Liberty Global and Telefonica, the respective owners of Virgin Media and O2, have announced their intention to merge, converging their services into a single telecommunications giant likely to present a major challenge to BT.

O2 is the UK’s largest phone company, with 34.5 million users on its network that covers Tesco Mobile, Sky Mobile and Giffgaff. Virgin Media has around 3 million mobile users and 5.3 million broadband and pay-television subscribers.

The combination of O2’s 4G and 5G infrastructure and Virgin Media’s ultrafast cable network will create a joint venture worth upwards of £31 billion.

Liberty Global’s chief executive, Mark Fries, emphasised the potential that the merger could hold. “Virgin Media has redefined broadband and entertainment in the UK with lightning-fast speeds and the most innovative video platform. And O2 is widely recognised as the most reliable and admired mobile operator in the UK,” he said in a statement.

Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallette, chief executive of Telefonica, described the coming partnership as “a game-changer in the UK, at a time when demand for connectivity has never been greater or more critical.”

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Analysts have begun to speculate on other possible motivations behind the merger, and its likelihood of success. Professor John Colley, Associate Dean at Warwick Business School, suggested that the move may be “opportunistic”, stemming from the focus of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) shifting its focus towards business survival during the COVID-19 crisis rather than the protection of competitive markets.

“However O2 and Virgin Media are businesses that are benefitting from the present covid-induced state of affairs”, Colley continued. “One suspects that the CMA will take a keen interest in this merger.”

Mike Kiersey, Principal Technologist at Boomi, a Dell Technologies business, commented that the success of the merger will likely hinge on the two companies’ ability to bring their respective infrastructures into harmony with each other:

“To establish an efficient operating state, a clear integration framework must be put in place, whether that means the entities remain separate or embrace a purely integrated approach. In most cases, a symbiosis of both IT departments will be the likely result.”

Complexity often means risk, mess and can easily spell disaster. The fund sector for example, is one that requires constant thinking, innovating and success management; and it’s not always so easy, especially with a myriad of tasks and operations to see to internally. Below Lauri Paal, who used to work with Skype, Microsoft, and is now the Chief Product Officer at KNEIP, discusses with Finance Monthly some things the funds industry could learn from the telecommunications industry, from consumer behaviour to outsourcing and standardization.

Telecommunications has changed significantly in the last ten years. The regulation, technology and approach have all been reviewed and the industry has seen obvious moves. For example, voice to data as well as communications switching to apps. Moving into financial services, I have witnessed complex regulation and, like in the telecommunications sector, this is constantly changing and creating new challenges. However, our approach and business practices have not changed.

From the outside it is easy to think that the reason the telecommunications industry changed is because of the rise of 3G and eventually 4G technology. But the truth is that change is driven by consumer behaviour and I like to believe Skype played a part in how people consume technology today. Skype’s approach to voice services radically changed the market as we focused on lower cost and high quality international calls. To guarantee this standard, in traditional telecoms networks, operators needs to connect to hundreds of networks globally. Quantitative measures are used to monitor performance. At Skype we defined quality of service as a core value. We created a live feedback feature which is used after every call and we built an algorithm which allowed business allocation based on customer feedback. We drove this innovation.

Non-core activities were outsourced to specialist organisations. We did not build local infrastructure as many telecommunications agencies have in the past, we outsourced to partner management operations, including pricing and invoice management. The results were positive for everyone with each industries’ players focusing on their specialist industry, ultimately providing the customer with a better experience.

Now, in the financial services industry, I think there are a number of lessons that we can take from the disruptive approach in telecommunications and change the way our sector operates. Too much of our industry is still reliant on manual operations and systems are not streamlined to free up professionals to work on their area of specialism rather than on back office functions. Just as voice has become a secondary asset to data in telecommunications, so to traditional investment - especially assets under active management - is facing an optimisation drive. We need to find solutions that automate compliance processes, giving better focus to core activities.

