Interview: Seamus Keating, Logica CFO

Seamus Keating is a man of carefully chosen words. Nearly a decade in the CFO role at FTSE-250 technology consulting business Logica has seen him at the forefront of its most tranformational times, but that does not appear to have given him the assured manner of a man whose business reported some of the most resilient financial results in its sector amid the recession.

In fact, he is so on-message that an uninformed observer might not get the impression of a man who has been rather busy driving performance. Instead of touring some of the tough times and how he overcame them, he sticks to PR-friendly nuggets about “finding positive solutions”, avoiding any specific examples. “Generic is probably best,” he says.

It’s a shame, because Keating’s role has brought the CFO gig out of its shell in a big way, which has contributed to Logica surviving the mid-1990s recession in IT services and today’s sea change in economic fortunes. Last interviewed by Financial Director in 2005 – three years into the role of CFO for the merged LogicaCMG business, Keating revealed that he, like all of its executive committee members, was directly responsible for managing a handful of key accounts – giving him unrivalled visibility among clients and the business, while the “commercial organisation” and Logica’s technical director reported to him as they still do.

“It does help your own thought processes in the business and the formulation and execution of strategy. The closer you are to your market, the more relevant your thinking is going to be,” he told us then. “I get to sign off every bid we put to a customer that is a significant amount of money. Together [with the commercial people and technical director] we review the major bids going out to customers, ensuring we have understood the scope correctly, have been able to cost it accurately and believe we have priced it correctly. That means I get closer to the front end of winning business rather than simply adding up the score after it’s all done. It makes things more challenging, but overall more satisfying and fulfilling.”

And he has some nice factoids to bandy about at the pub for kudos. It was LogicaCMG’s software that controlled the UK’s Beagle 2 probe on Mars, launched the year after he took on the CFO job; between 1984 and 1998 its innovations included the automated clearing system for UK banks, the customer service system for BT and the London Underground’s automated ticketing system.

The every-guy-a-salesman approach saw the business through tough times once before and is proving a valuable resource amid the current punishing economic environment. Logica reported resilient financial performance for the year to February 2010, with operating profit of £272m and revenues of £3.7bn, in line with expectations.