The management challenge in the British Post OfficeSir William Barlow, B.Sc.Tech., F.Eng., F.I. Mech.E., F.I.E.E.

Indexing terms: Engineering administration and management

Abstract: The British Post Office, which is the country's biggest business, operating constantly in the publiceye, is still growing fast as it begins to undergo further radical changes in readiness for the formal establish-ment of a separate telecommunications authority, leaving responsibility for Postal and National Girobankservices with the present corporation. The scale and diversity of Post Office activities, and the organisation'sunique position as a nationalised industry touching the daily lives of almost every citizen, are reflected in thecomplexity and challenge of the current corporate management task. The paper examines the approach tothat task, the managerial structure of the corporation and its constituent businesses, and the managementadvantages which can be expected to accrue from the forthcoming separation. It also discusses restraintsimposed on the Post Office by successive governments and advocates early relaxation if wealth-creatingindustries are to be effectively managed and fulfil their objectives with minimum demands upon limitednational economic resources.

1 Introduction

It was after being invited to write about management of theBritish Post Office in this special issue that I reached mydifficult and long-considered decision to give up the chair-manship later in 1980, with the intention of returning tothe private sector. Unexpectedly, therefore, this paper,prepared before my departure, has proved to be a valedictoryexamination of the most challenging period in my entireprofessional career, a period in which I have headed a vastorganisation claiming three centuries of solid public servicetradition, but at the same time in the van of acceleratingtechnological developments and on the verge of far-reaching structural changes.

Notwithstanding my departure, I welcomed the oppor-tunity to contribute to the special issue, because it enabledme to elaborate on the reasons why some of us becomeinvolved in nationalised industry management in the firstplace and why, having now tasted management in both thepublic and private sectors, I have decided that, in the pre-vailing political climate surround our state industries, Iprefer to operate in the latter. I nevertheless leave thepublic sector with regret, because effective management ofour nationalised industries is clearly so vital to this country'ssuccess and prosperity. It is imperative, therefore, in myview, that industrialists or engineers from the private sectorand others who are thought to have the talents to managelarge public organisations should be given every encourage-ment to do so. On the other hand, from my own experience,I can only conclude that it is considerably more difficult tobe a chairman of a nationalised industry than of a privatecompany, since the job is inevitably affected by the wayGovernments of all parties seek to control the state sectorto an extent that I have found unacceptable, while at thesame time professing to acknowledge the concept offreedom to manage.

It is sometimes suggested that perhaps too much is heardabout public-sector chairmen and their problems, butnationalised industries are a fact of life, and our Britisheconomy is a mixed one whether we like it or not. Indeed,those industries represent 24 of the largest enterprises inthe country and contribute some 11% of our gross domesticproduct, so that the importance of the management functionshould not be underestimated.

Why do some of us from private-sector backgroundsbecome involved in that function? Certainly not for themoney, and certainly not out of any desire for a peaceful

Paper 1067A, received 6th September 1980Sir William Barlow was Chairman of the British Post Office fromNovember 1977 to September 1980IEEPROC, Vol. 127, Pt. A, No. 9, DECEMBER 1980

existence! Rather, it is because we have usually been per-suaded by the Government of the day to accept the chal-lenge of running a large state organisation on the premisethat private-sector management attitudes and techniquesare needed to make the business effective. It is indeed achallenge, nowhere more so than in the British Post Office,and that is why we become involved. Incidentally, I am allfor the concept of more chartered engineers being involvedin this way, and I am delighted that another engineer hasbeen appointed to head British Telecom — the new Britishtelecommunications authority.

The Government had wished me to stay and accept thatpost myself, but this would have meant my serving for afurther considerable period in the public sector, which I didnot wish to do. It was a decision not lightly reached, becauseI have a high regard for the Post Office and have enjoyed anexcellent relationship with my immediate senior-management colleagues, as well as much loyal support fromstaff at all levels for the management style and policies Ihave pursued.

As a professional engineer and manager who spent theprevious 30 years in private industry, I saw no reason, onjoining the Post Office, to change my fundamental princi-ples, bringing with me a conviction that the tried and trustedmethods of running a business, based on making a profit,applied as much to this particular business as to any other.Like my fellow state-sector chairmen, I sought to treat it asI would any other business management task, aiming tocreate an efficient, productive, cost-conscious organisationdedicated to giving the best possible service to its customerswhile also giving a fair deal to the 410000 people whowork for the Post Office and make it, outside the CivilService, Britain's biggest single employer.

