INTERVIEW

1997 Diageo was formed in P

aul Walsh is a rare species, a rare species indeed. This month, he celebrates his eleventh anniversary as chief

executive of Diageo, the world’s leading premium drinks group. That’s a feat few company bosses achieve in today’s cut-throat corporate world and puts him right up there as one of the FTSE 100’s longest-serving bosses. So, what’s the secret of his success? Perhaps it’s long weekends. Walsh conducts this interview from the back of his car en route to his home in Suffolk, carefully avoiding the Friday rush hour at 3pm. “I don’t know that there are secrets to success,” says Walsh, as he begins his weekend in the country. “First of all, this is a very robust business. Our business model is enduring. And it’s interesting we’re talking during a time of worldwide market turmoil, because, if you think about it, our brands have seen it all before. Bushmills is over 400 years old, Guinness over 250. Our brands have seen world wars, prohibition and recession, and we’ve managed through, so this is an industry of longevity.

following the merger of GrandMet and Guinness

“ First of all, this is a very robust business. Our business model is enduring. And it’s interesting we’re talking during a time of worldwide market turmoil, because, if you think about it, our brands have seen it all before”

The word Diageo comes from the Latin for day (dia) and the Greek word for world (geo)

“I also think, though, that it’s important

to surround yourself with good people. I’m blessed with people who are very competent at all levels within the organisation. I think the job as a leader is around clarity and simplifi cation, clear goals, clear direction and not making things more complex and doing your utmost to simplify them. And then, for us, it’s having a ruthless focus on performance, markets and consumers.” Another reason for Walsh’s continued

reign at the top of the drinks business could, perhaps, be a foresight few in any industry possess. Earlier this year, he announced to the world that Diageo had refocused from ex-growth traditional markets to the new growth markets of the world such as South America, India and Africa. But, while the shift was announced just a few months ago, the work had been going on behind the scenes for almost a decade.

SHIFTING STRATEGY “It’s not a shift in the last few months,” says Walsh. “We started this journey in 2002, but just didn’t talk about it because we prefer to talk about things we have

done rather than things we intend to do. But we are now at a point where I think more than 30 per cent of our business will be in emerging markets this year, and the law of compounding statistics is that in the next three years it will be more than 50 per cent, so this isn’t something we just decided to do.”

This focus on emerging markets is clear when one considers where Walsh has built the business during his time at the company. Diageo trades in 180 markets, employs more than 20,000 people and has offi ces in 80 countries. The group also has manufacturing facilities throughout the globe, including the UK, Ireland, the US, Canada, Spain, Latin America, India and the Caribbean. In other words, while there has been much talk of developing, high-growth markets in recent years, Diageo has been doing more than paying mere lip service to exploring such opportunities, actively breaking into emerging markets while others were merely pondering such a move. So where in the world is holding

Walsh’s attention right now? Which markets excite him the most? “Every one

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