TNT chief may win top Royal Mail job

The managing director of TNT, the express delivery company, has emerged as a surprise front-runner to take over as Royal Mail chief executive.

Alan Jones joins Adam Crozier, former chief executive of the Football Association, on a shortlist of two for the job.

The Royal Mail is struggling to control heavy losses and plans 30,000 redundancies among its 200,000 staff. Allan Leighton, who changed the name back from Consignia, was appointed chairman in January but has insisted on remaining part-time to cope with nine other directorships.

The appointment of a strong chief executive to succeed John Roberts, who retires next month, is seen as vital if the state-owned mail operator is to avoid financial collapse or serious industrial action.

Mr Jones won City respect for lifting productivity and profits at TNT, while Mr Crozier had a reputation for shaking up vested interests at the FA. In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Leighton said there were still four live candidates. "It's still a pretty open race, I have not yet made up my mind," he said

Privately, government officials say the choice has come down to two, and expect to take a decision in the next few days. Mr Leighton said he was looking for "someone who really wants to do it but who is also slightly scared" of what he called the most difficult job in British industry.

He saw the chairman's role as a "shield keeping all these other things [dealing with the regulator and the gover nment] from raining down on the heads of executives so they can keep on doing their job, which is to run the company".

from FT 5.12.02
EXPERIENCE IN SECTOR BACKS CLAIM
Alan Jones, the former head of UK delivery business TNT, has a strong claim to run the loss-making Royal Mail because he is one of the few people to have ever made money from the industry, writes Dan Roberts.

Since joining TNT in July 1980, he has built a strong reputation among rivals and transformed the express delivery business into a highly profitable company employing 40,000 people and transporting 186m consignments a year. Although this is tiny compared with Royal Mail's 200,000 employees and 82m deliveries a day, Mr Jones has also gained experience within TPG, the Dutch post office, which has overcome many of the same problems facing its UK counterpart. TPG owns TNT as part of its international business and Mr Jones was recently promoted to act as a troubleshooter for TPG's Express business worldwide. Sitting on the main board of TPG, which was the first national postal operator to list on the stock exchange, will have given the 55-year-old manager experience of many of the challenges facing the Royal Mail.

Some question if he has the political skills needed to cope with the notorious pressures of Whitehall and the trade unions. "If he was being picked to run a private sector distribution company, he would be ideal," said one analyst who followed his progress at TPG. "Unfortunately, running Royal Mail is just as much about handling the government, unions and the regulator, which Alan will have had less experience of."

But Mr Jones shares a similar management style to Allan Leighton, the Royal Mail chairman, who will be expected to shelter him from some of the external distractions. Echoing Mr Leighton's chummy style, the TNT boss admits to writing up to 20 personal notes to employees in a car journey. He has also caught the eye of Patricia Hewitt, the trade and industry secretary, who presented him with a management excellence award during a ceremony last year.