2 Scale and diversity

Having indicated that the British Post Office employs almost2% of the total working population, I must at this pointprovide some further examples of just how big it is, sinceso many of the management challenges stem from the sheersize and diversity of the organisation. The facts speak forthemselves:

(i) 23 000 main and sub-Post Office counters make thePost Office by far the nation's biggest shopkeeper.

(ii) 78 000 vehicles make it the biggest fleet operator,and, in the transport field, it can also claim its own cable-laying ships and mail-carrying London underground railway.

(iii) The total telecommunications network, with morethan 27 million telephones, plus telex, data communication

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0143- 702X/80/080639 + 06 $01.50/0

and the new Prestel viewdata service, ranks as one of thelargest in the world.

(iv) The Post Office has its own factories and supplydepots and is one of the biggest users of computer power.

(v) Investment is running at a rate approaching £4million a day, and fixed assets are about ten times those ofthe largest private-sector organisations. Moreover, thisinvestment helps support about 100000 jobs in Britishindustry, as well as those within the Post Office.

(vi) The Post Office is a communicator and a banker;largely monopolist in letters and telephones, but competesvigorously in parcels and money-transfer and bankingservices.

(vii) In all, the Post Office handles some 80 millionseparate messages — 30 million letters and parcels and 50million telecommunications calls — every day, providingenormous scope for failure, although the great majorityof those messages always get through on the dot, despitecritics' claims to the contrary.

(viii) Annual turnover is now around £5000 million ayear, and of every £1 spent anywhere in Britain, 5p sooneror later finds its way through the Post Office.In effect, the British Post Office is made up of three distinctbusinesses, already separately financed and accountable,working to Government-set targets, and now beginning tobe managed and operated as directly as possible in antici-pation of formal separation within the next year or so. Byany commercial standards, each of these businesses is largein its own right, yet in addition to the problems of size, Iand my management colleagues also had to wrestle with theincreasing difficulties stemming from the diverse characterand nature of those businesses and the range of servicesthey now provide.

As each year passes, those difficulties and differenceshave become more marked, serving to underline the illogi-cality of seeking to run all three businesses under onecorporate umbrella and a centralised Post Office Board.There has been an obligation to operate in this way since1969 when, after 300 years as a Government departmentunder direct ministerial control, the British Post Officebecame a corporation with nationalised-industry status.

3 Reorganisation and separation

By the early 1930s, support for the idea of hiving off thethen General Post Office had attracted sufficient supportfor the Government to inquire into the possibility throughthe Bridgeman Committee. That Committee firmly rejectedindependence on the grounds 'that the Parliamentarycontrol which exists at present is essential in a business ofsuch a national character'. However, its work did preparethe ground for some important managerial changes, e.g. theintroduction of regional headquarters and devolution ofpowers, beginning to break down a complex and inefficientsystem of centralised decision-making.

That is a policy I myself sought to extend more recently,aiming to give managers freedom of action over the widestpossible range of activities and reserving to higher manage-ment only those issues where service throughout the countrymight be affected or which are governed by national agree-ments. I encouraged managers to show greater local enter-prise and to encourage their own staffs similarly, since I amconvinced that such an approach can serve to improveefficiency and the quality and speed of decision taking, aswell as fostering a greater sense of dedication at all levels.More important, the customer benefits directly from

Fig. 1 The changing face of the postal service

In today's mechanised sorting offices, coding desk operators firsttranslate the postcodes on envelopes into machine-readable language,using typewriter-style keyboards. From this information, machinescan sort the mail down to the appropriate street or individualbusiness address at speeds of up to 20 000 items per hour.

decisions more keenly shaped to local circumstances, and Iaimed to create an environment in which the Post Officeman on the spot has more personal influence over perfor-mance, efficiency and business volume. As in any business,however, devolution must be accompanied by effectivemonitoring and accountability, exercised increasinglythrough operational and financial performance indices.

