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magaZine
> wiNtEr 2012 > issuE 07
iNsight + iNForMatioN + lEadErship
man on
a mission
Simon Walker’s
ambitions for
the IoD
INSIDE>
thiNkiNg global
Equiniti's international
outlook pagE 16
rEputatioN MaNagEMENt
10 masterclass tips from
a PR expert pagE 30
foreword
words from the front
What an amazing four years
John Parker, Managing Director, Equiniti
Later this year will see the fifth
anniversary of Equiniti leaving the
Lloyds Banking Group and establishing
itself in its own right – and what an
extraordinary four years it has been.
6
contents
of
the
best
Elsewhere, we hear the plans of Simon
Walker, the new man heading up the
Institute of Directors, and a man with
an extraordinary CV that includes
10 Downing Street and Buckingham
Palace. Meanwhile PR expert
Richard Ellis gives us a masterclass
in reputation management.
I hope you enjoy the issue and do get in
touch if you have any feedback.
Please contact me
at: contactus@
equiniti.com
2 > Equiniti Magazine | winter 2012
> wiNtEr 2012 > issuE 07
iNsight + iNForMatioN + lEadErship
Simon Walker’s
ambitions for
the IoD
INSIDE>
4
TV programmes
The UK may be home to just five
terrestrial channels, but its television
production companies still do a healthy
trade abroad. The 2011 annual UK Television
Exports Survey revealed a 13% annual
increase in revenue from 2009–2010, to
£1,418m. Hits include Doctor Who, Coronation
Street and Downton Abbey. The UK is
the second largest exporter of television
programmes in the world.
1
Scotch whisky
We may be in the depths of a global
recession, but the world still enjoys a wee dram
– Scotch whisky exports grew by 23% in the
first nine months of 2011, to reach nearly £3bn.
The USA remains the most lucrative market,
valued at £430m, while France imported the
largest volume of Scotch, at 39.4 million litres.
2
The Financial Times
First published as the four-page ‘London
Financial Guide’ in 1888, the Financial Times
is now printed in 23 sites around the world,
with an average daily readership of 2.1 million
people. Its Chinese subsidiary, FT Chinese, has
more than 1.7 million registered users.
The Somerset-based high street brand
has enjoyed significant success overseas. US
sales rose by 19% in 2010, while sales in the
lucrative Chinese market jumped by 20%. Such
is the popularity of the brand in Jamaica that
it last year inspired an improbable dance floor
reggae tribute by Vybz Kartel.
Equiniti magazine
number 07
Cover photograph
by Paul Rider
man on
a mission
Though it has long ceded its title of the
‘Workshop of the World’, the UK can still
boast some significant, and perhaps
unexpected, export successes.
3 Clarks
John Parker
magaZine
No 1:
great british exports
This issue of the magazine looks at
what has happened to the UK and
global economy since 2007, whilst our
CEO Wayne Story explains the impact
it has had on Equiniti, and how we’ve
developed new services to meet the
changing needs of our clients.
There’s also a strong international
flavour to this issue – we explain the
European corporate governance debate,
look at some clever solutions from
Paymaster International Payments and
discover what’s currently occupying
company secretaries in Hong Kong.
inside this issue
5
Harris tweed
Originally the product of a cottage
industry and associated with staid British
upper classes, Harris tweed has risen
to the heights of an aspirational fashion
brand worn by the likes of Kate Moss
and Madonna. Still handwoven in the
Outer Hebrides, the brand has gained
kudos after being used in collections
by Calvin Klein and Vivienne
Westwood, and is currently exported
to over 50 countries worldwide.
The Dyson
cleaner
6 vacuum
Tired of his vacuum cleaner’s
poor performance Sir James
Dyson did what great innovators
do – he created his own, using the
principle of cyclonic separation
to produce a bagless model. The now
famous vacuum cleaner has enjoyed
success both in the UK and abroad
– 80% are sold outside of the UK –
with exports helping
the company to achieve
a 15% rise in revenues.
thiNkiNg global
Equiniti's international
outlook pagE 16
rEputatioN MaNagEMENt
10 masterclass tips from
a PR expert pagE 30
regulars
4 Thinking Aloud
Wayne Story reflects on Equiniti’s journey since 2007
9 Postcard from Hong Kong
Victoria Ng gives the Tricor perspective
20 My Equiniti
Simon Wadey on compliance, risk and being a football referee
22 What’s new at Equiniti?
Meet Head of Group IT, Ben Crick
26 Company secretary profile
Why BSkyB’s Chris Taylor is always braced for the unexpected
30 Masterclass
An expert’s guide to reputation management
Features
7 Five years on
It’s amazing what’s happened
since Equiniti was founded
10 Six steps to ESP success
David Coleman provides tips on making
the most of your employee share plan
12 New man at the IoD
Simon Walker – the man from
Buckingham Palace
Equiniti Magazine is published on
behalf of Equiniti by White Light Media.
Editorial Director: Fraser Allen
Creative Director: Eric Campbell
Writers: Nicola More, Liz Longden, Nicholas Kelly
www.whitelightmedia.co.uk
Members of the APA & PPA
16 Thinking global
How Equiniti is making an
impact internationally
24 At your service
Why 2011 was a record-breaking
year for Equiniti
28 Auto-enrolment
What you need to know now –
and how we can help
Equiniti Magazine has been printed on environmentally
responsible paper, manufactured using 50% recycled
waste and 50% fibre from well managed forests,
controlled sources and recycled wood.
www.equiniti.com > 3
Thinking Aloud
wayne story
portrait by Ant upton
It’s just over four years since
Equiniti Group was established. In
that short time, the company has
doubled in size – both in terms of
turnover and the expertise it offers.
CEO Wayne Story takes stock
It’s been an amazing four years
We started as a registrar business with revenues
of about £150m. Four years on, our revenues are
over £300m. We also have a much wider base
of services and our retention rates for clients are
strong. We’re in great shape to build the business
further but that growth will be customer-driven.
Our strategy has been to work closely with our
clients, discover what they need and find fresh
ways of delivering it.
The current economic situation brings
threats and opportunities
Because of the economic
situation, organisations
are wanting to
outsource pensions
administration. In
addition, our consulting
division is benefiting
from developments on
the pensions front and
several of our clients
have chosen us as their
software provider.
4 > Equiniti Magazine | summer 2011
We didn’t see many corporate actions in 2011 and
the long-term yield curve for interest rates, which
is a key driver for us, remains challenged. On
the other hand, the pension side has continued
to grow. Because of the current economic
situation, more organisations are wanting to
outsource pensions administration. In addition,
our consulting division is benefiting from
developments on the pensions front and several
of our clients have chosen us as their software
provider. We are delighted that our BPO business
has also seen very good growth again this year.
The threat of double-dip recession
is focusing minds
We review the economic forecasts on a regular
basis and we understand what a double dip
could look like. To an extent, we’re protected
in that out client base is typically made up of
the larger corporate and public sector bodies.
However, we’re in uncharted waters and it would
be very foolish to assume that everything will
be okay. All we can do is adopt a strong risk
management approach, and work hard as a team
to support our clients and to continue to provide
an excellent service.
Thinking Aloud
five years on
We will continue to expand
Later this year will see the fifth
anniversary of Equiniti emerging
from the Lloyds Banking Group and
branching out on its own. It’s been
a good five years for the business
– but a tricky time for everyone
involved in the wider business world.
Nicholas Kelly reports
>wayne story
The registrar business remains a valuable part of
our offering. However, we have now transformed
ourselves into a business services group that
provides a wide range of complex administration
and payment services. We want to be able to
offer our clients a broader choice of services and
to support this we will continue to add specialist
businesses such as the recent acquisition of the
Corporate and Employee Services division of
NatWest Stockbrokers. We’re constantly looking
out for similar opportunities.
International expansion is not an
end in itself
We want to be able to service our clients in the
markets in which they operate. If our clients have
looking back at business
global needs, we must be able to cater for that.
Our strategy for this includes the development
of strategic alliances such as the Global Share
Alliance and bolt-on acquisitions. It’s the
same with the pension market. Having said
that, there is still a big market in the UK and I
wouldn’t underestimate the opportunities.
This business is exciting
For more
information,
please email wayne.
story@equiniti.com
I can’t stress that enough. We have a fantastic
group of people here, a wealth of expertise, a
supportive shareholder in Advent International,
a strong management team and clients with
which we have excellent relationships. Things
may be difficult economically, but I see these as
exciting times, with opportunities, both for us
and for our clients.
