Orange Boss Revels in Recent Successes

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Mr. Alexander said he is an enthusiast for the industry. "I love doing new things and I have the energy for them." He describes his style as similar to Branson at Virgin, the man who backed his idea to launch the first mobile virtual network operator—a mobile company that doesn't run its own network—with an investment of just £15m in 1999. The business attracted five million customers, before it was taken public and sold to NTL. "With Virgin Mobile we helped bring the mobile phone mass market. Before, it was a corporate tool, or for a select few. Virgin democratised the mobile and made it available to everyone." He remembers the time as "very much work hard, play hard. There were loads of parties; I don't really remember many of them."

Mr. Alexander retired from Virgin in 2006. A year later he was called into a meeting by Didier Lombard, chairman and chief executive of France Telecom (FTE), who wanted to tempt him out of the self-imposed retirement and resuscitate the French group's floundering UK business.

Mr. Alexander said his entrepreneurial and laid-back style was by no means a shoe-in for an operation hamstrung by bureaucracy and an overbearing parent. He said: "It was quite a different challenge. I asked: 'Are you sure you want me?' It was a pretty brave decision from their point of view." He demanded free reign. "They gave me the freedom and it has produced results. They have been fantastically supportive."

He took the company back to basics. "It was about the fundamentals. We put in the best network, retailers and service. We changed the business fundamentally."

He was given the target of making Orange the largest player in the UK by 2012, a big ask given its 22 per cent market share compared unfavourably with Vodafone's 25 per cent and O2's 27 per cent.

Three years before the deadline, and Mr. Alexander looks set to pull it off. The group announced at the beginning of September that it had seen off counter-offers from the two biggest players in the market to buy T-Mobile UK, the country's fourth player with 15 per cent of the market, and agreed a 50:50 joint venture. The group is set to sign the deal at the end of the month and then will await approval from the regulators to become a national champion. Was the key to dominating the market always a merger? "There were a load of strategic scenarios and this was one of them," Mr. Alexander answered. He continued: "I was attracted out of retirement as it was clear Orange and the market were set for revolution. It was clear there would be a consolidation of network infrastructures and a consolidation of companies. Businesses are looking at how to evolve in an industry facing regulatory pressure, decreasing margins and huge competition."

Mr. Alexander seems calm about the challenges facing Orange, and hopes he can spend more time behind the wheel of his beloved Aston Martin DB4, once driven by Peter Sellers. "My only concern is there aren't enough hours in the day. It is not about money, it's about time," he said. "The trouble is getting enough time to sleep."

Tom Alexander: CEO of Orange
* Mr. Alexander, 50, is married with two children.
* He took up karting in his teens and still races semi-professionally.
* He joined Key Pneumatics in 1978, moving to mobile group Telia in 1986.
* He launched Virgin Mobile with Sir Richard Branson in 1999.
* Was appointed chief executive of Orange in January 2008.

Provided by The Independent—from London, for Independent minds

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