Adrian Lockyer

Title: UK Operations Support Director
Business Area: Central Functions
University: Bristol University
Major: BSc Mathematics and Physics
Year started: 1976

1976
1981
1983
1986
1993
2000
2007

1976

Logica appealed to me when I graduated because of the challenge and variety it offered as a project-based company. Initially, I joined what was the forerunner of our current Space and Defence business. As a member of a number of project teams, I helped develop programs that accurately positioned seismic survey ships and systems that produced plots of path profiles or radio shadow maps for radio propagation calculations. Subsequently I led a team that developed and supported a computer-aided ship design system used during the early design stages of new warships.

1981

After having sole responsibility for delivering to a customer, I then became the most junior member of a large, experienced team of senior consultants carrying out system design and development strategy definition for a massive programme. Almost all the work meant interacting with clients, trying to understand their problems and finding solutions to achieve their goals. I quickly realised that developing an IT solution was just a small part of the overall project: getting to grips with the customer’s business needs and issues was the biggest challenge. The project involved so called “real-time” software. I was keen to understand how to develop such software and relied on the coaching and support of the large team of experts to guide me.

 

1983

After about six years in Space and Defence I was keen to explore other sectors and joined a team of ten in Industry, Distribution & Transport (IDT), defining the functions and initial design for a new suite of products for IBM. What started off as a three-month project turned into a three-year programme peaking at over 60 staff. As well as managing the team implementing one application I managed the acceptance testing phase for all products. These were based on very new technology so we were breaking new ground every day. The customer acceptance phase boosted my commercial awareness as I was involved in resolving contractual issues to ensure that we got paid! This was to stand me in good stead for my next role.

1986

The next few years were particularly exciting and challenging as I moved away from project work into my first line management role looking after all our business in the avionics sector. This grew rapidly to encompass land and sea systems until I was responsible for the whole of Logica’s defence platform systems business. During this period I achieved my goal to be recognised as a member of the management team and deal with a variety of customers and the contractual/financial issues surrounding the projects we delivered.

1993

In the early 1990s government spending in the defence sector was declining so I decided to look for a new challenge. When my old boss in the Space and Defence business, who’d recently been promoted to MD of our Financial Services business, asked me to head up our Investment Banking business, I was excited although a little daunted. It was a complete change for me. I had to get up to speed quickly with a totally new market sector and turn around a business which was loss-making. Logica’s rapid growth in the mid to late 1990s meant our Financial Services business reshaped and my career adapted to meet the exciting business challenges we faced at the time.

2000

After a spell as acting MD for our Financial Services business I was made MD of a new unit responsible for recruiting a central staff pool to supply teams to all businesses. The millennium hype was making recruitment a burning issue and businesses couldn’t recruit fast enough by themselves. After the hype died away I convinced the UK board we needed a new central role to make sure our resourcing needs were met quickly and cost-effectively.

As UK Operations Support Director, I work with the businesses to resolve their current and future project resourcing issues and help them improve their revenue and profitability. As well as this day job, I also get diverted onto other interesting side projects. For example, for nine months I was responsible for integrating Logica and CMG after our merger in 2003.

2007

As you’ve gathered, I’ve been here a long time! In many ways I feel I’ve moved jobs several times without actually having left the company. I’ve always been able to use my network to find the right new role internally.

As for the future, I’ll be working with the board to implement a change management programme that will help us remain competitive and win the sorts of projects we want our graduates to work on.

 

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