Chairmen Create Value, Sir Anthony Habgood Tells Andrew Lynch

Sticking to the agenda: meet

The Sunday Times March 31, 2019 NED AWARDS Sticking to the agenda: meet the stars of the boardroom Chairmen create value, Sir Anthony Habgood tells Andrew Lynch

TOM STOCKILL The inevitable question, then, is how the food group Geest, when it still had FTSE 100 much a top chairman can, or should, do. bananas, he has witnessed huge changes Sir Anthony Habgood “I would argue that there was a huge in the boardroom. Habgood cites four amount of benefit in doing Bunzl and main differences: diversity, in particular Whitbread [together],” said Habgood. gender diversity; internationalisation; “You really know what’s going on. Your rationalisation, with bigger boards falling antennae are really well tuned in. In the out of favour (“You never get any dia- past 14 years, I have done 40 man years as logue, no real control over what the man- a non-executive director. I have done agement does”); and professionalisation that reasonably comfortably — and rea- through education and qualifications. sonably successfully. But I don’t think The chairman he most admires, Sir you should do three public companies at Christopher Hogg, a pioneer of this pro- the same time.” fessionalisation, was one of the first busi- One of his key concerns as a chairman ness school graduates to go into industry. is about how best to allocate resources. “I probably talked to Chris the most “We focused Relx on information and when I was first being considered as a analytics, away from print magazines chairman,” said Habgood. “He had views and all sorts of other stuff,” he said. “You which were both intellectual and based have got to know enough to know that on deep practical experience.” Hogg was you want to do that — which in a business chief executive and chairman of Cour- ike the statue of Admiral Lord like this is not a walk in the park.” taulds, as well as chairman of Allied Nelson, Sir Anthony Habgood He recalled his time at Whitbread, Domecq, Reuters and Glaxo Smith Kline. looks down from his offices on which he chaired from 2005 until 2014. It Habgood took a master’s in industrial Trafalgar Square, once “the comprised pub and high street restau- administration at Carnegie Mellon Uni- hub of empire”. Unlike our rants, hotels and fitness clubs. “So we versity in Pittsburgh after reading eco- most famous sailor, the serial focused on Premier Inn and Costa Cof- nomics at Cambridge. A summer job with FTSE 100 chairman can’t afford fee. If you can profitably grow Premier Boston Consulting — 50 years ago this to turn a blind eye to much. Inn at 14% or 15% a year, you can create a year — led to a 16-year stint at the manage- Over the past two decades, massive amount of value. ment consultancy in the UK, Germany, Habgood, chairman of Relx, the “That’s what I mean by strategy — as Japan and America. In 1986 he joined tex- information-to-exhibitions giant for- opposed to what the City tends to mean tiles maker Tootal, which he led until he Lmerly known as Reed Elsevier, has rarely by strategy, which is buying and selling moved to Bunzl. been without a brace of demanding jobs. things and giving fees to people.” In the past three years, Relx has simpli- He has combined the £650,000-a-year Through engaging staff and custom- fied its Anglo-Dutch structure, which Relx post with chairing the Court of ers, Costa also managed to build 35 meant it had boards in London and Hol- directors of the Bank of England, and schools in coffee-growing regions by the land. It was all accomplished with total before that, with overseeing the leisure time Habgood left. support from investors and boards. Uni- conglomerate Whitbread. He chaired It helps to be lucky, too. “We com- lever could have learnt a lot from it. Whitbread in tandem with Bunzl, the pleted the sale of David Lloyd Leisure in l The shortlisted non-executive direct- FTSE 100 hospitality services provider, August 2007 about two weeks before the ors for the FTSE 100 award were: Andrew where he had also been chief executive. credit crunch began. Had we been three Higginson of Wm Morrison Supermar- Over those years, Habgood, 72, has or four months later we would not have kets; Naguib Kheraj of Standard Char- overseen the transformation of Relx from got the best part of a billion.” tered; Ian Marchant of John Wood Group; publisher to information and data analyt- At Relx, which he joined in 2009, and Deanna Oppenheimer of Tesco. ics provider; the focusing of Whitbread’s Habgood demonstrated the power of assets that would eventually see it sell decisive action early on. Costa Coffee for almost £4bn to Coca- “He inherited a company that was Cola; and the overhauling of Bunzl into a Sir Anthony Habgood, He stresses the importance of being floundering,” explained one of the Ned THE JUDGING PANEL dynamic blue-chip company. chairman of Relx, has spent around so that senior managers can pop Awards judges, Malcolm McKenzie of This means that Habgood, who admits two decades juggling their heads around the door: “Then you Alvarez & Marsal. “He immediately con- This year’s Ned awards judging panel he is coming to the end of his FTSE 100 jobs get to know the people, the organisation vinced the board to change the recently was: Paul Drechsler (chairman), distinguished career, is well placed to and the business issues.” appointed chief executive officer, refo- Lynne Berry, Sheryl Cuisia, Iain Dey, explain what makes a good FTSE chair- Apart from board meetings, Habgood cus the group’s strategy away from Victor Dulewicz, Graham Durgan, man — although at first, he brushed off rarely has a day dedicated to one busi- declining traditional markets and into Jacqui Ferguson, Patrick Evershed, the question with an embarrassed laugh. ness. (For the past eight years he has profitable digital high growth, and also Steven Fine, Fiona Hathorn, Ninder “One of the things you have got to be chaired a fast-growing private data plat- helped catalyse major change in much of Johal, Scott Knight, Moni Mannings, aware of is what you don’t know,” he said. form for hedge funds and private equity, the executive team.” Derek Mapp, Patrice McDonald, “Lots of people will think you know a lot, Preqin, alongside the day-and-a-half a Today, Relx enjoys a market capitalisa- Malcolm McKenzie, Iain Newman, but actually, you probably don’t know week he spends on Relx.) “When I was tion of more than £31bn. It is one of the Frances O’Grady, Oliver Shah, much about whatever it is they want to doing Relx and Whitbread, on the other top 20 FTSE companies. Richard Taylor, Susan Vinnicombe talk to you about. So you have to do a lot side of Trafalgar Square, I’d stroll back- In the three decades since he started and Tim Ward of listening and learning.” wards and forwards,” he said. his non-executive directorships in 1988 at

The supply of the material by The Publisher does not constitute or imply any endorsement or sponsorship of any product, service, company or organisation. Material may not be edited, altered, photocopied, electronically scanned or otherwise dealt in without the written permission of The Publisher. Times News Paper, News UK & Ireland Ltd, 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF email: [email protected]. Reprinted with permission by www.medialicensingco.com tel: 020 3773 9320.