The Equiniti Group: The journey so far
The Equiniti Group: The journey so far
2009
2008
Trustee
Pensions
(PWC)Group
formed
Group
formed
Trustee
pension
(PWC)
£400m
2011
2010
2008
£300m
£200m
2009
£100m
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
...and what else happened?
...and what else happened?
2008
The Summer Olympics are
2008
held Summer
in Beijing,
China are
The
Olympics
held in Beijing, China
2009
Barack Obama becomes
2009
President
of thebecomes
United States
Barack
Obama
President of the United States
2010
Spain win the World Cup,
2010
held inwin
South
Spain
theAfrica
World Cup,
held in South Africa
2011
The Arab spring: governments in
2011
Tunisia,
andgovernments
Libya overthrown
The
ArabEgypt
spring:
in
Tunisia, Egypt and Libya overthrown
According to the popular press’s interpretation
of the Mayan calendar, the world is going to
end this year. While that outcome is probably
unlikely, the economic forecast for 2012 feels
suitably apocalyptic. According to the Centre
for Economics and Business Research (CEBR),
the UK is likely to be heading towards a second
recession as the global debt crisis continues to
wreak havoc on the country’s recovery.
The past five years have been a long,
challenging and often exhausting time for British
business. The period has effectively seen the
country go from boom to (not quite) bust, with
the breezy, freewheeling optimism of Blair’s Cool
Britannia a distant and slightly sour memory.
In many ways, 2007 was a watershed year for
British business. At the end of 2006, Chancellor
Gordon Brown was predicting a 3% rate of
economic growth. He also went as far as claiming
government finances would steadily move out of
deficit, growing to an annual surplus of £14 billion
by 2011. With total government debt expected to
reach £1 trillion by 2014, he couldn’t have been
more wrong.
So, what happened? Even by the first quarter
of the year, confidence was clearly on the slide,
with the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC)
reporting “disturbing” trends, and a “worrying
deterioration in performance” in most sectors.
However, venture capital investment – a vital
cog in the wheel of business start-ups – was in
reasonably good health, with UK firms having less
difficulty accessing finance than their US, French
and German counterparts (The 2007 Productivity
and Competitiveness Indicators, Department for
Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform).
Manufacturing industries may have been
continuing to slow, but other sectors of British
business – particularly commodities, the housing
market and financial products – were still
benefiting from a boom that had been building
since the turn of the century.
Confidence was no more evident than on the
London Stock Exchange. During June, the FTSE
100 hit a seven-year high, while British high street
brands like Tesco and Boots continued to perform
well. The technology and telecoms sectors were
also staking their claim – 2007 was not only the
year that Apple’s iPhone made its first appearance
but also the beginning of the public’s obsession
with internet-based social media like Facebook
and a marked increase in online shopping.
five years on
postcard from...
>looking back at business
It was also the year of outlandish and daring
takeover bids: the Royal Bank of Scotland took
over ABN Amro, while Rupert Murdoch’s everexpanding publishing empire reached new heights
with the acquisition of US firm Dow Jones.”
Weather-wise, however, it was the worst
British summer since records began, which went
some way to explain why high-street fashion
outlets recorded poor figures. And by the time
Gordon Brown began his reign as Labour
leader in June 2007, the economic outlook was
increasingly bleak.
In August, the European Central Bank (ECB)
was forced to inject 95 billion euros (£63 billon)
into the eurozone banking market, following the
suspension of investment funds from French bank
BNP Paribis. The credit crunch had begun. The
contagion swiftly spread to the UK, with Northern
Rock receiving emergency support from the Bank
of England and the country witnessed the first run
on a bank in over a century.
While the trickle-down effect of these financial
catastrophes was hardly going to have an impact
hong kong
on smaller British businesses overnight, over the
weeks and months that followed caution became
the watchword, with both banks and investors
becoming increasingly reluctant to part with their
money. By December, the Bank of England had
cut interest rates, and many economists were
beginning to speak the word that strikes fear into
the heart of all governments: recession.
The rest, as they say, is history. In the third
quarter of 2008, after almost 16 years of
unbroken growth, the UK economy
entered its deepest post-war
recession. Over the next eighteen
months, the UK’s GDP fell by 6.4
per cent. The recession spread
across the economy, not least
in the housing market, which
ground virtually to a halt. The auto
sector was also hit particularly
hard: in 2009 Nissan severely cut
production and was forced to make
a humiliating move to a three-day
week in the run-up to Christmas.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime crisis,
and possibly the largest financial
crisis of its kind in human history,”
Bank of England Deputy Governor
Charlie Bean said in 2008. A lot
can change in a year. From a British
business point of view, 2007 was
the year that changed everything.
Fortunately for Equiniti and their
much valued clients, it was the start
of a rather more successful chapter.
Virginia Ng, Director of Investor
Services at Tricor Investor Services,
gives a Hong Kong perspective on
corporate governance and economic
prospects for 2012
skilled company secretaries are very much in
demand in Hong Kong. The
profession is gaining more recognition here due to
an increased emphasis on the importance of
corporate governance, continual upgrades on
listing rules requirements and the fact that
compliance is growing ever more complex.
At the moment, demand is outstripping
supply so there is a high staff turnover amongst
company secretaries as they move about seeking
new opportunities. It’s a concern for businesses
here; they are aware of the need to invest in
training – but training becomes expensive when
staff move on quickly. The issue is exacerbated
by the fact that there are few university courses
in Hong Kong specifically designed for company
secretaries.
IPO and new listings of international brands
on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange confirm
international recognition of Hong Kong's
potential. Hong Kong is strongly connected with
other markets and significantly influenced by
both the performance of the US dollar and the
European markets. We’re constantly vigilant for
any changes in global market conditions that
might affect us. The other big influence, of course,
is China. Its economic policies and developments
inevitably affect our financial performance.
Currently, company secretaries in Hong Kong
are busy preparing to ensure compliance with
virginia ng
Born:
Hong Kong
Education:
The Hong Kong
Polytechnic University
Qualifications:
ACS, ACIS
family:
Married with a
nine-year-old son
hobbies: Travelling
and cooking
new listing rules and corporate governance
requirements that will be introduced in the second
quarter of this year. The changes aim to enhance
governance and transparency, providing better
investor protection. Stakeholders support the
changes and appreciate the value of compliance.
Boardroom diversity and director pay levels
aren’t the big issues in Hong Kong that they are
in the UK. Hong Kong is very well known for
the efficiency and speed of its businesses, and
pay levels are regarded as an acceptable reward
for the commitment required. Having said that,
the new listing rules are setting more stringent
requirements for listed companies to ensure that
sufficient reasons are given for the remuneration
of directors and senior management.
As to the Tricor Group, one of the priorities
for 2012 is consolidating and developing Tricor
Investor Services’ Global Share Alliance with
Equiniti and Australia’s Link Market Services
(see p18). At the same time, we will continue
to expand our global reach. We have made two
recent additions to the Tricor family with our
offices in Japan and India. Then there is China.
Although there are more and more overseas
issuers coming to Hong Kong, China remains a
significant source of new listings for the stock
exchange here. Our strength in offering services
that will meet the needs of the Chinese issuers,
or for that matter international issuers, is our
extensive global network of professionals.
Hong Kong is a great place for business –
a gateway to the region with a very robust
governance structure and a stock exchange that is
very supportive to overseas issuers seeking listing.
For the year ahead, we’re cautiously optimistic as
markets in Asia, particularly China, still hold out
promises for growth and expansion.
Share plans six steps to success
5
Want some advice on communicating
your employee share plan? David
Coleman, Head of Employee Benefits
Support Services at Equiniti, provides
a guide to some of the essentials
3
4
1
Set your focus
It’s important to understand why
you set up the plan in the first place
– what did you ultimately hope to
achieve? Statistics show that share
plans are fantastic for employee
morale, making a significant impact
on loyalty and performance. Before
you flesh out the details of your
scheme, take the time to think about
the results you hope to achieve. A plan
to simply reward might look different
to a plan that is designed to engender
long term employee loyalty.
Choose the
right medium
2
Choose the right plan
Talk to people
Understanding your employees is
key to running a share scheme that
people will want to participate in.
