Parents of lazy, badly behaved teenagers, take heart. When David Jones was 18, after a chequered school career, he found himself alone in a German college on the first ever European Union-sponsored business course. He had failed to get into a British university. Then the pampered eldest son of a Cheshire businessman had a moment of awakening: "It was incredibly tough listening to lectures in German, I didn't know anyone and it was difficult and expensive to phone home," he recalls. "It made me realise that I had been incredibly lucky, my parents had been amazing and I had been a complete shit."  The experience was his making. Chance led to an internship at an advertising agency which catapulted him into a meteoric career in the industry. Early this year he was appointed chief executive of the French-quoted Havas, which, although way behind giants such as Omnicom, WPP and Publicis, is one of the top six advertising and marketing groups in the world.  Fluent in French and German, Jones is the only British chief executive of a quoted French company, which makes a refreshing change from continentals running UK businesses.  at 45, in his dark, immaculate Paris-made suit and white shirt with matching pocket handkerchief, Jones not only looks like the ad man from central casting but is apparently living the dream. He and his well-connected French wife, Karine, have a house on the Upper East Side of Manhattan with their four young children. When he is not in London, Paris or travelling elsewhere - more often than he would like - he makes his children breakfast before walking the two eldest to the Lyc?e Fran?ais a few blocks away. From there, it is a short journey to his office to begin his working day.  Jones has been in London to promote his book Who Cares Wins: Why Good Business is Better Business, about how nice companies do better than nasty ones. It is a not-terribly-original concept, slickly repackaged for the digital age, and published by Pearson, which is, of course, a "nice" company. Havas, too, is a nice company, tuned to the twin zeitgeists of conservation and good works. There is some pretty obvious advice in his book - which he wrote in 10 days - such as "be prepared", but it also makes some interesting points about increased transparency in a world where Facebook and Twitter can start revolutions and phone hacking can close newspapers.  as co-founder of the charity One Young World, which sponsors talented young people from all five continents to do great things, Jones was also hosting a "Young Leaders" question and answer session with Olympics supremo Lord Coe and London Mayor Boris Johnson. "I have always believed that we can use the power of creativity to effect positive change," he says. "In our business, we try to change people's views, attitudes and behaviour for commercial purposes, but you can also change people's behaviour about some of the big issues in our world." In 2009, Jones helped create Kofi annan's TckTckTck campaign on climate change; 18 million people signed up. although commendable, let's not pretend that all this do-goodery is ultimately about anything else than winning business - in essence the message of the book.  We meet in the St Pancras Grand restaurant, on the upper concourse of the wonderfully renovated London station. Jones is catching the Eurostar and needs to check in by 10am. For the next hour he barely pauses for breath. Relentlessly upbeat, he spatters his conversation with "amazing", "incredible" and "massively".  Jones is a Scorpio, something he imbues with importance. "Every boss I have ever had was a Scorpio," he says. His mother was an artist turned teacher, while his father ran the textile group Vantona until 1982, when Lord alliance merged it with Viyella to create Vantona Viyella. His father was ousted in the deal, a crisis that may have provided the psychological kicker to give Jones his drive later on. Having a brilliant elder sister, Zoe, may also have played a part - although, while growing up, rather than compete, he chose another route to gain attention. "I thought being bad was a better strategy," he says, laughing. He did, however, compete in sport. "I was a sports freak - rugby, tennis, cricket, athletics - we were a massively sporty family. My dad was captain of the county's first tennis team, and me and my brother played first couple."  His career path is a Who's Who of advertising agencies, starting with BDH (now BDH/ TBWa) in 1989 when he was still at the Reutlingen Fachhochschule in Germany. after two y