I think the industry needs to push for standardised back office functions and compliance process. We have spent months preparing for PRIIPS and MIFID II but this needs to pay off for the end user. These complex regulations have focused on transparency but that is only beneficial if it uncovers inefficient historical processes, and force companies to adapt and innovate, ultimately becoming more effective. The industry, jointly with the regulators, should focus on understanding and enabling technology trends. Markets tend to be self-regulating, driven by customer demand. Perhaps keeping the end customer (or investor) in the centre of the process and making sure initial objectives were met post implementation will ensure processes are improved.

Asset managers currently tend to build a lot of solutions internally. The industry should rather take a step back to determine which tasks are core, such as product manufacture and investment management, and which tasks can be considered as non-core. Doing so could lead to greater business efficiencies and could, given time, lead to a more standardized industry, as we all witnessed in the communications industry.

However, I think the biggest lesson we can learn from the communications industry is the need to put customers in control. We are seeing trends towards younger investors demanding more knowledge of and access to their investment choices. We need to look at systems that allow the end user to understand and put them in control, whether they are an asset manager or an individual. If we can simplify processes, then their needs will define the future of the industry. Customers will decide and putting them in control needs to be our mission regardless of the industry.

Despite the mobile channel being an increasingly lucrative one for fraudsters to exploit, efforts to implement watertight authentication are being stymied by a lack of clarity around which party is liable in the event of sensitive data being compromised by hackers. It is time that mobile network operators (MNOs) and banks made a concerted effort to clear up this confusion and enable a positive customer experience to come first.

According to Aspect Software, the battle against fraud is one that is still being fought fiercely, especially as cybercriminals become more savvy in the way they conduct their activities. According to the Information Security Media Group’s 2017 Faces of Fraud survey, 52% of businesses polled stated that today’s fraud schemes are too sophisticated and evolve too quickly for their organisation to keep pace. For the mobile channel in particular, incidents of ‘SIM Swap’ fraud – which sees criminals steal money from bank accounts by digitally duplicating SIM cards via social engineering – accounted for 11.5% of total mobile fraud in the past year, according to Aspect’s own figures, attained through its work with banks and MNOs over the last 12 months.

These figures underline the importance of multifactor authentication in getting the upper hand in the fight against fraudsters. However, many organisations remain bogged down in debates over liability, which is slowing down the pace of adoption and risking compromising the trust of their customers.

Keiron Dalton, Global Program Senior Director at Aspect Software’s digital identity division, said: “The issue of liability regarding fraud can be something of a minefield. When working with third-party authentication providers to secure the mobile channel for mobile or telephone banking, it can be a challenge to establish clear, consistent lines of accountability in this area. This lack of direction and transparency can hinder the adoption of high-quality authentication which, crucially, creates a greater risk of customer trust being damaged if a data breach strikes.”

Keiron believes that MNOs and payment services providers, including banks, need to work towards re-evaluating the relationship they have with third-party authentication providers, to a point where a clear understanding is reached on the subject of liability. For Keiron, this means firmly establishing the authentication provider as a partner who provides an essential service along with recommendations on how the company can further improve its security practices, while final liability rests with the company that holds the data.

He concluded: “It is vital that businesses do not lose sight of what is most important when it comes to fraud prevention: maintaining a positive customer experience. This can only be effectively delivered if the organisation in question maintains strong relationships with its authentication partners, and ensures that the boundaries regarding liability are clearly defined. Key to cultivating lasting customer trust is being able to confidently communicate what is being done to keep data safe. If these internal relationships can be effectively managed, this assertive outward persona will come to the fore naturally.”

(Source: Aspect)

Ethos Group  is one of the largest independent, privately owned and fastest growing Unified Communications businesses in the UK. Headquartered in the City of London, the specialist provider of managed print, telecommunications and IT operates in 26 countries, partnering with the leading document and telecommunications solutions providers. 

 Paul Norris, the owner and Chairman of the Ethos Group of Companies, spoke to Katina Hristova about the Group’s recent achievements and the adventure that running Ethos has been thus far. 