It was not until the mid-1950s that Bridgeman's financialrecommendations were applied on any lasting basis, theGovernment of the time going on record as stating that thePost Office should be operated as a commercial concern.The task of organising the first steps towards the changeswhich have since taken place fell to the then DirectorGeneral of the GPO, Sir Gordon Radley, and shortly afterhis retirement a 1961 Act of Parliament gave the PostOffice some financial autonomy and freedom to exercisecommercial judgements. It was also freed to regulatestaffing, but not pay and conditions, which, like investmentpolicy, stayed under rigid Treasury control.

Experience soon showed these controls to be undulyfrustrating and that only complete separation from govern-ment would do if the Post Office was to become commercialin the truest sense and run itself on the best business-likelines.

In 1966, the Government announced its intention toturn the GPO into a public corporation, and three yearslater the Act of Parliament supposedly cutting the umbilicalcord was passed, only to be followed, as the record nowshows, by ten years of successive government policies thathave maintained effective control of personnel and invest-ment policies and over much of the day-to-day management.The real problems that would arise in the relationshipbetween responsibility and authority, in giving genuinemanagerial control, yet continuing to demand full accounta-bility in return, had simply not been appreciated in the1969 reorganisation, and by 1976 the struggling newcorporation found itself the subject of another in a longline of enquiries that have littered Post Office history.

Even before joining the Post Office, I myself hadbecome convinced that something more had to be done,and done urgently, to make this unwieldy conglomeratemore manageable. I felt this process would be helped bygoing for separation in its fullest sense and having dedicated

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boards concerned exclusively with the particular challengesof their particular services. After I took up my post andbegan to chair the central Board meetings, seeing at firsthand the recurrent difficulties in reconciling differingbusiness and staff interests, so often resulting in compromisesolutions, I knew I had been right. The Carter Committeehad already, in mid-1977, reached a similar conclusion.Sadly, in my view, the previous administation found itselfunable to act swiftly on that recommendation, since wewere by then in the early throes of our two-year industrial-democracy experiment at central Board level, and it wasnot until September 1979 that I was able to welcome anannouncement by the Government that legislation toachieve separation, creating a new British Telecommu-nications authority and leaving the Postal and NationalGirobank businesses as the Post Office, would be introducedat an early date in the Parliamentary calendar.

At the same time, the Government asked me to press on,within the present legislation, with all possible steps toprepare for autonomous working of the intended neworganisations. I therefore gladly devoted much of theclosing months of my chairmanship to this important task,which I am convinced has already achieved much to thebenefit of our customers and staff alike, since lines ofcentral command and decision making had become undulyoverlong, despite all our best management intentions, leadingto inflexibility and retarding our ability to respond tochanging customer needs. By mid-1980, the new arrange-ments were well in hand, notably the achievement ofseparate Boards able to dedicate themselves wholly totheir particular business and their particular customers, inline with the best commercial practice.

This approach, coupled with the objectives of customersatisfaction, staff satisfaction and profit, is fundamental tothe role of the Post Office, which began its new commercialstatus in 1969 with a long history of dedication to publicservice, but little familarity with the commercial cut andthrust of the market place. For the first time, the PostOffice found itself trying to work as a commerciallymotivated business enterprise and, after so long as a part ofGovernment, it has perhaps understandably taken time forthe new ideas to develop and be put into practice.

The difference, as I see it, has been in the philosophy ofmanagement in a greater willingness to anticipate customerneeds and respond to them, to get decision making nearerthe customer, to be adaptable, to get on with the job, toallow managers authority and responsibility, and, above all,to foster a spirit of dynamism and drive throughout thebusinesses. There is the talent and the will to act in this way,and I am convinced that the forthcoming separation will domuch to accelerate the application of this philosophy,although much will still depend upon achieving the rightbalance between governmental supervision and indepen-dence. Managing the businesses, after separation, will stillbe a demanding task, but it must surely be easier than it hasbeen of late.

4 Monopoly considerations

I have already touched briefly on the monopoly powers inletters and telecommunications, powers that impose strongsocial as well as commercial responsibilities on the PostOffice and which therefore greatly influence managementstyle. These powers, of course, have recently been underGovernment review and are to be partially amended, onboth sides, in the coming legislation. It is no bad thing, inmy view, that the monopolies, and the extent to which the

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businesses are meeting monopoly obligations, should beexamined from time to time. But the fact remains that thePost Office businesses are, above all else, nondiscriminatoryservice organisations, regularly providing mail delivery andtelephone service to the remotest homes on a basis that noprivate operator, motivated by purely commercial consider-ations, could even afford to entertain. The Post Office has aduty to provide such services, and the Government hasconfirmed my belief that we need a monopoly for doingthat.

