Changes at the Top
Barrett started by focusing on his direct reports and spelling out what he believed in-sincerity, encouraging people to take risks, and learning from mistakes. He led as if he had to be reelected the next day. He had to show that he was deeply involved and that he cared.
Barrett quickly turned his sights to realigning the mind-set, and, ultimately, the composition of the top team. He felt that the executive committee (ExCo) was not performing as decision makers but as an administrative body. Each meeting seemed more like a series of bilateral discussions with the CEO than multilateral, high performance dialogues.
At an early ExCo dinner, while the team was having its appetizers, Barrett launched into a direct discussion. He suddenly said he was thinking of disbanding the Exco meetings if he couldn't make them more productive. There was silence in the room. The team seemed shocked at the prospect of having a FTSE 100 firm that was no longer run by an Exco (and of each potentially losing his seat at the top table) The team came out vocally against Barrett's proposal and immediately took up his challenge-from then on, their commitment to making the ExCo work became a shared goal. This was reflected in the decision to make co-managing the Barclays Group the primary task of the ExCo and managing their business unit responsibilities the second task. To reflect this change. Barrett realigned ExCo members' rewards, placing more weight on overall company results.
With respect to team composition, Barrett rapidly engineered significant changes on the ExCo. His aim was to undermine opposition to change by bringing in new perspectives and disconnecting existing members from their traditional power bases. Gary Dibb, who had worked for the Bank of Montreal, soon followed Barrett and became the chief administrative officer. John Varley was appointed Group finance director and given ExCo responsibility for delivering cost, productivity, and economic profit goals. This appointment, in particular, was an important step toward building broad organizational confidence in the Group's ability to deliver on its new goals. By spending significant time with the top 100, Barrett was also able to spot and promote young talent to the ExCo, including Gary Hoffman and David Roberts, who in their late thirties, considerably reduced the average age of the top team.
From an investor's perspective, changes to the senior management team raised concerns about pace and velocity of change. It was, however, positively viewed by equity analysts, such as Credit Lyonnais: "Barclays is undergoing a significant process of change that requires a fresh look and innovative solutions. It can only be assisted by a new senior team."