What has been happening with Ethos since we last spoke in October 2016? Are there any exciting projects or achievements that you’d like to share with us?

We'd just acquired LGS when we last spoke. Since then, we've successfully integrated that business and its services into Ethos and have substantially increased our digital content management and ITS capabilities, enhancing our knowledge and share of business within advertising, creative arts and media. LGS are the best business in that space bar none - we came second to them enough times to know that. We successfully combined LGS' skills in the creative and studio space with our own EMEA MPS capabilities - traditionally our core market - which was the main reason for the acquisition and a direct consequence of this was winning a global advertising brands' MPS business and bringing another several hundred devices under management within months of the acquisition. Our combined approach actually informed and changed the clients' terms of reference and neither Ethos, nor LGS, would have won this piece of business in its own right before the acquisition. So LGS has been a real success.

In June this year, we acquired RDT Office Solutions Group Limited (“RDT”), another successful and well-established MPS business with a substantial client base, predominantly in London and Europe, which further expanded our UK and EMEA Managed Print business and brought additional services and skills into portfolio.

This was Ethos’ third major managed print acquisition within 12 months, taking our annualised print business revenues and EBITDA to around £38m and £8m respectively. This year's annualised EBITDA should be c. £10m and we will take our annual contracted annuity and EBITDA to c. £25m and £14m by the end of next year.

We made a number of structural changes to the Board and Senior Management Team, appointing a new Group CFO, and ensuring we were completely fit for purpose as a larger organisation. We're a dynamic business but it has run traditionally along clear functional lines. My own role has changed from Group Managing Director to Group Chairman, predominantly so that I can focus on strategic development and growth and Barry Matthews, who has been with me since the beginning, has moved very successfully into the role of Ethos' Managing Director‎.

We've been very busy and the structural changes and improvements in particular have been a real success. It's an incredibly strong SMT.

Ethos was established in 1992 and is now one of the largest independent communication solutions companies in the UK – can you tell us a bit about the company’s journey? What are some of the key challenges that you’ve been faced with? What is the motivation that has kept you going?

Ethos’ core business was originally providing Managed Print Services, but over 25 years, it has evolved and expanded considerably and we now provide our clients with a full range of managed services across their entire communications infrastructure, including: Print Solution Services & Support; Production Print; Creative Arts; Telecommunications, ITS and UC solutions; Content Management; Audio, Video & Collaboration and Security & Compliance.

The challenge has been the fun part, the technological advancements have been enormous and have been driven by - and have in turn driven - clients' requirements and expectations, keeping ahead of those, so that we can always provide our clients with the best independent contemporary advice, has meant that we've had to continually recruit and retain the best people, skills and talent - everybody says this of course, but it's a very strong team at Ethos.

Quite simply we've always challenged ourselves to constantly change and develop in order to retain our status as a market leader. Being independent and brand agnostic has helped us to genuinely fulfil clients bespoke requirements, that's one of the reasons why our client retention rate is so high; our clients trust us to give them 'best' unbiased advice and, as we've grown and diversified and added products and services to the portfolio, they've trusted us to provide additional services to them.

Doing things as well as one can and being recognised for that and working with an incredible team of talented people who take pride in doing everything to the best of their abilities is the ongoing motivation. I always tried to recruit people who were better and brighter than me. Looking around, I think I managed that!

What does a typical day look like for you as Ethos’ Group Chairman? What daily challenges do you encounter and how do you overcome them?

If there was a typical day, I'd give up. I get to think a lot more now; I'm not saying that's necessarily a good thing, but the Board runs the business day-to-day - and does so very well - so I get to concentrate on bigger and potentially more rewarding stuff; enhancements in portfolio, scoping additional services, collaboration and evaluating potential opportunities - some of these come off and get adopted, some don't. I'm also progressively spending less time in the document business and more time in the telecoms business, so that's a 'newer' challenge which I'm enjoying. But the challenges are the same for any businessman; growing the business in every way and making money in a competitive and changing environment, whilst delivering quality and value to your clients and retaining your own quality people - and your principles. As a technology business, it's amplified because technology has changed more rapidly in the last five years than it has in the last fifty - and that will be the case in the next five - so we need to continually innovate and ensure we are absolutely on the pulse. I'm very fortunate to have some incredible technical people on board to do that.