Management is pleased, therefore, that the basic fabricof the letter and telecommunications network monopoliesare to be kept intact. As to the changes, the businesses willcompete vigorously in those areas to be relaxed. After all,the Post Office is no stranger to competition and marketforces; the Parcels Service competes most successfullyagainst both private and other state sector carriers, and theNational Girobank operates in" a totally and fiercelycompetitive commercial environment. In telecommuni-cations terminal equipment, British Telecom is not afraid ofthe new challenge and looks forward to competing in someareas currently closed to us. It should be possible to managethe monopolies to give customers an excellent service andin such a way that it is unnecessary for others to tell thePost Office how to run its business. The Post Office's ownpowers of self-criticism should be highly developed in thisrespect and it is this attitude that I tried to inculcate duringmy chairmanship.

Indeed, all effort is directed ultimately towards serviceas the main objective. I repeatedly stressed the importanceI attach to this objective, and it was disappointing to methat we were not always able to live up to those aims,although my closing months in office were marked by somewelcome improvement on the postal side and the launch ofa vigorous telecommuncations service improvement pro-gramme.

5 Management principles

I now turn to how we sought to run the businesses andkeep pace with the challenges to management posed bygrowth, diversification and change.

With total annual Post Office capital investment runningat £1550 million, most of this being spent in telecommu-nications, planning and forecasting naturally constitute amajor part of senior management deliberations. For eachbusiness, there is a rolling ten-year plan, which is re-examined and updated, and a five-year plan with particularemphasis upon investment. Revenue and capital expenditureare detailed in the annual operational plan and budget foreach business.

Each business has its own managing director, its ownself-contained supporting services (although there wereuntil recently some centralised functions) and its ownbalance sheet, with no cross-subsidisation, despite what ourcritics often suggest. Each business has its own headquartersfor overall control of operational, marketing and othermatters, and, because of the size of the postal and telecom-munications businesses, these are also broken down into tenregional administrations for each business. Each region hasits own chairman or director and headquarters staff. Atlocal level there are 189 head postmasters and 62 telephone-area general managers. This structure gives flexibility to theapproach to running such large businesses, while at thesame time retaining necessary central control. The localmanager reports to the chairman or director of his region,

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who is responsible to the appropriate managing director,who in turn reports to the Board of which he is a member.

(a) TelecommunicationsThe business is characterised by high growth, rapidlychanging technology, heavy capital-investment needs andthe deployment of about 230000 people in a range ofoccupations from operators to those running satellite earthstations. Detailed planning is the keystone in matching theprovision of plant to public demand, and normally BritishTelecom is one of the best administrations in terms ofunfulfilled orders as a proportion of annual demand.

In Government-department days the telecommunicationsheadquarters was divided broadly into an engineeringdepartment and administrative departments, leading to afeeling by the engineers that the administrators wereinitiating projects they did not fully understand whereasthe administrators suspected the engineers of pursuingtechnological interests which might not always fit customerneeds. Shortly before corporation status the headquarterswas reorganised into a series of functional departmentswhich brought engineers, planners and administratorstogether in the same commands. There were also the usualsupport functions and a powerful research and developmentforce that provided the technical advances and back-up forall the operational departments.

This organisation was a distinct improvement and pro-gressed smoothly as engineers and administrators foundthemselves working together in the same teams solvingcommon problems through the years of high growth of thebasic telephone service. The organisation was able to copewith a rocketing demand and at the same time makedramatic improvements, particularly in easing congestion inthe trunk and international services, provided that therewere no investment restrictions.

Two years ago it became clear that the environment waschanging. Telephone growth rate was still high but therewere indications that it would begin to slacken during thefollowing decade, while at the same time technologicaladvances were accelerating and proliferating (optical fibres,digital transmission and switching, microelectronics etc.).The business would need to change course to a radicalmodernisation of the network and to providing a rapidlywidening range of new customer products and services,both exploiting the advantages that the new technologiescould offer. The management structure was no longer ideallysuited to this new situation because consideration of novelnetwork configurations and sophisticated terminal apparatusinvolved so many operational and support departments.Committees mushroomed and more and more decisionswere pushed up to higher management for eventual resol-ution.

