Six-month review
David Lloyd-Seed has served in senior IR roles at O2, Severn Trent and Dixons Retail. He has also worked for communications advisory firms and was chairman of the UK’s IR Society. He began his career in corporate broking
Six months into your new position, what has the job been like? It’s been quite a whirlwind: I started on March 2, we had full-year results on March 5, followed by a UK and US roadshow – in the middle of which we all got sent home. It’s at times like this that IR really comes to the fore and is very much in the spotlight internally as well as externally, so it’s been a really interesting challenge.
We’ve had quite a bit of comms to manage, helping investors understand the impact of Covid-19 on our business. We’ve also had new chairman and CEO appointments. Plus, in the gaming sector, regulation is always evolving. I think we have condensed more than two years’ worth of announcements into six months.
This has been a high-touch period for investor interaction. We’ve done considerably more than 300 interactions in the last six months plus a lot of virtual conferences. Traditionally when you come into a business, you spend time meeting people and getting under the hood. Obviously that’s not been as possible as it would normally be, but it feels like things are settling down a bit now, which is giving me more time to think about how we embed proper IR structures, processes and strategies for a FTSE 100 company.
It’s all been made a lot easier by a great team and a great bunch of colleagues who have helped me settle in very quickly.
What does your typical day look like? No one’s day looks anywhere near normal at the moment. One thing I have enjoyed is not getting on a train just after 6.00 am every morning.
But I do miss the decompression time between office and home – the pull of the office is there more permanently when your work desk is in the home. I also miss the human interaction. As comms people, we can of course use video or phone, but nothing beats that face-to-face interaction with investors when you are trying to talk to them about your story.
That aside, the day is no different from what it would be in the office, filled with a mixture of internal and external meetings. The former could be around quarterly reviews, Q3 results, ongoing strategic planning. But a good chunk of my time is taken up talking to analysts and investors.
What elements of your career background do you think have helped you most in this job so far? It comes down to the experiences I’ve had – management change, regulation, crisis, straightforward comms – that prepare you for starting a new position at a time like this. Over the years, your antennae become more sensitive to issues that are relevant, and your instincts sharpen in dealing with them.
It’s also the companies I’ve worked for. Dixons and O2 were both consumer-facing businesses – that helps you get an ingrained understanding of consumer behavior and how it affects the company. Severn Trent, as a heavily regulated utility, gave me insight into how regulators and governments think about business. Having built and rebuilt various IR functions before, it gives you a good sense of what’s really necessary and what gets in the way.
What has been the biggest challenge in the role so far? And what has been your highlight? Covid does overshadow everything and answers both parts of the question. The challenge has been dealing with the sheer intensity of Covid in terms of the news flow and the high touch with investors, while also trying to get up to speed on the new company. It really has been a baptism of fire. But that’s also been the highlight, because it’s been really rewarding. It’s a great time to stretch yourself. I’ve always said I wanted a job that would challenge me, and it’s certainly done that!
David Lloyd-Seed, GVC Group
