire them with an idea like Lovemarks, an ambition, a dream. I've been running Saatchi for 15 years and in that 15-year period there has definitely been generational transition. Now, at the heart of everything we do, is inspirational leadership – trying to get the individual to be the best they can be in pursuit of our shared dream."

NEW ORDER
This is a pretty huge shift for business leaders, many of whom might be more used to a hierarchy of experience and knowledge?

"Yes, the idea that you have to know more than your subordinates is completely flawed. You have to inspire everyone you touch to be the best they can be. You've got to hire these guys, inspire them and then get out of their way. The inspirational way to deal with this is to liberate your own mind. There you are, 50 to 65, whatever age. You're sitting there, you're pretty successful and you've done well but the world is changing dramatically.

"You can either put your head under the carpet and go 'f***, I'm going to get found out' or you can say 'I'll reject all that and just make money', or you can say 'I don't know much about this but I've got all these people who do know a lot about it so I'm just going to push down and give them the dreams, the brainwaves and the principles, and I am just going to enjoy this ride. That's what I am doing. It's like with technology, when I have an idea, somebody in my company will know how to make it work – or they'll know somebody to ask. It's awesome. I have found this to be the biggest liberator of the unreasonable power of creativity. It's the age that we live in but you've got to relax into it and enjoy it."

RECESSION CREATIVITY
Roberts is documented as saying that the best ideas emerge from The Edge – a theory he stumbled on in biology – or that most development of any species doesn't come through the centre but at the edge. Could this tough economic climate bring such a psychological edge that it boosts creativity?

"Edgy thinking comes from either living on the edge which is, Cumbria, New Zealand or wherever, or being pushed to the edge by macro situations. A recession needs radical behaviour, radical optimism, edgy behaviour. So I think that the Vuca times we live in, instead of being an excuse should be a stimulation – but it takes courage and Britain's courageous only in times of conflict. We stand up when we are on a burning platform. But the world now is super-Vuca, which means it's vibrant, unreal, crazy, astounding. Let's get into this vibrant world, where we can do anything.

"We live in the age of the idea so the companies that will thrive will be those which deliver new ideas quicker to their customers. Everyone's searching for the Big Idea but there aren't any. There are lots of little ones. The consumer will find one and make it big – look at the success of [computer game] Angry Birds.

"The thing to do is to get 30 little ideas out there and see what happens but people haven't been built that way – they've been taught not to screw up."

And what about reinvigorating products that already exist? Roberts talks about Lovemarks differentiating from brands because there are both High Love and High Respect marks. Which is the most elusive?

"It's both. Whatever you sell has got to do what it says on the can. So you must have the basics of respect: authenticity, the right pricing, the right packaging – it's got to be sustainable in distribution and full of attributes that matter. That's job one but that's not enough because in today's world every brand has got that – all anti-dandruff shampoos get rid of dandruff. So on top of that you must build mystery, sensuality and intimacy for a consumer that is constantly changing.

"What you've got to do now is not market to people – marketing is as dead as hell but Britain is still full of marketers. Instead, you've got to create a movement. That's what Gorilla did [Cadbury's Dairy Milk ad with a gorilla drumming]. We pulled all the media on Gorilla in seven days because 17 million people downloaded it. That's what happens if you create a movement. But movements are unique – you can't repeat them and the number of people who still come to us and say 'give us a gorilla...'." Roberts shakes his head.

"And responsible capitalism is absolutely vital. Everybody has got to be purpose-driven, purpose- inspired, and benefit-driven. We all want to work for something bigger than ourselves and if a company doesn't have a purpose, doesn't want to make a contribution to society, customers and talent will just go 'oh, f*** it then'."

GO SLOW
Our photographer Ray knocks on the door – ready to take pictures. Before we go though, I must ask one thing. In Roberts's January blog, his 10th resolution was to Live Life Slow. But how does that work for a man who runs a global company? "Ha! This is the one all my friends asked about, too. Take today – after you've gone I am going to watch Manchester City vs Wigan, and then I'll work with New York from 8pm to 1am. I'm living everything to the max but slowly."

So is it about being present? I ask. He peers at me. "You are a very insightful girl. I've redefined presence into absence. To get to where I want to go I have to be absent from 97 per cent of the sh*t so I can be massively present in the three per cent that matters.

"I only talk to six people in the business – but they talk to everyone else. I don't play golf, I don't get involved with governments – I have people for that – and I won't ever have lunch or dinner with a client.

Just with friends and family. That means my people have to go to them, they're closer to the business, they're better at it than me, and if anyone does want to see me then I'm accessible – at Saatchi & Saatchi from nine to 12 and then two until five. It's beautifully simple. Now, shall we do pictures?"

Kevin Roberts is speaking at the IoD Annual Convention on Wednesday 25 April. If you haven't already got your ticket, visit www.annualconvention.iod.com

Love this one which is pretty anti-networking: "I only talk to six people in the business – but they talk to everyone else. I don't play golf, I don't get involved with governments – I have people for that – and I won't ever have lunch or dinner with a client." - Kevin Roberts.