For example, the primary benefit
of a Partnership shares only Share
Incentive Plan (SIP) is the tax
break, which might appeal more
to employees who are higher rate
taxpayers. For many companies,
Sharesave is a great way to incentivise
all their employees, as it provides a
no-risk opportunity to save as well as
the potential for significant returns.
It’s important to know what your
colleagues want and what will benefit
them the most.
A good way to get the best results is to go
out and talk to your people to gauge what
will suit them best. Marks & Spencer is a
great example. They held focus groups and
talked with a range of people across the
business to gain a strong understanding
of what motivates their staff, then built
the communication of the plan around
that. Interestingly, the majority of Marks
& Spencer employees are female, and their
feedback was that the company’s share plan
communications felt very masculine in tone.
That’s something so simple and easy to
overlook, but it can make a big difference. It’s
an incontrovertible truth that the only way to
really know what people want is to ask them.
Again, this is about knowing your
employees and how they like to
interact. There are now a vast range of
methods to communicate and market
your share plans, but the key is to
choose the ones that are right for your
employees. Centrica is a company
that does this well, for example by
communicating Sharesave messages
in short broadcasts to their engineers
on the road. That suits their working
pattern more than a blanket email
campaign or newsletter – but, again,
consultation is the key.
Paint a picture
When I worked as a financial adviser,
part of our training was to learn to
draw little houses and cars upside
down. Why? Because I wasn’t selling
a mortgage or a loan, I was selling a
house or a car to the person on the
other side of the table to me. The same
thing applies to share plans. Alongside
communicating the detail of the
product itself, you’re also marketing
the benefits and the aspiration.
Personalisation and segmentation
have become increasingly popular in
marketing, and if your communication
can reach out and say, for example,
‘This plan is helping you to save for
your dream holiday’, you have a better
chance of engaging people. However,
it’s also important not to over-sell it.
Anecdotal feedback suggests that when
companies use someone’s first name
excessively in marketing material,
the people they are targeting can
sometimes find it invasive, so use
such techniques sparingly. It’s great to
understand what your employees want,
and to tailor your tone, design and
imagery to appeal to them, but if you
over-egg it, you might scare people off.
6
Find a champion
Getting buy-in and visible support
from the leaders of your business is
really valuable. It’s key to find the
people who will connect everyone.
We’ve worked with a number of
companies where their CEO was
an iconic and visible figure in the
business, and their endorsement of
the share scheme had a big impact
on take-up. For disparate companies
in particular, with many stores and
offices, having a strong central figure
gives people a sense of wanting to
be part of something. An example is
the CEO of Talk Talk, Dido Harding,
who is very visible and has a blog
which is read by employees and which
regularly refers to sharesave. Your
business leaders can rally everyone to
come together to move the business
forward. That’s very powerful.
To find out more about the service from Equiniti’s Employee Benefits,
please contact David Coleman on 0207 469 1895 or David.Coleman@Equiniti.com
interview simonfeature
walker
Grasping
the nettle
Working for both Downing Street and
Buckingham Palace taught Simon
Walker valuable lessons. The Director
General of the Institute of Directors
explains all to Fraser Allen
portrait by paul rider
As CVs go, Simon Walker’s is
impressively eye-catching. The Oxfordeducated South African began his
working life as a journalist and public
relations consultant before becoming a
special adviser in the Prime Minister’s
Policy Unit. He later became Director of
Corporate Affairs at British Airways and,
from 2000 to 2003, was Communications
Secretary to HM The Queen. Four years
as Director of Corporate Communications
and Marketing at Reuters followed before
he became Chief Executive of the BVCA,
the organisation representing British
private equity and venture capital.
A background in journalism and
PR; political know-how and royal
associations; high-level corporate affairs
experience, media knowledge and chief
executive credentials – no wonder the
Institute of Directors (IoD) was keen
to appoint him as its Director
General this autumn.
But what was the attraction for
Simon? After all, recent years have
not been kind to the reputation
of corporate Britain. Rightly or
interview simon walker
What’s your favourite place
on earth?
A bay in New Zealand. It’s on the
Awaroa Inlet in the Abel Tasman
National Park.
Where are you most likely to be
found on a Sunday afternoon?
I’m afraid it would probably be at
home sitting in front of my laptop.
What did you want to do when
you left school?
I wanted to be a politician. It’s been
a merciful relief that I didn’t fulfill
that ambition. I’m pleased I got
sidetracked.
If you could spend an hour in
conversation with one living or
historical figure, who would
it be and why?
Cecil Rhodes – he was a deeply
flawed individual, but nonetheless
a man who had great vision and
achieved an enormous amount in
his 48 short years. He is someone
I’d be terribly interested to talk to,
partly because of his strengths, but
also because of his failings.
Simon also points out that membership
of the IoD is a broad church. “The
average IoD director runs a business
employing a few dozen or perhaps
a few hundred people, at a time of
extraordinary economic challenge. I was
in the Midlands recently with an export
business that has lost about 80% of its
European orders in the last year
but is striving to retain its staff and
continue running the business for
the upturn because it’s a long-term
believer in its product and its people.
To me that’s a much more typical
approach of directors in this country.”
As part of its public spending
cuts strategy, the Government has
placed considerable faith in the
private sector’s ability to create extra
job opportunities for those formerly
in the public sector. Despite the
disappointing growth figures throughout
2011, Simon is broadly supportive of
the strategy.
“Reducing the structural deficit is
extremely important and we think that
the Government is proceeding in exactly
the right direction on that,” he says. “The
truth is that the public sector has been
over-staffed for years, and it’s going to take
time for that to be ironed out. To a certain
extent, the private sector is taking on people
from the public sector – that is happening.
However, we would also like to see more
business-friendly measures that encourage
people to start and grow businesses.
What’s the last thing you cooked?
I’m very fond of aubergines,
and whatever I cook usually has
aubergines in it. I think the last thing
I cooked was a veal parmigiana,
aubergines included.
portrait by martina salvi
“I think people rightly resent.
it when someone wrecks a.
company and walks away with.
a large reward for failure”.
How do you relax?
I cycle around eight miles to and
from work. I like it very much – it
brightens up my day.
While the Eurozone crisis is still with us, it’s
difficult to make concrete plans, but once
it has been resolved, I think UK business
will be ready to re-engage, particularly in
export terms. So we need to make that
easier by looking at taxation. We also need
to look at employment law – we’ve got to
create a climate where businesses want to
take people on as employees, that the risk
is acceptable. The Government is moving in
the right direction on that front, but it could
move faster.”
The IoD would also like to see
the Government ease back on autoenrolment of pensions. “We understand
that pensions are vital, and getting the
pensions scheme right is absolutely vital,
but it’s going to impose a burden on
smaller and medium sized companies
in the middle of a severe economic
crisis. A modest delay would be a
sensible measure.”
On a more positive note, Simon
believes that Britain’s directors strongly
support the Government’s moves to
encourage greater diversity in UK
boardrooms. “What it’s really about is
diversity of thought, and you achieve
that by having the greatest range of
people in your organisation. That’s
partly about helping to create climates
in which women are able to participate
more fully in the workplace earlier in
their careers. We need to address issues
such as childminders being priced out
of the market by over-regulation. That’s
a problem – it’s a lot more difficult and
expensive for women with young children
to have their children looked after, and
that sets them at a disadvantage as they
rise further through the business ranks.”
The value in embracing diversity of
thought is one of the key lessons that
Simon drew from his spell at Downing
Street. “I learnt that good ideas come
from all kinds of different sources,” he
says. “It’s important to be on the look-out
constantly. A lot of people connected with
the IoD have excellent ideas, and I want
to hear as many of them as possible.”
His career to date has also taught
him the importance of being open and
straightforward in dealing with people,
and accepting that mistakes are an
important part of working life – as long
as you learn from them, and quickly.
Simon took over the reins at the IoD
in October and since then has travelled
throughout the UK. “The authority of the
IoD comes from its membership, and
the breadth of its membership, rather
than individuals,” he says. “I’ve been
testing members’ opinions, it’s really
important to do that. I suppose I had
always thought of the IoD as having a big
London presence, but the vibrancy of the
regions has really impressed me.”
The South African now running the IoD
has a career path typified by relatively
short (3-4 year) spells in high-profile
jobs, so he is clearly aiming to make an
impact. Expect to hear news of nettles
being grasped as 2012 unfolds.