There aren't really daily challenges now, but when there is a challenge I think: 'who can I delegate that to?' Seriously, there should be someone capable of dealing with the vast majority of things that come up.

What's your best and worst business decision and why?


 My worst and best business decision was setting up the telecoms business.

I knew absolutely nothing about it - had I known anything remotely close to what I know now, I'd have never done it. Consequently, I kissed a lot of expensive frogs and wasted a lot of time and money, but, because I'm pretty ‎strong-willed, I carried on and eventually met a great guy - Matt Hill, who is now the Managing Director of that business. With his industry and specialist knowledge, ability and contacts, and our business skills and resources, the company has become a great success, it's won lots of large scale and very valuable business, more than its fair share of awards, it operates in as many countries as the document business and employs some incredibly bright people. The business is starting to do very well indeed and I've no hesitation in saying that within four years, it will be the same size as the document business. ‎It will yet prove to be the most profitable thing I've ever done.

How do you ensure you are directing the Group in the right direction?

You can't ensure it, you just do your best and, to be honest, you make a lot of it up as you go along. I read a lot of what other people say they do, but frankly, anyone who’s telling the truth and runs a business at any level for long enough will tell you that a great deal of it is intuitive - and it should be, that's the bit you're there for. I do take it seriously, I consider the consequences of what I do, I consult the Board ‎and SMT whenever it's appropriate and I always ask 'is it the best we can do?', 'can we do it better?', 'can we do it better than anyone else?', 'can you think of a way to do it better?'. It's my job to say 'we're going over that hill' but it's a team of people who make it happen. The skill (hope) is that there's something worth going over the hill for.

What was the best advice anyone ever gave you, and did you follow it?

Winston Churchill's: "Never, never, never give up" can't be beaten. I also remember my first boss telling me: 'Always leave something for the other guy'. If you squeeze everything from the other person, he/she is hardly likely to have your interests at heart. It was good advice.

Where does Ethos stand internationally and what are the company’s goals moving forward?

Whilst the majority of Ethos’ combined customers are headquartered in the UK, we now operate, at scale and in both the document and telecoms business, in 26 countries. This is EMEA-centric admittedly, but our coverage is expanding rapidly. We manage all of our overseas clients ourselves, so there's a direct relationship with them, if it goes wrong, we fix it.

Being a communications business means we have no excuse for being unable to seamlessly provide services cross-border, so we provide the same SLA to a client in Frankfurt say, as we do in EC2.

The engagement is different for the document business, compared to the telecoms business - far more can be done remotely with the latter - and, of course, much of the portfolio is specifically geared to remote communications, work process and improvements anyway.

Culture aside, I see no difference whatsoever in relation to a client’s physical location, our job is to provide a managed service to an agreed performance level regardless of the end point.

What motivates you most about working within the Unified Communications industry?

Change, diversity and connectivity.  I'd hate to be in a static environment and the UC industry is anything but static. I'm not a technical person, so I ‎view it all as a user - Does it work? ; What’s the benefit and improvement? ; Together with 'Can we make money from selling it?’ These are the same questions I ask when we review new products or services.

The landscape is so diverse, there's so much there that corralling it into a manageable, deliverable and interconnected suite of products and services, which are capable of - and make cohesive sense in - deploying under a single managed agreement, is an exciting challenge and you do very often see businesses get it wrong. We want to enlighten and enable our clients, not baffle them.

It also always feels 'young', like there's something new and exciting just about to happen. Whilst no business is recession proof and there have been tough challenges for over the last several years, the industry is very resilient - being largely annuity-based clearly helps - but it's innovative and precipitates change in perceptions and needs, which drive desires and behaviours – something that you really need when you're trying to sell things.