A further new headquarters organisation has thereforebeen introduced to bring together all the functionalelements into a number of 'executives', which, as far aspossible, have the authority and the matching skills andresources to take their own decisions and carry out theirplans within the framework of an overall business strategy.An additional objective was to strengthen the marketingside of the business to prepare for the complexities of newsophisticated terminals and services, an emphasis which hasassumed even greater significance in preparing for thecompetitive era in the terminal market.

Telecommunications headquarters now comprises sixdistinct executives, each with its own policy, planning,technical, implementation, service, personnel and finance

formations to make it as self-contained as possible. Forexample, the Transmission Department with the NetworkExecutive contains units responsible for the technicaldevelopment of line and radio systems, maintenanceprinciples, planning, provision and so on. The InternationalExecutive has taken over the responsibilities for planningand providing submarine cables, deploying the cable shipsand planning and providing satellite earth terminals.Research and advanced development (i.e. development inadvance of specific planned applications) is carried out inthe Technology Executive, but the operational executivescan sponsor work to be carried out for them by theTechnology Executive when specific technical problemsneed to be solved which are beyond their own technicalresources.

It is too early to conclude whether this new managementstructure is ideally suited to the new environment, but Ihave no doubt that it is right to arrange the organisation sothat each manager has clearly defined responsibilities,powers and levels of decision taking, and all the resourcesto enable him to back his own judgement and carry out histasks.

(b) Postal servicesIn contrast, the postal operation is a strongly labour-intensive one, which has hitherto depended in its functioningnot so much upon advanced technology, but upon thephysical handling and carriage of mail, to the extent thatsome 80% of its total costs are for labour, at a time whenprospects for holding down costs and stimulating furthernew business are inevitably limited. However, much hasbeen done since 1969 to strengthen the marketing side, andthe record is one of impressive progress, both in introducingnew facilities to meet changing customer needs, particularlyin the business sector, and in attracting new business for theestablished letter and parcel services.

The impact of technological change on postal operationshas been comparatively recent, so that management thinkingis only now beginning to be influenced by technology asdistinct from the generalist approach. Nevertheless, therehas for some time been a clear need to plan ahead for achanging postal communication market and to foresee theopportunities for technological innovations. Having identi-

Fig. 2 An automatic sorting machine

This type of machine is now being installed in the 80 highlymechanised offices that will take over most letter sorting. Workingfrom phosphor dots impregnated on envelopes, and correspondingto the postcode, these machines sort to 144 different selections atmany times the speed of the fastest human sorter.

642 IEEPROC, Vol. 127, Pt. A, No. 9, DECEMBER 1980

fied this as a most important element of management, wespeeded up activity in a number of areas over the past threeyears.

For example, we more than doubled the number ofoffices equipped for mechanised letter sorting and orderedthe equipment to complete the full national programme.Plans for the introduction of optical-character-recognitiontechniques for letter sorting, and for countrywide facsimileservice, are well advanced, and the world's first internationalelectronic mail service (Intelpost) between London andToronto has already been introduced.

The development of intensive postal mechanisation hasdemanded considerable adjustment in management'sapproach to service operation and the character of theworkplace is now changing significantly. Engineering isplaying an increasing role as our services come to dependmore heavily on mechanised equipment, and electronic mail,whatever its precise form, will demand more technical andspecialist competence if the business is to compete effec-tively in this field. We are already setting up a dedicatedpostal-engineering research capability.

Thus, there is a very close link between the managementof change and the growing importance of the engineeringfunction, which will have implications in several areas.Some of the management skills needed will be different, ifnew technology is to be used effectively. In industrialrelations the more significant function of the engineer willneed to be recognised and the business will need to providean effective engineering management structure after formalseparation and the severing of residual links withtelecommunications engineering resources.

Most important, the business will clearly need moretechnically able people in its top management. A difficultyhere is that the best engineers do not often wish to becometoo far divorced from practical engineering and the fewwilling to change their horizons seek to make the transitionfairly late in their careers, so that their experience is oftennot seen as relevant to general management jobs. That issomething the new postal organisation will have to make aconscious effort to change. However, despite the growingimpact of technology and alternative methods of hard-copycommunication, I see the business remaining basically acarrier of documents and goods, on a smaller althoughconsiderable scale, well into the future, with its majormanagement challenge that of managing people in the faceof resistance to change.