:: The Springbok connection
Five other South Africans who
have made their mark on the UK
1 JRR Tolkien
The creator of
Middle-earth may
have seemed
as English as
tuppence but he
was actually born
in Bloemfontein. His
mother moved him
to the UK when he was
three.
2 Donald Gordon
The Johannesburg property
developer made his name in the UK
as chairman of Liberty International
before donating a total of £20m to
the Royal Opera House and the Wales
Millennium Centre.
3 Mark
Shuttleworth
Originally from Cape
Town, the South
African internet
entrepreneur and
space tourist runs
his philanthropic
Ubuntu Project from
the Isle of Man.
4 Marius Barnard
Not only was Marius part of the
team, headed by brother Christian,
that performed the world’s first human
to human heart transplant, but his
concern over the financial plight of
seriously ill patients also drove him
to help create the world’s first critical
illness insurance policy.
5 Kevin Pieterson
pictures: pa/rex
wrongly, the kudos of being a company
director has been tainted in the public
eye by the banking crisis, corporate
governance issues and, most recently,
media debate about pay increases for
Britain’s wealthiest businessmen.
“When you start a new role, you need
to take time to think very hard about
what you’re doing, and then be decisive.
You’ve got to grasp the nettle. I’m
thinking carefully about what we can do
next and the attraction for me is that I’m
passionate about the good that business
does,” says Simon. “Now more than ever,
during tough economic times, we need
strong business skills. I saw this job as a
great opportunity to help business put its
case forward.
“The issue with pay increases for
directors is more about reward,” he adds.
“Nobody begrudged Steve Jobs or Bill
Gates the billions they made because they
invented and marketed fantastic products
that have changed our lives. But I think
people rightly resent it when someone
wrecks a company and walks away with
a large reward for failure. I sympathise
with that completely. What I would add is
that the Government can’t do much about
that. Shareholders and investors need to
become more demanding, and I would
encourage them to take more control over
the remuneration of directors.”
Whisper it, but one
of England’s finest
batsmen over the
past eight years
(and captain for
a brief period) is,
let’s be honest,
South African. Born
in Pietermaritzburg,
he made his first-class
debut for Natal in 1997.
feature
international
Thinking
global
Following four years of rapid growth, Equiniti is now
making strides in the international market with the
launch of the Global Share Alliance and Paymaster
International Payments. Nicola Sinclair reports
hen David Cameron made the historic
decision to veto EU treaty changes
last year, commentators were divided.
His own back bench hailed it as a
bold move to protect British interests,
while opponents argued that such
isolation spelled disaster for the UK
economy. It’s a complex situation
that will no doubt engross economists for months to come,
but it’s symptomatic of key tensions in European relations:
can a common treaty benefit 27 economically distinct
nations? Or to put it more plainly, does one size fit all?
It’s a question that applies equally to the European
Commission’s Green Paper on corporate governance,
which seeks to find a governance model that will ensure
responsibility and transparency in the operations of listed
companies. In its response to the consultation, Equiniti
strongly supports the wider application of the UK principle
of ‘comply or explain’, but advocates a flexible approach
to its application – an approach that is mindful of the
differences in each member state.
As a share registrar for more than 700 UK plcs –
including around 50 of the FTSE 100 – Equiniti believes
it has a duty to its clients to be an active voice in the
corporate governance debate. Says Company Secretary
Peter Swabey: “In the wake of the financial crisis, there was
a general feeling that something must be done, and some
commentators and politicians claimed that the crisis was all
down to a failure in corporate governance – a judgment I
believe to be over-simplistic but which, from their viewpoint,
has the merit that it places the blame on companies rather
than politicians. This has led to a wide variety of proposals
for change from a number of international bodies. The
consultations are coming thick and fast, and the truth is that
many of our clients have neither the time nor the resources
to devote to following this debate. But we have to. Corporate
governance is a fundamental issue for our clients, so it’s
our responsibility to engage with the changes that are being
proposed and communicate them as clearly and consistently
as we can across our client base.”
In its response to the EU Green Paper, Equiniti called for
flexibility across a number of areas, in order to protect the
interests of UK companies. For example, the Green Paper
W
international
asks whether there should be an obligatory
division between the roles of chairman
and chief executive, but Peter recalls one
company whose chief executive resigned
soon after being appointed, and was
replaced by the chairman, acting as CEO
in the interim. Hardly an ideal situation,
but the best solution available at that
time. Similarly, the Green Paper considers
limiting the number of mandates a
non-executive director may hold, but
Peter knows from experience that many
clients report that social and charitable
commitments are just as time-consuming
for some directors as additional mandates.
Equiniti argues that the time commitment
of each individual is a question for the
board, not the regulator.
In the case of boardroom diversity,
Equiniti recognises this as a key challenge
and an area in which businesses can and
must do better – but, again, a broadbrush approach is a clumsy solution.
“Diversity is better managed at national
code than EU level, as this can better
reflect the individual circumstances of the
company,” says Peter. “For example, a
company with major interests in the Far
East is much more likely to have a board
with significant representation from the
Far East, which would add considerable
value to the decision-making process,
than a company with no such interests.
Whilst diversity is important, it must be
directly related to the unique situation of
each individual company.”
This is the heart of the issue for Peter
– looking out for the best interests of
Equiniti’s individual clients amongst the
sweeping changes to corporate governance
in the EU. “Our contribution to the debate
is primarily focused on doing what is right
and what is appropriate for businesses
here in the UK, and seeking to ensure
that any new legislation is sufficiently
flexible,” says Peter. “However, by virtue
of our clients’ global operations, Equiniti
is becoming known as a business with
interests around the world.”
Global Share Alliance
Indeed, Equiniti is making bold steps
internationally, with the launch of
Paymaster International Payments and the
Global Share Alliance both adding a new
dimension to its service offering for clients.
The Global Share Alliance (GSA) is a
partnership initiative between Equiniti
and leading share registrars in Hong
Kong and Australasia, designed to
offer clients with global operations one
easy solution to managing their share
registration and employee benefits.
In the GSA, clients will work with a
world-class service provider and benefit
from a holistic view of their register
across the globe. It’s a simple solution,
providing one point of contact and a
relationship team to support clients across
their international operations, as well as
providing advice for expansion into new
countries. Investors then benefit from
access to all markets, 24/7 opening and
multi-currency options. In Hong Kong,
Equiniti has partnered with Tricor, whose
client portfolio includes the majority of
companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock
Exchange, more than 580 companies
listed in Singapore and Malaysia, and
over a third of companies in the Fortune
500. The GSA partner in Australia, India
and South Africa – Link Market Services
Limited – is also a market leader. With 10
million holder records under management,
Link maintains the registers of over 1,000
securities and provides services to over 90
of the S&P/ASX Top 100.
“Previously, I think Equiniti was viewed
as a UK-centric registrar,” says Paul
Matthews, Managing Director Corporate
Markets. “We didn’t really have an
offering for globally mobile companies.
The Global Share Alliance is protectionist
in that it aims to extend our offering for
existing clients, but it also gives us the
capability that if a new client comes in
who wants to list beyond the UK, we are
able to respond to that demand.
“Up until now, Computershare dominated
“All international
payments are
managed through one
online service, so it
only takes a few clicks
to process a payment
and there is no need
to re-key in data”
the market, but this alliance with Link and
Tricor enables us to join forces to compete.
We believe that the GSA will be able to
offer a comparable product range but with
better service and wider functionality. It’s
crucial to have competition in any market,
and we now believe that clients will benefit
from more competitive pricing and a more
efficient end product.”
As with any alliance, effective
partnership working is viewed as key to
the success of the GSA. “We have a basic
share registry offering plus multi-product
financial services,” says Paul. “There are
many synergies across the partners, and
we are currently exploring how we each
run, and sharing those insights to help us
become ‘best of breed’.”
Paymaster International Payments
For companies trading internationally,
corporate governance and share schemes
are not the only functions that can bring
a high level of complexity. Even a process
that should be simple – the payment of
suppliers – can prove enormously costly
in both financial and administrative terms.
Despite the rapid progress of technologies
and the globalised nature of business,
the payments infrastructure is curiously
antiquated and fraught with problems.
Independent research shows that a third
or more of all international payments
contain errors, which incur additional
transaction fees. If a company makes 100
international payments a month, each
incurring a £15 charge, with a 33% fail rate,
that amounts to an additional cost of close
to £6,000 per annum.