If I hadn't fallen into it by chance, I'd claim it was an inspired choice.

Given the speed and complexity at which the communication needs of your clients are changing, is there anything that's particularly on your agenda at the moment?

A lot. Compliance and security are increasingly becoming a first point of engagement with clients within both the document and telecoms business. We're headquartered in the City of London, so we're well used to working with clients in relation to their regulatory considerations. We also advise clients in relation to document security and telecoms aspects of MiFID II and GDPR process requirements, we work with clients in relation to high-speed low-cost encrypted data and content storage requirements in innovative ways. Distributed working practices and international trade continue to drive technology requirements and, as businesses are no longer constrained by geographical or physical barriers, we have to reflect that in our services, capabilities and knowledge base. An example of this is our Multi-net offering, enabling clients to access all UK networks from a single SIM/ phone.

We were one of the first businesses to go to market with a hosted telephony offering and we're now layering that with additional hosted applications and services. Where it's an applicable and appropriate solution, cloud based technologies, in particular contact centre, work force optimisation tools, compliant call recording, audio/ video and collaboration tools, ‎as well as cloud based data storage, are continuing to build momentum. The move towards digitalisation continues and drives requirements around process efficiency, compliance and security‎. Our clients’ key challenges in the next 12-18 months will include the planned introduction of GDPR. You can't open your eyes without seeing that or being offered advice on it, but at Ethos we understand that technology alone can’t meet all of the proposed requirements and we’re working with clients to address their processes, procedures and the technology required to meet the challenge. We also provide government grade encrypted storage and software solutions that enable our clients to respond to and manage potentially non-compliant activity efficiently and effectively. Data growth, security and collaboration are key drivers in many businesses and this continues to influence our direction and focus. We've added complimentary technology to address these challenges. Our focus on our clients’ data, documents and content being in securing it, securing access to it, managing it and distributing it. It can appear a crowded space so we adopt and develop innovative technologies that solve multiple challenges. We don’t want to offer the same things as our competitors - we want to offer something better, different, while remaining agile in our approach and backing that up with the highest quality service and support.

How do you see the future for your competitors?

Mixed. Unfortunately, some will cease to be relevant and some will do very well. I gambled several years ago, when I set up the telecoms business, that the future of communications businesses would be the provision of all communications resources; documents, voice and data, by one service provider, eventually on a single managed service agreement, that sounds great, except if you make that your pitch then every part of it needs to be excellent. You can't excel at one part and then try and engage with the client with another that's substandard, far from making the relationship more valuable and stickier - you'll ruin it and lose the lot. But being able to consult, independently advise, and deliver different technologies at the highest level, with one single point of contact‎ and, ideally, on a single managed agreement is our objective. We're not there yet, but we're materially there with some clients, some of whom are very large Pan-European businesses, so it's possible and I genuinely think - caveated heavily as to ability - it's what clients will want.

Looking to 2018 and beyond, what is your vision for the future of Ethos? What do you hope to accomplish?

By the end of next year, Ethos' document business will be the most profitable independent business in the UK industry, easily the most proportionately profitable, so that's a 'mark' I suppose. It must, at very least, mean that we run the business well. But that's almost by default as we're growing well organically and by acquisition. What I'd like is to continue to intelligently expand our portfolio and to offer more to our existing and new clients.

However, we're very careful about what we bring into our portfolio - it has to be the best of its type and it has to add real value to us and to our clients. The problem with technology businesses is that everyone is passionate about their own offering, especially when there's an element of IP involved. Unfortunately, you can be as passionate as you want about something but, if it's rubbish, then no one is going to buy it or, if they do, they won't thank you for it and they won't deal with you again. This is why we're guarded about what gets in.

Additionally, I'd also like to further expand our client base outside the UK. That's something we're working on now and there will be further collaborations with like-minded businesses, where we can integrate services and technologies. Our ITS capability is growing at a terrific rate, which is bringing enormous new opportunities. We also have a couple of acquisitions on the horizon.

