Rising to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, involving “months of really tough, high intensity work” to navigate the impact of lockdowns and travel restrictions on LR’s global professional services business, will stay fresh in the memory of outgoing LR Chief Executive Alastair Marsh for many years to come.
2020 has been a testing year for business leaders worldwide and the Scotsman, who picked up the virus while skiing in Austria in early March, was just getting back on his feet when the UK lockdown was announced – an event he remembers clearly as it triggered the start of a demanding period with the organisation having to coordinate its response to COVID-19 infection around the world and the potential impact on its people and operations.
“Just trying to get our arms around what it meant for the business and how bad it could become was difficult,” he tells Horizons. “We had to focus on the financial implications over one month, three months, six months and a year, and it went back to real basics, managing resources and cashflow. There was even greater complexity when governments set out their guidelines and financial support and we had to understand what this meant for us.”
According to Marsh, LR got to grips with things quickly. Central group functions and business streams pulled together, and across the organisation, multiple teams embraced remote service options and enhanced their existing capabilities to support clients dealing with unexpected scenarios.
“We proved that we can be very, very resilient but also very creative as well. And this underpins what I tried to set out to do in 2016 – to make LR a more agile organisation with digitalised capability at its core and one with fewer silos."
“Much of the work of the past four or five years was put into action as we had no choice but to look at different ways of working. The implementation of new IT systems was a saviour because if they hadn’t been in place our employees couldn’t have adapted as easily to remote working,” he adds.
Marsh is quick to stress he doesn’t see a lot going back 100% to the way it operated before. How much things will change, however, remains to be seen. People won’t be officed-based every day of the week though but face-to face meetings will return as “our business is relationshipdriven. It is important for us to get back to travelling as there’s no substitute for in person meetings with key clients, particularly in Asia”, he says.
Another significant event in 2020 was the sale of LR’s energy business – now operating as Vysus – in October to Inspirit Capital, a London-based private equity firm. The successful sale, says Marsh, was an indicator of the energy business’ resilience throughout COVID-19 and during periods of extended oil price volatility. The decision to sell had followed a thorough review of options for the whole group and after much action to set the energy business up for future success early in 2019 after several challenging years.
There is no questioning Marsh’s drive and ambition – although he admits that he probably pushed himself too hard too soon after his COVID-19 recovery – and LR is “unrecognisable” from the company he joined in 2007. There has been the creation of the Foundation and Group in 2012 which gave clarity over the remit of the two entities and reinforced the shared purpose to make the world a safer place. There has been huge investment in digital systems and more recently greater working life flexibility than ever before with the introduction of LR’s New Way of Working programme. Despite these seismic changes, the “best bits of LR – its safety culture, the recognition of legacy and the determination of its people to solve complex problems remain firmly intact”.
So, any advice for his successor Marine and Offshore Director Nick Brown? “Nick knows LR inside and out and we have always worked well together. Like me he recognises that the pace of change is accelerating, and we need to be ready to respond. In terms of handover, it’s been a steady transition albeit a dynamic one. I have focused on the short-term issues and handed over the decisions that affect the period beyond the end of the year when he’s going to be running the company.”
According to Marsh stepping into the CEOs shoes was challenging because of the absence of a digital strategy when he found himself at the helm. “Competitors had seen the digital change coming sooner than we had at LR and we were ill-prepared. We have worked incredibly hard to address this and have been able to avoid some of the mistakes that early adopters made. AllAssets and i4 Insight are part of a strong digital foundation and LR will reap the dividends of this investment in the future. All this will make for a busy start for Nick as he shapes his strategy for LR.”
For Marsh the beginning of 2021 is likely to be a lot more relaxing, with an extended holiday planned before deciding what he does next. A few non-executive roles are under consideration, but he stresses that he will keep his options open until the right opportunities come up. There is one wish though, he tells Horizons, he’s keen to stay in shipping…
Alastair on:
His favourite vessel types
Commercial tonnage is fascinating, especially some of the highly specialised ships but the naval vessels are the ones I love – it’s the scale and technology. The two aircraft carriers – Queen Elizabeth and the Prince of Wales – are just magnificent and I am so proud of LR’s involvement with these projects and being able to work with the Royal Navy.
Most hair-raising moment
“Being handed the controls of an oceangoing tug on a choppy River Forth without prior warning from its owner, a potential client looking on.”
His career
Few people’s careers turn out as they imagine. I never set out to be a chief executive and I had always thought I would spend my career exclusively in finance. To have spent nearly a third of my career at one company was totally unexpected and is a sign of how much I have enjoyed my time at LR.