The vast majority of these errors come
from keying mistakes, and some finance
departments re-key international payment
data four times. Tracie Colin-McKenzie,
Payments and FX Director for Paymaster
International Payments, explains: “If
you’re not a big global company with an
integrated solution, you often end up with
keying errors, such as entering account
numbers and sort codes in the wrong
format. Small errors like these result in
approximately one-third of international
payments failing and incurring a bank
charge. Our research shows that 86%
of businesses process international
payments through their high-street
bank, but these banks can have a very
domestic focus that can cause a number
of difficulties.
“Say you’re a UK company paying a
supplier in China. Your supplier wants to
receive payment in their local currency,
but the high-street bank can’t pay in that
currency so pay in USD, say, instead.
Many suppliers will inflate the price of
their products or services to cover the
cost of converting payment into their
currency. Those charges can really stack
up, especially with the banks in the chain
also taking a little chunk each time.”
Paymaster, Equiniti’s payments
processor business, has launched a new
service that aims to resolve all those
issues. Paymaster International Payments
(PIP) is an international payment and
foreign exchange solution aimed at midsized corporates. PIP delivers low error
rates, fast processing and transparent and
competitive fee structures all supported
by personalised customer services.
“PIP is about doing everything smarter,”
says Tracie. “All international payments are
managed through one online service, so it
only takes a few clicks to process a payment
and there is no need to re-key data. The
process is also fully integrated with the
client’s account system, and it doesn’t
require lots of sophisticated technology to
run – it can accept Excel, for example. Even
if clients do need to manually enter data,
our market-leading software has an inbuilt
validation system that spots errors before
the payment is submitted.”
The service is designed to be secure and
easy to use, eventually enabling payments
in up to 180 countries at a competitive
price and with no hidden costs. One of
the biggest advantages is that customers
using Paymaster International Payments
can access dedicated customer service
from a secure and trusted business.
“Paymaster has been processing
payments for 175 years, and has great
credentials,” says Tracie. “Being part of
Equiniti Group only enhances that. Many
of our larger competitors are American
owned, while smaller operations tend to
come and go. By comparison, Equiniti is
an established British company and due
diligence shows that we are well respected.
Clients taking advantage of PIP can rest
assured that they are in safe hands, and that
operational and account manager support is
available as and when they need it.”
So what’s next for PIP? “At present, we
offer 65 currencies, which were all chosen
according to client demand. All the obvious
ones are there, as well as some that we
were planning to develop later but which
our clients told us they required now,”
says Tracie. “The product will continue to
evolve, and we will add new currencies and
functionality in line with client feedback.”
This focus on customer needs is at the
heart of Equiniti’s growing international
profile. Whether it’s influencing European
debate on corporate governance, or
launching innovative services such as
PIP and Global Share Alliance, Equiniti’s
efforts are focused not merely on growth,
but on delivering client services fit for
the future.
my equiniti: simon wadey
“If I could go back and offer myself
any advice in 1994, it would be
not to hide away, but to make
your voice heard and grab the
opportunities that come your way”
In 1994 I took a job at
Equiniti during my gap
year between college and
university. I had planned to
become a teacher, but here I
am 18 years later working in
compliance instead. I think what
has kept me interested all this
time has been the variety in
the job. There’s always a new
way to support the business
and I enjoy understanding its
inner workings and tackling any
new challenges that arise. It’s
certainly not a mundane job,
and I have had the opportunity
to learn so much over the years.
Employee trustee team for a
couple of years. In 2006 I made
the move into Compliance
and Risk, an area that’s really
diverse and fast paced. We
have to keep up to speed with
all the FSA regulations and
publications, which are released
on an almost daily basis, as
well as the activities of the
Information Commissioner’s
Office in the UK and the wider
European Commission. It’s vital
to the business that we fully
understand the implications of
the ever-changing regulatory
landscape.
I started out in the
operational side of the
business, and moved over to
employee share plans before
heading up the in-house
The financial crisis greatly
accelerated the pace of change
in Compliance and Risk, and
Equiniti itself has expanded
with new acquisitions in recent
years, so the pressure to keep
up is greater than ever before.
We approach our goals in a very
structured way, with a clear
view of where we’re headed,
and it’s great to have something
to really get your teeth into.
2011 was a particularly
busy year, as we worked
with Xafinity to fully integrate
their platforms into the wider
Group Compliance function
including the deployment
of our enterprise-wide risk
management approach across
the whole group. The industry
also needed to react to the
implementation of the Bribery
Act in July, and I drafted
new policies for how we
communicate bribery laws to
the business and support our
Three quick questions
What’s the best
piece of advice you’ve
ever been given?
What are your
passions outside
of work?
If you didn’t work in
compliance and risk,
what would you do?
I’ve had some good
managers who have told
me not to be scared to
voice my opinion. Good
communication is about
being open and honest,
and acting with integrity
at all times.
I’m a qualified referee, and
I love the feeling of coming
off the pitch after a great
game. I also have a little
girl, who’s two in February,
so I like to spend as much
time as possible with my
family.
I would be a teacher.
colleagues to meet the new
reporting requirements.
The year ahead will see the
FSA disbanded and split into
two new authorities, and we
will be looking closely at how
that impacts on Equiniti and our
clients. We have a strong and
transparent relationship with
the FSA and we will be working
to maintain this by quickly
resolving any new issues as
they arise.
Events in Europe will also
be a major focus. There’s
talk of a new MiFID (Markets in
Financial Instruments Directive)
early in the year, which will
need to be interpreted by the
various European territories,
and there will also be a new
Data Protection Directive. Within
Equiniti itself, 2012 will be about
continuing to grow the business
and delivering new products
and services in a smart fashion.
of having come up through
various areas of the business
– I enjoy a strong overview of
our operations and have good
contacts in all areas.
One of the most important
aspects of working in
compliance is having the right
network of contacts across the
business so that you can go out
and talk to colleagues, finding
out the information you need
and keeping people up to date
on any new developments.
That is one of the benefits
In addition to my work in
compliance I’m also an Equiniti
Business Health & Safety
Champion and notional Chair of
Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR). We take a structured
approach to CSR, with a very
active charity committee
and a range of initiatives in
our local community and the
portrait by anthony upton
He’s a Compliance and Risk
Manager who nearly became
a teacher, and is a referee in
his spare time. If you need
someone to help steer you
in the right direction, Simon
Wadey’s a good contact for you
wider environment. Over the
past few months I have been
working on a partnership
with the local high school in
Worthing, which sees a group of
Year 10/11 pupils spend a day
getting to know the business.
We treat them as we would a
client coming to visit and give
them a fairly intensive tour of
all our operations, including
IT and the mailroom. It helps
the students to understand
that there’s more to running
a business than just what you
see at the front end. It’s a good
way to give something back
to the community, but it also
helps enrich our understanding
of how to interact with the
younger generation, supporting
our recruitment and marketing
efforts. We’ve had great
feedback from the programme
and I hope to roll it out to more
sites in future.
On a personal level, working
with young people really
appeals to the would-be teacher
in me. I’m also a fully qualified
football referee, so I guess
between compliance, teaching
and refereeing I just really enjoy
enforcing the rules! The trick with
all those things is learning to
communicate your message with
confidence. If I could go back and
offer myself any advice in 1994,
it would be not to hide away,
but to make your voice heard
and grab the opportunities that
come your way. Finally,
if there was one thing I would
say to others about compliance,
it’s that, contrary to urban belief,
good compliance is all about
business enablement.
we take a look at the latest news from across Equiniti
what’s new at equiniti?
5
minute
interview
International payments solution
Data analysis
is in demand
Recent research* has shown
that 36% of all international
business payments experience
at least one problem, while the
average missing payment takes
seven working days to notice
and rectify. A new service from
Paymaster aims to make such
errors a thing of the past, offering
a new international payment and
foreign exchange solution aimed
at medium sized companies.
Paymaster International
Payments replicates the
advances in domestic payments,
offering a better way of making
payments with low error rates,
fast processing, transparent and
competitive fee structures, and
a personalised customer service
from dedicated payments and
foreign exchange managers.
*According to research
undertaken on behalf of Travelex
Global Business Payments
For more information
on Paymaster
International Payments, see
Thinking Global on p16-19, or
contact Tracie Colin-McKenzie
on 01293 604427 or at
tracie.colin-mckenzie@
xafinitypaymaster.com
Aquisition boosts
share dealing offering
existing expertise in share
registration, employee benefits
and share plans, Equiniti can now
offer a ‘one stop shop’ for many
investment needs.