I've a particular interest in telecoms now - there's an incredible opportunity for growth and value, especially by acquisition. In fact, the opportunities for acquisition are enhanced because of the more diverse nature of that industry, and that really excites me, as does the technology that's coming along. Enhancing everything that we do and reducing cost, you'd have to be very bad indeed not to be able to capitalise on that.

Website: http://www.ethos.co.uk/

Deloitte predicts that over 300 million smartphones, or more than one-fifth of units sold in 2017, will have machine learning capabilities within the device in the next 12 months. The 16^th edition of the "Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) Predictions" showcases how mobile devices will be able to perform machine learning tasks even without connectivity, which will significantly alter how humans interact with technology across every industry, market and society.

However, over time machine learning on-the-go will not just be limited to smartphones. These capabilities are likely to be found in tens of millions (or more) of drones, tablets, cars, virtual or augmented reality devices, medical tools, Internet of Things (IoT) devices and unforeseen new technologies.

"Machine learning is fascinating as it will revolutionize how we conduct simple tasks like translating content, but it also has major security and health consequences that can improve societies around the world," said Paul Sallomi, vice chairman and global TMT industry leader, Deloitte LLP and US technology sector leader. "For example, mobile machine learning is a strong entry point to improve responses to disaster relief, help save lives with autonomous vehicles, and even turn the tide against the growing wave of cyberattacks."

"Our predictions for 2017 showcase the enormous influence that machine learning and the Internet of Things are having on the current technology marketplace," said Sandy Shirai, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP and US technology, media and telecommunications leader. "With many technologies coming into their own as their power and speed increases and the cost of delivering them goes down, we'll continue to see these platforms grow exponentially and expand their role across industries, creating a whole new value proposition and opportunities."

Another innovation with the power to transform the world is autonomous braking. Deloitte predicts that in 2022, in the US alone, fatalities from motor vehicle accidents will have fallen by 6,000, a 16% decline in 2017. The greatest factor in this decline will likely be automatic emergency braking (AEB) technologies. Deloitte expects that AEB will be so widely adopted, affordable, and successful at helping to save lives that it may even slow down the movement toward full self-driving cars.

It's not just about developing new technology, but how this technology is procured that is set to transform how we live and work. Deloitte predicts that by the end of 2018, spending on IT-as-a-Service for data centers, software, and services will reach nearly $550 billion worldwide, up from $361 billion in 2016. Although flexible consumption-based business models will not be ubiquitous by 2018, at over a third of all IT spending (35%), they're expected to exceed half a trillion dollars and grow rapidly. This shift will begin to transform how the IT industry markets, sells and buys technology across businesses worldwide.

(Source: Deloitte)

This month Katina Hristova had the privilege of interviewing the newly appointed Chief Financial Officer of O2 - Patricia Cobian. She became CFO of O2 in August, taking on the role when the corporation’s new CEO Mark Evans appointed her to his board.

O2 is the commercial brand of Telefonica UK Limited and is a leading digital communications company with the highest customer satisfaction for any mobile provider according to Ofcom. With over 25 million customers, O2 runs 2G, 3G and 4G networks across the UK, as well as operating its nationwide O2 Wi-Fi service. The company owns the successful giffgaff brand as well as half of Tesco Mobile and has agreements to provide the network service for other leading mobile brands including Lycamobile, Sky and TalkTalk. O2 has over 450 retail stores and sponsors The O2, O2 Academy venues and England Rugby.

 Over the next few pages, Finance Monthly hears about Patricia’s experience within the telco sector, how her work at Telefonica has helped towards becoming O2’s new CFO and her next steps and goals at O2.

You were recently appointed as O2’s new chief financial officer – what’s your vision for the company and what goals are you arriving with as a CFO of the telecommunications services provider?

Although new to the CFO role, I’ve worked in the telco sector for 17 years – 10 of those with Telefonica.

