The UK mobile phone market is an über competitive place but Lars Nordmark, who last year took over as FD of T-Mobile UK, doesn't seem daunted. Well, you wouldn’t be, would you, if you had the experience he does.
Nordmark was CFO of T-Mobile Austria before joining the UK division of the telecom giant. Previously, he worked on high-profile projects for the company in Western Europe and, before then, spent nine years with T-Mobile’s competitor Orange.
“The UK is a very competitive market,” Nordmark says. “There are a lot of players out there. If you look at it from a market share perspective, we’re quite strong but not as strong as the others. It’s down to us to grow faster than the market.”
T-Mobile’s growth has been encouraging this financial year. For the third quarter, the company added more than 219,000 net new customers, bringing the total subscriber base to above 17 million. EBITDA rose by 12 per cent to £248m.
Nordmark considers his key role to be focusing on the UK market and T-Mobile’s position. In addition to his familiarity with the landscape, Nordmark believes the work he’s done improving operational performance and his experience with acquisitions will help him steer the organisation's finances in the right direction. He played a major role in T-Mobile Austria's acquisition of Telering although points out that the UK group isn’t currently on the acquisition trail.
When pressed on what makes a good acquisition, Nordmark gives the answer most observers give – people. “You keep hearing that all the time but it’s about getting the right people within the organisation,” he says. “Once you get the right people, you’re going to get the right strategy. I’ve always been very focused on getting the right people. If people feel they can develop, they’ll stay.”
Nordmark says he takes great pleasure in seeing finance-trained employees move to other parts of the business. “It proves we develop people in finance with a commercial acumen that people can use in other parts of the company.”
Face-to-face
Perhaps ironically given his sector, Nordmark is a stickler for face-to-face communication. He insists: “There’s nothing replacing a face-to-face conversation where you get body language and two-way communication. It’s also important, from a finance perspective, to have people experiencing what the customers are saying.”
That’s why he believes it’s important for all employees (including himself) to get out of the office and into the stores. “I try to spend a week in the stores a year and that’s certainly a good experience,” Nordmark reveals.
There are challenges ahead for T-Mobile UK but Nordmark is ready for them. "I think the UK market is very dynamic and there's a lot of energy out there. I’m just fortunate to be in an industry that is moving so fast and also working in a company with a great brand.”
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