(c) National GirobankThis is the youngest business in the Post Office, born of thecomputer age. Launched in 1968, it has grown rapidly tobecome a major force within the banking world. Corporatedeposit business exceeds £18 billion per annum and thepersonal-account base has grown to over 820 000 accounts,although, with about half the population still unbanked,the potential for further expansion on a broad front issubstantial.

The keystone of Girobank's achievement is the recog-nition at the outset by senior management of the importanceof developing a market-orientated organisation whichrapidly responds to customers' needs within an ever changingcompetitive environment. Girobank managers have rapidlydeveloped into effective market-orientated people througha management philosophy which has concentrated on twokey aspects, namely responsibility and accountability foreffective and timely decision-making at all levels, and aflexible business attitude.

Exposure to the realities of sales negotiation and theimplementation of customer services within a competitiveenvironment have been significant factors. Although it isGirobank's policy to develop adequate managementresources from within the bank, it has been necessary,particularly in recent years, to attract outside expertise tocomplement existing resources and facilitate growth.This has not only provided the organisation with additionalexpertise, but also has enabled managers at all levels tobenefit from exposure to commercial attitudes.

On the academic side, managers are actively encouragedto study for banking or other financial qualifications andmanagers in other specialisms such as personnel, marketing,industrial relations and computing together with generaloperations managers, are encouraged to obtain relevantqualifications. The objective has been to provide a strongand well balanced professional backbone to theorganisation.

6 Management effectiveness and the future

So why, given that we have the right kind of organisationand the right blends of management skills, have we beenunable to make an unqualified success of running our PostOffice and our other great state-service organisations? Thisin turn begs the questions 'what is success in the context ofthe nationalised industries?' and 'what does the nation andthe Government expect of them?'

I am not sure that Britian does know what it wants fromthem. If they make even a little money, they are criticisedfor profiteering at the customers' expense and abusing theirmonopolies. If they lose money, they are held to beinefficient. Either way, they come in for much public andpolitical criticism, which is not the best way to motivatemanagement and staff in those industries.

Here, then, are the two extra dimensions to the state-sector management task. One is the public, which, becauseit 'owns' the industry, freely exercises the right to commentand criticise, to the extent that in achieving or exceedingtheir aims, the industries are seen to be doing no more thantheir job, whereas even the smallest slippage, for whateverreason, is taken to be a fundamental breach of faith. Theother is the Government — and here I make no distinctionbetween political parties — which cannot resist the temp-tation to influence and interfere well beyond the generalstatutory lines of control and direction with which none ofus have any basic quarrel.

In practice, what has happened is that with the life ofBritish Governments being no more than five years therehas been constant short-term interference in nationalisedindustries' policies. It is often asserted that this is inevitablebecause of the impact these industries have on the economyin general, but I believe that the impact would be thatmuch more beneficial if the industries were to be spared theshort-term intervention which has produced so many of thelong-term problems. There is nothing new about this. It hasbeen going on for at least 20 years, and there are few signsof it abating.

To cite the most recent classic Post Office example,Government economic policy some years ago demandedthat we cut back on our telecommunications investmentprogramme, slowing our ability to replace obsolescentequipment and cater fully for expansion. We were thencriticised because we had not modernised fast enough, andwhen, earlier in 1980, we determined the level of investmentnecessary to overcome that legacy, we found ourselves

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Fig. 3 Businessmen have a new aid at their fingertips in Prestel

British Telecom's public viewdata service, which came into fullpublic service in 1979, was a world first. Prestel links televisionreceivers to computers via the telephone network, enabling centrallystored and updated information to be brought directly into theoffice. It can also be used as a two-way system, enabling callers to'talk back' to an information provider.

caught up in the rigid enforcement of cash limits, with theGovernment insisting on treating us as part of the public-sector borrowing requirement, even though we are a revenueand profit generating business, and declining to let usborrow the small proportion of capital needed to supple-ment our own cash flow. This in turn was a key factorforcing us to seek further price increases as the only meansof sustaining essential investment, to ensure that mysuccessors do not receive similar criticism in a few years'time for offering inadequate levels of service.

