HOWZAT

On leaving Nottingham High School in 1965, aged 18, Carr intended to train as a lawyer. He took an aptitude test run by IBM, the computer group, and scored highly on numeracy and analytical skills. Someone suggested that he consider a career in computers. “Given that this was the Sixties, it did seem to be a very appealing thing to do,” Carr says. “It was growing so rapidly and appeared to be rewarding.”

Boots, the big local employer, sponsored Carr through further education in finance and business management along with training in computer skills. He worked for Boots from 1965 to 1969, then spent ten years with Honeywell, the computer manufacturer.

Honeywell’s clients included a family-run Midlands engineering business called Leys. Carr was asked to join the board to help to inject some fresh thinking. In 1981, with Midlands engineers hit hard by recession, Leys agreed to be bought by Williams, then six months into its new life. Carr hit it off with Rudd, and was soon part of the core Williams team.

“I think we were fortunate in our timing,” Carr says, of Williams’s success. “We had a collective belief that we could create value by operational discipline and set about doing it in a way that was unusual at the time.”

The company was soon being compared to larger Eighties stars such as Hanson and BTR. After 18 years, Williams’s sales had swollen from £5 million to more than £2 billion. The share price increased from 10p to £10. The car business, Pendragon, was spun off, and Chubb and Kidde, each worth more than £1 billion, were demerged.

Carr says the time was right to unbundle the business. “It was very clear that we had created a business of quality but it was labouring under a conglomerate discount. Therefore, to release value to shareholders the most sensible thing was to break it into focused parts and let the value come through.”

He repeated the trick at Six Continents, formerly Bass, where he was senior non-executive. The company split into Mitchells & Butlers, owner of All Bar One, and InterContinental Hotels. Carr is satisfied with the results. “It seemed that Six Continents, although it had been an excellent business, was itself starting to be viewed as a conglomerate that was underperforming and simply wasn’t giving the shareholders the value they needed. Both businesses are really getting momentum.”

It is no longer fashionable to hold more than one major chairmanship, although Carr says he can cope. Nevertheless, he has a full portfolio. Along with the chairmanships of Mitchells & Butlers and Centrica, and the deputy chairmanship of Cadbury Schweppes, Carr is an adviser to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), the US private equity firm.

In addition, Carr, who lives in Kensington, West London, leads a full social life with his wife, Stephanie.

Carr says he has always had a large appetite for work. “I’ve got pretty good reserves of natural energy and I get a lot of pleasure from the involvement, particularly with the people.”

So much, then, for the myth of the chairman playing golf all week. “I play golf,” Carr concedes, “but not in the week normally. You can’t do the job properly without working hard. For me, the issue, really, is to have excellent executives and to make sure that they are in place and the strategy and the vision and the process is correct for them to perform.”

He launches into a discussion about Cadbury Schweppes, which is seeking to transform itself under Todd Stitzer, an American lawyer who was promoted to chief executive in May 2003.

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