BettingBusinessInteractive • SEPTEMBER 2011
B2B 29
KEYNOTE Handling change
Roger Flynn is a worldwide expert in transformational change. His experience is unique having been the CEO/director leading change in five global companies including the BBC, British Airways and Virgin. His address on the second day of EiG is entitled: “Making it work in highly regulated markets.”
s a manager and business leader, what have been the most challenging busi- ness situations you have been in and how have you dealt with them?
A
They have all been challenging as I seem to love being in transformational situations. I think spending seven years at the beginning of my ca- reer working for Richard Branson made me rel- ish big challenges and changing situations.
Professionally, what are the areas you’re fo- cusing on now?
These days I am focused on acquiring business- es in the media sector with private equity back- ing and growing them ready for exit. I have done this twice now and have just raised £150m for a new deal which I am trying to secure.
What companies do you think promise the biggest growth to the investment community?
I am fascinated by the major forces for change
that the world is facing today and therein lie the opportunities; key ones for me are the new pow- erhouse markets of the future such as China, India and Brazil, the renewable energy sector, web 2.0 and social media, the healthcare sector following the cracking of the genome code and baby boomers hitting retirement. I have person- al investments in a renewable energy exhibition business and two online businesses one of which is a targeted social network
As someone who examines and advises on different investment proposals, what are the prevailing trends in the digital entertain- ment space that are being exploited by companies looking for investment and that are particularly interesting to investors? It is very clear that the old established compa- nies are continuing to struggle with adapting their businesses to the world of digital. The music industry was first but the others are fol- lowing. Newspapers are finding it particularly
hard and look at the recent issues that News In- ternational has had with its MySpace acquisi- tion which it has sold for a $254m loss. The in- vestment community is very much focused on new digital entertainment businesses that have market traction and have created a unique op- portunity or have a first mover advantage. Look at Pandora the popular internet radio service that has 80 million users and posted revenues of $138m this year.
The iGaming industry is still very entrepre- neurs-led; based on your experience and observations of other industries, what is in general the impact of industry regulation on the investment climate?
Like any change in a market investors generally don’t like uncertainty. Until the regulatory frameworks are established and the industry are able to demonstrate more predictable earn- ings performance investors will downgrade or steer clear
Looking again at different sectors’ exam- ples, what is the impact of regulation on the industry and its performance? We have seen recently plenty of examples of where regulation has fallen apart and the in- dustry left to pick up the pieces. In the finan- cial markets, the local country regulations were shown to be inadequate against the global approaches of large financial institu- tions. Much of industry regulation is impor- tant and necessary to provide the right pro- tections and the costs have to be absorbed by industries. Joining together any regulation across the EU is extremely difficult and there are usually unintended consequences which affect performance.
What are your expectations for EiG in Milan?
I’m really looking forward to it: a lively industry with many characters and facing many chal- lenges. There should be some great debates.
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