For further details, please
go to www.equiniti.com
portfolio of conferences, seminars
and training courses, and is a
leading provider of electronic
information and data, covering
international finance and
emerging markets.
Corac Group plc is an innovative
research and development group,
specialising in compressor and
power electronics technology,
developing patented applications
and creating value for end
customers. It is currently listed on
the AIM market.
“These two business wins are a
great demonstration of Equiniti’s
competitive edge,” says Equiniti
Managing Director John Parker.
For more information on
Equiniti’s Shareholder
Solutions, please contact Danny
Curran on 0207 469 1875 or
danny.curran@equiniti.com
Equiniti has long been
regarded as an expert in
asset reunification, thanks to
its ProSearch service. And it
has now seen an increase in
demand for these specialist
data analysis skills in other
sectors, with charities, local
authorities and private sector
pension schemes among
those benefiting from
Equiniti’s expertise.
Examples of where Equiniti
has been able to help include
assisting pension scheme
trustees to tackle poor recordkeeping; aiding local authorities
in increasing collection rates
of council tax; and helping
the Land & Property Services
(LPS) – the agency responsible
for mapping, land registration,
rating and valuation in
Northern Ireland – to identify
and segment more than 90,000
property records.
“Equiniti Data Service’s
work has been significant
in helping us meet our debt
reduction target for 2010/11,”
says Anne Johnston, Revenue
& Benefits IT Programme
Manager at LPS. “We were
also able to identify for writeoff an amount of uncollectable
debt and provided with
information to enable us
to review our internal
processes and improve
our decision making.”
For more information on
Equiniti Data Services,
please contact Duncan Stevens
on 01732 748154 or Duncan.
Stevens@Equiniti.com
Introducing Ben Crick,
Head of Group IT, Equiniti
What’s your role
I’m responsible for most of the
technology and IT Services across
the Group. We’ve got around 100
permanent employees within IT,
and our work is mainly around
delivering IT services, application
development and support. We also
have a service delivery partner,
with around 70 people offshore
in India, and a good portion of
what we do is managing that
relationship and making sure that
the services they provide to us are
to the level that we require.
You only joined Equiniti
last year. How’s it been?
It’s been fantastic. We’ve made
a huge amount of changes, one
of the major ones being to bring
the Equiniti and Xafinity IT teams
together and get them working
as a single unit. It’s been great to
have been involved in that.
What do you enjoy most
about working at Equiniti?
I enjoy the people side of things.
You often hear the saying: ‘People,
process and technology’. They are
three important elements, but it’s
definitely the people who are the
most important, and I’ve really
enjoyed bringing the teams closer
together. Yes we’ve gone through
some challenging times, but the
outcome has been very good,
we’ve delivered some major
technology changes and it’s been
great to watch services improve.
What are you working
on at the moment?
There are a number of projects
ongoing that we support,
including the Xafinity Data Centre
consolidation, but one of the
biggest business deliverables
has been the ESP portal. This has
been a major step forward for
Equiniti and I’m looking forward
to doing more with it because I
think it really is a differentiator for
us. I believe it’s the best amongst
our competitors, and we need to
make sure our clients are aware of
that and recognise its value.
What’s your vision for the
future of IT in Equiniti?
In the near term we aim to evolve
our products more so that they
are web-enabled and mobile,
allowing our customers to take
more value from the services we
offer. We also want to broaden
our services and make them
more technology-driven. Our
customer base is maturing, and
our customers are becoming
more aware of what technology
can do, so we want to make sure
it’s at the heart of what we do
as a company – not just from an
operational point of view, but in
terms of innovation, too.
“Our customer base
is maturing, and
our customers are
becoming more aware
of what technology
can do, so we want to
make sure it’s at the
heart of what we do
as a company”
The Equiniti Group has further
extended its service offering with
the acquisition of the Corporate
and Employee Services (CES)
division of NatWest Stockbrokers.
CES is a specialist corporate
and share plan stockbroking team
providing dealing services for
participants of all types of share
plans as well as bespoke dealing
services for directors and senior
executives. The team has been
a leading provider in this market
for many years, servicing an
extensive client list, including over
30 FTSE 100 companies.
The acquisition has added a
niche area of business to our
Investment Services Division.
Combining this with Equiniti’s
Euromoney and
Corac turn to Equiniti
Equiniti’s Shareholder Solutions
division recently welcomed two
new clients in Euromoney and
Corac Group plc.
Euromoney is a leading
international business-tobusiness media group, focused
primarily on the international
finance sector.
It publishes more than 100
magazines, newsletters and
journals, runs an extensive
service highlights
At
your
service
2011 was in many
ways a record-breaking
year for Equiniti,
which achieved its
lowest ever number
of complaints and a
service score of 98%.
Equiniti Magazine
looks at the highlights
Letitia Trimmer
Sam Halford
Head of Quality Assurance and
Complaints Management
Head of Document Services
“Complaints are
at a record low
and the focus on
quality ensures we
continue to deliver Graham Bull
Head of Customer Processing
service excellence
across the board.” “My highlight
of the year is the
“2011 has been a fantastic year
way in which
for Equiniti. As a result of our
focus on effective complaint
management and the quality
our people have
of handling, we were rated top
against our competitors in the
risen to every
Complaint Handling category
in the 2011 Capital Analytics
challenge we
survey. We have achieved a
record low in terms of our rate
have set them”
of incoming complaints against
transaction volumes, achieving
0.02%! In addition to this,
the number of complaints
referred to the Financial
Ombudsman has been reduced
by 60% compared with 2010
and Equiniti has not featured
on the six-monthly FOS
publication for 18 months now.
“Our continued focus on
quality and our investment
in training and development
of staff has enabled us to
further enhance the customer
experience and consistently
achieve our quality and
service targets throughout the
year. Our plan of action for
2012 is under way and
has been developed in
conjunction with the
Operational Quality Champions
to ensure that our efforts are
focused on the most important
things to our customers
to ensure we build on the
successes achieved in 2011.”
Director of Operations
John Coombes
“In total Equiniti has handled
more than four million
transactions of various levels
of complexity, 1.4 million
pieces of correspondence to
customers, whilst achieving our
lowest ever complaints record
and quality scores in excess
of 98%,” says Graham Bull.
“In the past decade I believe
there has been a change in
shareholder appetite – today,
service providers are expected
to get it right first time, and
I’m proud that our team has
achieved this in what has been
a challenging year.
“Our people bring our
operation to life and they
have been more than willing
to respond flexibly to change,
learn new skills and pull
together on major contracts.
I’m looking forward to
seeing even greater successes
in 2012.”
Steve Binstead
Head of Client Task
Management
“The bar keeps
on rising”
For Steve Binstead, one
of Equiniti’s greatest
achievements in 2011 is the
high quality of service now
being consistently delivered
to our clients. “I’ve worked
at Equiniti for a number of
years, and I believe our service
performance is stronger now
than it has ever been,” says
Steve. “Complaints are at an
all-time low and we are scoring
higher than ever before in
customer satisfaction. The bar
just keeps on rising.
“In 2011 the Dividend Team
distributed £24bn payments
to 20 million shareholders,
achieving a 98% satisfaction
rate. It was a fantastic year,
and we plan to build on it in
2012 by investing more in
training and multi-skilling
our people. Our work is more
diverse than ever before and
we need a flexible, expert team
to keep delivering outstanding
service to our clients.”
“We rose to the
challenge of
integrating our
services and
mailed 36 million
documents
on time”
A large increase in the volume
of outgoing print and mail
made 2011 a challenging
year, but Equiniti has
maintained service levels
throughout. “Our Print &
Mail operation has taken on
a number of new activities
to achieve better integration
with Equiniti Group,” says
John Coombes. “Through
smarter buying practices and
reduced outsourcing we have
delivered savings in excess of
£1m whilst still processing a
massive volume of mail and
transactions accurately and
on time. In outbound mail,
36 million documents were
printed and cheques issued
to a value of £30bn, whilst
the Imaging & Mailing Centre
scanned and created digital
images for more than nine
million documents.”