Throughout that time, O2 has shown that it’s a special brand and business. It has a strong track record of taking bold and disruptive business moves on behalf of its customers – from bringing the iPhone to the UK in 2007 to ripping up the rule book on tariffs by launching O2’s Refresh – the UK’s first contract that allows customers to upgrade their devices whenever they want.

I’ve long believed that if you look after your customers, the bottom line will take care of itself.

Our strategy of putting our customers at the heart of everything we do has brought success: we have just celebrated seven years of the highest customer satisfaction scores in the industry, as measured by the regulator. As a result, we have the most loyal customers, proven by having the lowest churn figure in the market. We now connect more than 25 million people to their passions and the people and they love and work with.

We will continue to be customer-led. We will keep being obsessive about our customers – truly understanding what they want and need, and delivering a best in class customer experience. But all of this is not the preserve of the marketing or business insights team. I’ve challenged all of my team to know and understand our customers – only then can we as a finance function make informed investment decisions and deliver value for the business.

Secondly, I want us to continue to be mobile-first. For a number of years now, companies have moved towards quad play strategies – bundling TV, fixed line broadband, landline and mobile. And they have been bundling fixed technology because they have it on offer, not because consumers want it. We are different. We have always been technology agnostic, and we will continue to focus on offering what customers need, not assets that we have bought and need to find a way to monetize.

Today, customers want mobile connectivity. Four in five adults own a smartphone and for the first time, more people are choosing their phones rather than laptops or computers to access the internet. People are no longer simply relying on mobiles for functional calls. They are becoming the remote controls for our lives: for shopping, entertainment, business, news, home life. In fact, people are three times more likely to say they can’t do without their mobiles than a fixed internet connection.

It’s clear evidence that fixed telecom businesses need to be in mobile, whereas we don’t need to be in fixed line.

It is this mobile-first approach, coupled with our understanding of the customer that means we are the best-positioned operator in the UK to capture and drive the opportunities of an increasingly mobile and connectivity-hungry economy.

You have more than 15 years of experience in the TMT space- can you tell us a bit about your previous positions and the lessons that they’ve taught you?

I have not followed what some would call a traditional route to get to where I am today. Rather than qualifying as an accountant, I began my career as an engineer. Although I have taken a different path to most CFOs, my experience has put me in good stead - I am a strategist, comfortable with evaluating the big picture and taking the long term perspective, I am commercial and understand the drivers of value in the business, I am methodical and I am obsessive about details (and of course the numbers).

In further education I studied maths, fluid mechanics, operations research and electronics for six years, but it wasn’t long before I was focusing on corporate finance and TMT at McKinsey & Company. I spent seven years with the firm, working in Madrid, New York and London and building in-depth knowledge of the TMT sector and corporate finance. I credit McKinsey with giving me the opportunity to develop an international career, and I still count on great friends and mentors from that time.

I initially joined Telefonica in 2006 as SVP Strategy & Development for O2 Europe before becoming Chief of Staff to the Telefonica Europe CEO in 2009. In that role I developed a deeper understanding of Telefonica’s European operations and focused on stakeholder management. In 2011 I joined the Executive Committee for Telefonica Europe as Business Development Director, overseeing a period rife with key partnerships and M&A activity. Key milestones over that period were the sale of the Irish business and of Telefonica Czech Republic, but also the IPO of Telefonica Germany and the acquisition of ePlus. I then joined O2 as Strategy and Transformation Director in 2014 before becoming CFO.

Looking back on my career so far, I would highlight the importance of being open to learning and seeing that as the key source for development. And equally importantly, the value in surrounding yourself with brilliant people. Some people might find that threatening – but for me, only by being open to understanding a new angle and by surrounding ourselves with people who can bring a new perspective and different skills can we continually challenge the status quo, think innovatively and deliver for our customers.

Your appointment comes at a crucial time for O2 considering the on-going debate about the business and the upcoming spectrum, what challenges have you been faced with so far?

 I have spent most of my career working in the telco sector. It’s one of the most dynamic and innovative around. But it’s also one of the most fiercely competitive and regulated markets.