Controlling long-term investment for short-term politicalexpediency cannot be in the best interests of such busi-nesses, which is why I again said, as my predecessor saidbefore me, that nationalised industries want the true

freedom to be allowed to operate as businesses, owned bythe people for the people.

The recent situation has been clearly unsatisfactory, andwe desperately need a more realistic approach to thehandling of these industries. I believe that they should berun as large independent businesses owned by theGovernment. Having agreed long-term targets and havingdeveloped long-term strategies to meet those targets, theindustries should then be left to manage their own busi-nesses. In that way, the businesses would have a chance toproduce effective management policies to meet the objec-tives of service to customers, fairness to staff and areasonable operating profit in relation to size of turnover.Many of us also believe the industries should have access tocapital markets, whereas in the past they have been limitedto borrowing from the Treasury or from overseas only withTreasury backing.

Give our nationalised industries the chance to do a goodjob and they will do it willingly. Go on knocking andstraightjacketing them, regardless of their difficulties, andyou will not only demotivate those already involved in theirmanagement, but frighten off people of the right calibrefrom wishing to manage them at all.

The British Post Office, as I have explained, is goingthrough change. It is being divided, and its monopoly isbeing diminished. But it is a highly competent organisationwith management experience in depth. In telecommuni-cations, it will be able to apply the new technologies for thebenefit of its customers and meet the growth that theydemand. On the postal side, ways will be found of mini-mising business contraction as the electronic age gathersmomentum, while still maintaining a good service to manymillions of everyday users.

That is what my public-sector management stint hasbeen mainly concerned with, giving good service at aneconomic cost, which I believe can be achieved in a profit-making organisation owned by the Government, butcontrolled first and foremost by management on a day-to-day basis.

Sir William Barlow, 56, was educatedat Manchester Grammar School, wherehe was a Foundation Scholar, andManchester University where heobtained a first-class honours degree inelectrical engineering. After graduatingfrom university in 1944, Sir Williamspent three years in the Royal Navy(Electrical Branch) as a LieutenantRNVR in minesweepers.

Sir William began his industrialcareer in 1947 as a graduate apprentice with the EnglishElectric Company. Between 1950 and 1955 he was thecompany's representative in Spain, handling EnglishElectric's involvement with the supply of electric loco-motives to the Spanish national railways. He returned tothe United Kingdom in 1955 as Deputy Manager of theFusegear Division of English Electric in Liverpool, threeyears later becoming Executive Director of John InglisLimited, Toronto, the Canadian subsidiary of EnglishElectric, where he remained until 1962.

In 1963, Sir William was appointed General Manager ofEnglish Electric's Liverpool and Netherton Divisions,moving on in 1965 to become Managing Director of EnglishElectric Domestic Appliances Limited and General Managerof Electrical Distribution Products. During the latter periodhe was also Chairman and Managing Director of J.G. SlatterLimited of Amersham.

In 1967 Sir William became Managing Director ofEnglish Electric Computers Limited and was responsible for644

launching the System 4 range of computers. He was engagedin the merger negotiations between English Electric andICT which led to the formation of International ComputersLimited in 1968. He left English Electric after 21 years.

His next assignment was to organise the merger ofBritain's three major ball-bearing companies which hadbeen put together by the Labour Government in 1969. Theresulting company was called Ransome Hoffmann PollardLimited (RHP) and Sir William was responsible for thereorganisation of the companies, their modernisation, andthe building of a strong British-owned company operatingon the world scene in this highly important strategicindustry. He was Chairman and Chief Executive to RHPuntil 1977 when he left the company to become Chairmanof the Post Office.

In 1980, Sir William carried out the reorganisation of theBritish Post Office in readiness for the creation of two cor-porations, namely the Post Office, and British Telecom,following which he returned to the private sector in October1980, joining the board of THORN EMI Limited as Chair-man of the Engineering Group, which embraces defenceelectronics, industrial electronics and automation, generalengineering and telecommunications.

He is Chairman of The Design Council, a Governorof the London Business School, a Director of RoyalWorcester Limited and a Vice-president of the IEE.

Sir William, who is married and has a son and adaughter, received his knighthood in June 1977 for hisservices in the engineering industry. He lives in Hampstead,London, and is a keen golfer.

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