One of the biggest logistical
challenges of the year was
the Solvency 2 for Royal &
Sun Alliance, which involved
the printing of 295,000
documents in six languages,
mailing 14,000 envelopes to
international destinations. “It’s
great to look back on the year
and recognise how much we
have achieved,” says John.
“2011 has been
a year of great
Guy Brodie
challenges for
Head of Operational
Development
Operations challenges that
“We supported
our clients through have been fully
delivered by a
a number of
strong, committed
major new
team that I’m proud
contract wins”
to work with.”
In 2011, Equiniti extended its
client offering by successfully
managing the delivery of
projects in areas such as
Solvency 2, Mailroom &
Imaging and Data Migration.
Project Kong provided
scanning and imaging services
for Kings Court Trust; Project
Condor delivered a complex
international mailing operation
for Royal & Sun Alliance’s
Solvency 2 requirements;
and for the data migration
project, Equiniti dedicated at
its peak a team of 90 (in the
customer’s offices across the
UK) to support a large financial
institution with its data
migration challenge.
“These were very challenging
projects but we were able to
meet our clients’ demands,”
says Guy Brodie. “The
migration client was so
impressed with our flexible
resources and quality of
service that it has reappointed
us to continue supporting it
in the next phase for 2012.
We are developing a strong
outsourcing track record that
we can build on in the years
ahead that will shape the
future of our business.”
The award-winning Equiniti
Customer Contact Centre
has proven capability in
operating integrated, multichannel high-quality services
to members of the public,
government and companies
of all sizes. We possess all the
components of functionality,
skills and expertise to deliver
an exceptional service, as many
of our clients will testify. The
contact centre was presented
with more than 2.2 million
customer calls in 2011, with an
abandon rate of just 1.6%.
Following a complete
review of our capabilities by
independent inspectors in
October 2011, we maintained
our accreditation of Version 5
of the CCA standard, the only
company to have been awarded
this two years in a row.
Our own survey found that
91% of our customers rate
our contact centre service very
good or good. In addition,
external accreditations have
been awarded to a number of
operational areas reflecting
improvements in quality and
service excellence.
company secretary profile
chris taylor bskyb
CV
1997-1999
Company Secretarial Assistant,
Diageo plc
The Sky’s
the limit
You organised November’s BSkyB
AGM which, given everything that
happened during 2011, was always
going to be a high-profile event.
How would you sum it up?
A fantastic team effort. A huge amount
of preparation went into ensuring that
the meeting ran smoothly and it paid off
on the day. Hopefully it will be a quieter
affair next year.
Tell us a bit about your role and what
the past year has been like.
I work as part of a small team within
our head office in West London. My
role is wide and varied – I’m typically
working on a number of projects with
various areas of the business, as well as
co-ordinating the work of the Secretariat
Team. The past year has been a challenge
– whilst it has been business as usual
on many fronts, there has been a huge
amount of ‘what if’ planning. It’s been
hard work, but the experience has been
invaluable. What did you do before joining BSkyB
and what attracted you to your
current role?
I joined Guinness as a graduate trainee
in 1995 and qualified as a Chartered
Secretary in 1997. Since then I’ve
worked for Diageo, Orange and Young
& Co.’s Brewery in a variety of company
secretarial roles, before moving to BSkyB
in 2003. It was a great opportunity for
me to join a growing FTSE 100 company
in a broad role. 26 > Equiniti Magazine | winter 2012
1999-2000
Assistant Secretary, Orange plc
2000-2003
Assistant Company Secretary,
Young & Co.’s Brewery plc
2003-2006
Assistant Company Secretary,
British Sky Broadcasting Group plc
Current
Deputy Company Secretary,
British Sky Broadcasting Group plc
What are your priorities for 2012?
Keeping on top of the legislative and
regulatory landscape – there are so many
consultations and reviews going on at the
moment. 2012 is going to be busy year!
What impact has the global economic
downturn had on BSkyB?
Despite the challenging economic
backdrop, BSkyB has performed well –
but we’re certainly not complacent.
We’ve been working hard to drive
efficiencies and cut costs so that we
can continue to invest in the business
and provide more for our customers.
Alongside great content, we launched
Sky Atlantic and Sky Living during 2011,
and Formula 1 is coming to Sky in 2012.
We’ve also introduced a number of
value-added services – such as our video
on demand service, Sky Anytime+, and
Sky Go, which allows customers to watch
live TV on the move – all as part of their
subscription.
What is the biggest single lesson you
have learnt from your current role?
Be ready for the unexpected. You never
know what’s round the corner so you
have to be flexible, adaptable and willing
to knuckle down when you need to.
What benefits does your relationship
with Equiniti deliver?
Equinti are experienced registrars and
we work closely with them to ensure
that our register of members is well
maintained and our shareholders are
receiving the best possible service.
BSkyB’s recent AGM brought home
the importance of the relationship and
highlighted the strength of Equiniti’s
registrar team. Our AGMs have typically
been fairly low-key affairs, but this year
was a different challenge and Equiniti’s
experience of handling high-profile AGMs
was important in helping us ensure that
we were well prepared. portrait by ant upton
Chris Taylor, Deputy
Company Secretary at
BSkyB, loves the mountains,
supports Newcastle United
and is always braced for
the unexpected
1995-1997
Graduate trainee – Guinness plc
If you could choose a completely
different career, what would it be?
I’d set up an adventure business in
the Alps – living and working in the
mountains is a dream. There’s still time,
but for the moment I'll stick to my skiing
and cycling trips! How do you relax outside work? I enjoy making the most of London,
catching up with friends, soaking up its
culture, history and architecture, and
enjoying the bars and restaurants. I’m
also passionate about sport (watching
and doing). At weekends you’ll often find
me cycling or running in the Surrey Hills
or playing golf at Tyrrells Wood on the
North Downs. I also follow Newcastle
United – hardly relaxing but we’re riding
high this season. Howay the lads!
If you could invite three people to
dinner, living or historical, who would
they be and why?
Sir Ranulph Fiennes (right) – an
inspirational character who is always
pushing the boundaries; Sir Bobby
Robson – Geordie legend and a really
genuine down-to-earth guy; and Sir
Norman Foster – my favourite modern
architect and creator of so many iconic
buildings. It would be great to sit with
them and hear their stories and gain an
insight into what drives them. Do you have a secret talent?
I’m ambidextrous – I write with my
left hand but play tennis and golf with
my right!
October 2012 sees the
auto-enrolment
Auto enrolment
introduction of major
pension reforms in the
UK. We take at look at
the changes from an
employer’s perspective
:: Case study: Leeds Building Society
With the forthcoming pensions changes
in mind, Leeds Building Society (LBS)
looked to Equiniti ICS to manage its
auto-enrolment administration.
Established in 1875, LBS is the
UK’s fifth largest building society
and provides a range of mortgage
and investment products, helping its
members to buy their own homes.
Becky Hewitt, Head of HR at LBS,
discusses the process with Rachel Daly,
HR and Payroll Consultant at Equiniti ICS:
Rachel: Why is auto-enrolment an
issue for LBS?
Becky: Despite being in the financial
services industry, nearly 50% of
employees have yet to enrol in one of our
occupational schemes. With most of our
staff being over 22 and eligible for autoenrolment, the forthcoming legislation
will mean additional administration for a
significant part of our workforce.
Auto-enrolment
– are you ready?
T
his autumn will
see important
changes to
pensions provision
in the UK, with
new regulations
requiring
employers not only
to automatically
enrol the vast majority of their workforce
into pension schemes, but also to make
contributions on their behalf.
Auto-enrolment is not just a pension
issue; it will impact HR, payroll, pensions
and finance functions. For many
organisations the process will be costly and
resource intensive. Being ready to comply
with auto-enrolment could take over 18
months; the impact is more than just
extra pensions’ costs. Early preparation is
essential to ensure the changes required
to systems, processes and communication
materials are identified and effectively
addressed. The Equiniti Group is uniquely
able to deliver a comprehensive autoenrolment solution to help you mitigate
the cost and risks that you face.
In the first of a new series of
features on the successful and efficient
implementation of auto-enrolment, we
consider an area that many firms have yet
to address: the impact on their Payroll
systems and processes, and whether
a company should outsource auto-
enrolment. So, what do you need to know?
And what’s the case for outsourcing?
As an employer, what do I need
to consider?