People’s demand for connectivity is clear for everyone to see. Almost 40 million people have already signed up to 4G in the UK so they can work, do business, watch videos and shop on the go. Data use on our network continues to accelerate year on year. It presents a huge opportunity for businesses both within and outside of our sector, as people and businesses demand mobile-powered products, apps and services.

With Britain’s economy in a period of uncertainty, finding ways to unlock growth is vital to our ability to compete on a global scale. The digital economy is already growing around 30% faster than the rest of the economy, according to think tank Innovate UK. Meanwhile Deloitte’s 2016 Mobile Consumer survey revealed that 4G adoption has more than doubled in the past year from 25% to 54%. It is clear that mobile connectivity is the invisible infrastructure that has been powering our economy.

But for individuals, businesses and communities to use mobile connectivity to its full potential – particularly in a post-Brexit Britain - we need to set the right conditions to ensure a competitive and fair mobile marketplace. We need to work together to build a digital infrastructure that’s fit for the future.

First, we need a regulatory environment that delivers a level playing field for businesses and supports a competitive market for customers. Creating the right incentives to invest and roll out superfast networks as we move to 5G will be critical to ensuring we capitalise on the opportunity for mobile to secure our economic future.

Secondly, we need a spectrum auction process that encourages the quickest and fairest deployment of spectrum. The next auction, due in early 2017, is an opportunity to rebalance spectrum across the mobile sector. This would promote competition and benefit customers. Ofcom has made it clear that it wants a market in which four strong operators can compete fairly. Measures should therefore be taken to guarantee that the auction does not increase of the current imbalance, does not enable spectrum hoarding and does not allow for strategic bidding, which could force up prices over and above the intrinsic value of the spectrum. This isn’t about getting spectrum cheaply, we believe operators should pay the market rate. It’s about efficient and effective use of spectrum to deliver for consumers and UK plc, and help reboot the economy.

Finally, outdated analogue planning laws and regulation need to be updated so we can build the invisible infrastructure people want. As it stands, rights of access to mobile phone masts are inadequate and affect mobile phone customers when network faults need to be fixed or new sites need to be installed. Solving this issue not only requires a bold, long-term vision, it requires leadership, partnership and collective effort by industry, government, local authorities, regulators and the public. The Digital Economy Bill sets us on the right path but we all need to work together to deliver the country’s digital infrastructure and secure an economic future for everyone.

What are your responsibilities and what does a typical day in the office look like for you?

In my role as CFO I look after all aspects of Finance, Strategy and Procurement. And it sounds clichéd but in these first three months I still have not worked a single “typical” day. Clearly some activities follow a monthly or weekly cadence but every day is different in terms of how I need to support my team or my colleagues around the board table on a key negotiation, a commercial decision, or allocating capital across the wide array of demands.

I am passionate about the role of Finance in helping the business understand the interdependencies across different actions, the impact of activity across the business but not just with the goal of explaining what happened and examining past performance, but in a forward looking way, supporting decision making.

In your opinion, what might the future of financial directors look like in the upcoming years?

The digital revolution has already disrupted entire industries, shaped new operating models and created a whole raft of roles that simply didn’t exist when I first started out my career. Almost every role in every company in every sector has been touched by new technology in the last decade. The role of the CFO is no exception.

I believe that CFOs have a central role to play - I don’t just mean by appreciating the ability of digital technology to drive cost efficiencies or streamline operations. I mean in truly understanding and championing how technology can add significant value within your business model.

To truly add value to our businesses we need to be as close to our customers as we are to the numbers. That means we need to be anticipating their changing needs and responding to them quickly. It shouldn’t only be the responsibility of the customer insight teams. The modern day finance function should be equipped to understand customer demands and expectations, and we must also better embrace collaboration with colleagues from across the business. Just as we expect our marketing colleagues to understand financial limitations and implications for a business, so too should financiers stretch their creative capacity to find new and adaptive ways of doing business.

Forward-thinking CFOs should seek out creative solutions and embrace bold decision-making to overcome business challenges and deliver for customers.