The change maker: Ian Livingston

Ian-Livingston

Ian-LivingstonChairman, Man Group

Ian Livingston admits one of his defining traits is an impatience to make things happen. “It’s a belief, a knowledge, that things don’t have to be the way they are – you can change things if you are passionate, you care and you are willing to put in the hard work.”

It’s these traits – passion, hard work and that impatience to go further – as well as a keen commercial sense that have enabled Ian to succeed. He’s ascended from an economics graduate at 19, to the youngest-ever FTSE 100 director, then Global CEO of BT Group, one of the world’s leading global communications companies operating across more than 170 countries. (Editor’s note: he left this post in 2013 after this profile was written, and was appointed to David Cameron’s Government where he served as trade minister. After that, he joined Man Group, London’s largest listed hedge fund manager, as chairman.)

But Ian rejects the idea that his career has been in any way preordained or pre-planned. “The biggest influence on my career has been luck – you can’t and shouldn’t try to plan your career – it’s just about taking full advantage of the opportunities that come your way.”

Options

Ian chose to qualify as a Chartered Accountant at Arthur Andersen partly, he says, to give him plenty of career options. These options were evident throughout his early career which saw him spend a year on the swaps trading desk at Bank of America and three years at the preeminent venture capitalist, 3i.

But it was his impatience to move further and faster in business that, at age 26, saw him attracted by a newspaper advertisement calling for young talented business people to work for, “a retailer respected in the City.” That retailer turned out to be Dixons. After one interview, the young Ian was offered a job in the company’s finance team the next day.

FTSE first

Headed by the redoubtable entrepreneur Stanley Kalms, Dixons proved to be the perfect stage on which Ian could prove his mettle as it sought to expand its operations. “At Dixons, the rule was, ‘If you’re good enough, you’re old enough’. It was dynamic, fast-moving and keen to have the most talented people working for it.”

Within five years, Kalms and his board were sufficiently impressed to appoint Ian as Group Finance Director – making him the youngest-ever director of a FTSE 100 company. Two years later in 1998, his Corporate Development Team launched the internet company Freeserve for a start-up cost of £240,000. He helped float the business a year later – the first major European flotation of an internet company. In 2001, it was sold for around £1.5 billion.

Transactions like these demonstrated his aptitude for big business and his natural feel for the fast-growing tech and telecoms sector. So it was no surprise that he was quickly sought out by BT, first as Group Finance Director, then as CEO of BT Retail, becoming CEO of the global group in 2008.

Transforming business

He says that the move from financial director to CEO is not as big a stretch as might be assumed. “At some firms the finance director is a highly technical role and it may be impossible to move to a CEO position. But in more commercial firms like BT the gap is far narrower. The difference is, as CEO, there is no-one else to turn to – you have to lead from the front all the time – plus there’s the sheer width of all the different issues and people you have to deal with.”

After more than four years in the global CEO seat, he was widely credited with transforming BT’s position – reducing debt by £6 billion, tripling cashflow and cutting costs by £4 billion. But he is quick to stress that anyone who sees what the company has done simply as a cost-cutting exercise is missing the point. “You often hear of companies saying, ‘Right, we are going to cut costs by 10%’ when what they should be saying is, ‘We are going to improve efficiency and thereby free up resources to invest’ – which is what we’ve done. For example, by improving efficiency and taking failure out of the system, we’ve taken out £4 billion of costs, but at the same time, we’ve also seen customer complaints fall by half.”

He went on to navigate some of BT’s most ambitious initiatives to date. These included the introduction of superfast fibre optic broadband to 19 million premises in the UK, the launch of BT Sport, its new sports channel, and its continued expansion into overseas territories including Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.

New demands

He recognises that business leaders are facing new and different demands. “The pace of change is far quicker, with greater time pressures from modern technology. There is also a need for a higher level of visibility as leaders of people internally and externally.”

He also believes passionately about the ‘contract with society’. “It’s really important for companies, their employees and their customers to be clear that what the company is doing is important and good for society.”

He can link this broad perspective back to Chartered Accountancy. “You get wide-scale training, exposure to different businesses and your eyes are opened to many different ways of doing things. You get some of the necessary bricks in your skill sets and capabilities. When I encounter a qualified Chartered Accountant today I know what this person can do and what it’s taken to get there.”

ACHIEVING SUCCESS

Be passionate about what you do

If you aren’t passionate, it’s unlikely you’ll put in the work that’s needed to go further. You genuinely need to care.

Make change happen

Don’t wait for change. If something doesn’t work or could be better, know that it doesn’t need to be like this.

Grab your opportunities

Resist trying to plan your career too far ahead but when opportunity comes, recognise it and seize it.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

CFO at Dixons

A big business that thought and acted like a small business – very agile, short lines of communication and close to its customers. I learnt a huge amount

CEO of BT Group

Being able to lead a FTSE 100 company, especially a British institution like BT, has to be one of the high points of anyone’s career. It’s a real honour

Making a difference

Knowing what I do today matters and has a real impact on people’s lives – that’s what gives me the inspiration to work seven days a week