As well as the legal obligations involved, a
number of factors will help with planning
for your business:
Your staging date
Larger employers have earlier ‘staging
dates’ (the date by which they must begin
auto-enrolment), so find out when yours
is and plan accordingly. The Government
has extended staging dates for smaller
employers, so double check when yours is
and ensure you stay up to date.
with legislation, as it is important that they
understand when, how and why pension
contributions will be deducted from their
pay. Again Equiniti ICS has included this in
the managed service.
Rachel: Which aspects of the service
are particularly important to you?
Becky: Flexibility is essential. As our
payroll provider, the Equiniti ICS team and
service are very flexible in meeting our
requirements, so we were keen to extend
this to our auto-enrolment administration.
We are also interested in the analytic
tool offered as part of the service, which
provides information on when job holders
become eligible for auto-enrolment due to
Auto-enrolment will rely on information
from HR and payroll data, such as age
and earnings thresholds, so you will need
to be properly equipped.
Resources available
Most preparation for auto-enrolment
will require a short period of intensive
activity (though eligible employees will
be automatically re-enrolled every three
years), so ensure you have the right
resources in place at the right time.
Your pension scheme
Workplace pension schemes must meet
Rachel: What benefits do you expect to
see as a result of using the Equiniti ICS
managed service?
Becky: Ultimately, we want to be relieved
of the administrative obligation of autoenrolment whilst ensuring our service is
high quality and compliant. I am confident
that Equiniti ICS’s service will meet these
needs, with its automatic triggers, alerts
and workflow, and I expect it will make
our lives much easier. On that basis,
why would we choose to do it ourselves?
To find out more about
Equiniti ICS’s auto-enrolment
outsourcing service contact us on
01635 262080 or visit www.equinitiics.com/hr-auto-enrolment
Rachel: Why did you decide to sign up to
Equiniti ICS’s managed service ahead of
the legislation coming into effect?
Becky: Our staging date isn’t until October
2013 but we were keen to be involved in
developing the solution. We have agreed
that although policy doesn’t require it, it
is best practice to confirm an employee’s
opt-out decision in writing, and Equiniti ICS
has now incorporated this into its service.
We also want to ‘drip feed’ communication
to employees about how we are complying
Your HR and payroll system/
provider
age or earnings changes. This will enable us
to assess what will need to be done in the
next six months or a year’s time.
Our sister company and pensions
expert Xafinity can also help with
reviewing your pension scheme to
ensure it meets your needs, and
ensuring you understand the costs
involved. In addition they can help
with implementation through their
auto-enrolment software for data
management. To find out more,
simply call 0118 918 5457 or visit
www.xafinity.com/autoenrolment
certain requirements, and you may also
wish to consider a number of options in
terms of the type of scheme you choose.
How should you manage
auto-enrolment?
The administrative burden of autoenrolment is heavily weighted around
a business’s staging date, but ongoing
administrative considerations – such
as when employees join, or their age
or earnings level changes – may make
managing this time consuming and costly.
For many businesses, outsourcing may
be beneficial, ensuring that the job is
done effectively, without placing further
demands on your staff and business.
Why should my organisation
outsource the management
of auto-enrolment?
There are five main reasons.
1 Eliminates the need to find and train
resources for a one-off peak activity
2 Guarantees compliance with
legislation
3 Cost-effective, thanks to economies
of scale
4 You can set high service level
agreements
5 Allows management time to focus
on core business activities
masterclass
Reputation management has never been trickier, with
the stakes rising, budgets shrinking and social media
giving every consumer the stones to slay a Goliath.
Richard Ellis, Communications Director of the Public
Relations Consultants Association, offers 10 expert
pointers for preserving your business’ good name
communication goes one way. Putting
the mechanisms in place to engage
with people’s comments and concerns
goes a long way to generating good will
and confidence.
7 Know your
reputational risks
It’s vital to understand your reputational
risks, because the time you have to
respond can be very small – things can
burn slowly for a while and then
suddenly blow up. If you see the risks in
advance, you know who to contact for
comment and how to address the
arguments against you. It saves a huge
amount of time if your CEO knows about
any potentially critical issues and is
prepared to drop everything and speak to
the press about it.
‘‘Know your risks’’
Involve your communications
and PR people…
It’s impossible for your comms and PR
people to communicate your message
if they don’t know what’s going on.
An inability to respond to key issues
creates confusion and mistrust amongst
stakeholders, and this is often caused
by a lack of resources in PR teams. The
recession has actually boosted investment
in this area, with most companies planning
to invest more heavily in communications
in the short and medium term.
2
…and involve them
from the start
Communication tends to be proactive
or reactive. If your comms people
know what’s coming, they can take a
proactive approach, identifying potential
opportunities, hurdles and pitfalls. This
kind of communication has a positive
impact on your organisation’s reputation.
By contrast, reactive communication
means that instead of setting the agenda,
you’re playing catch-up. It forces you into
a negative, defensive position that at best
represents a missed opportunity and at
worst can do lasting damage.
3
Know your stakeholders
In order to monitor your reputation
effectively, you need to know who your
stakeholders are. This is not just about
communicating with customers, staff and
investors, but also knowing your suppliers,
pressure groups in your industry and the
sections of the media that talks about you.
You need to have the comms channels in
place both to engage with the whole
community and to have targeted
conversations with your most influential
commentators. Don’t ignore your
detractors – if you can get your message
across to them, they may well change their
message. Such commentators are not to be
underestimated, as they can be very
influential with investors. Keep the lines of
communication open and earn their trust.
4
Be proactive
When I worked at a consultancy that
undertook engineering projects, I used to
read their reports from the perspective of a
pressure group and note down all the
potential issues. Part of being proactive is
getting to know your risks – a bit like a
reputation audit. Every organisation
knows how it wants to be perceived, but
what you do and say is often distorted by
how people perceive what you do and say.
Make sure your actions align with your
values.
This proactive approach also extends to
opening dialogue with stakeholders. We
no longer live in a broadcast world where
6
Social media has
changed the game
In the past, companies used to
know everyone who had the ability
to influence their reputation and
had the mechanisms in place to go
out and talk to them. Now, anyone
can publish and it’s impossible
to know everyone individually.
We need not just look at press,
investors and analysts but also
staff, consumers, pressure groups
and suppliers, and keep scanning
the horizon to see what messages
are appearing. Once it’s out there,
you have a choice to make: do you
ignore any negative discussion or
engage with it? On some occasions
it’s best to let the fuss die down
on its own, and at other times it’s
worth tackling the issue head-on.
It’s really a judgement call, and this
is where a good comms person will
earns their money.
Reputation management is
a judgement call
There can be a conflict between lawyers
and PRs. Lawyers will generally look to
minimise liability but this is not always
the best approach for your share price in
the long term. The legal process is
notoriously slow yet years of investment
in your brand can be wiped out overnight
by a slow or inadequate PR response.
Opinion shifts rapidly in an age of social
media and, if you fail to communicate,
then others will fill the void for you.
Lawyers are there to protect you
financially, PR people are there to protect
your reputation. Similarly, we have seen
a rise in the use of super-injunctions, but
I’d argue that you need to think very
carefully about covering something up
because when, it does come out, the
damage to your reputation will be ten
times worse.
The press are still important
Social media may have changed the game,
but that does not mean the press are any
less important than they were previously.
Most of the national papers and their
serious bloggers will have a huge number
of followers, and their opinion will carry a
lot of weight. You need to get your message
across to them in an honest way to gain
their trust. When they put a message out
there it will be much more influential than
when you say it, as they are perceived to be
independent. Make sure you have a direct
route to them, give them all the facts and
allow them to voice their opinions freely.
5
8
9 Trust is hard to earn, but
easy to lose
The jeweller Ratner spent years building
up the brand only to see it crash
overnight when their CEO described the
product as “total crap”. If you’re open
and honest with your customers, they’ll
forgive you a few mistakes, but never
treat them like idiots or lie to them.
illustration by Alashi
1
10 Look to the thing you most
want to hide…
The thing you most want your comms
person not to know is probably the thing
they most need to know. Don’t waste
time hiding something when you could
be preparing for potential calamity!
s in
ar ce on
ye ien ati
25 per niﬁc
ex reu
of set
as
Need to reunite
shareholders
with their assets?
Reduce your management costs
Re-establish customer relationships
Cut opportunities for ﬁnancial crime
Best practice in corporate governance
Contact Duncan Stevens, Duncan.Stevens@prosearchassets.com or call 01732 748154

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