Welcome back Tony Hayward

It all turned sour for the geologist-turned-oil executive when, on April 20, 2010, an explosion on a drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico triggered an oil spill. Over the days and weeks that followed, the spill became the most pressing item in Hayward’s in-tray when, as chief executive of BP, he first tried to stop the flow, and then, and more importantly, tried to stop the onslaught against the company.

It is only right then that Hayward’s return to the upper echelons of UK plc — Glencore is one of the FTSE 100’s largest companies — should be welcomed. An affable oil specialist who worked his way up the ranks of BP, his time in the “wilderness” has been well spent. If anything, the pushing and shoving he encountered in his final months at BP will have prepared him for the cut and thrust of the Glencore boardroom.

By now he should have the skills needed to speak up for shareholders, acting as a counter to the very real corporate strength of chief executive and 8.1pc shareholder Ivan Glasenberg. Welcome back Tony — we’ve been expecting you.

Time BT showed Global Services the red card

As turnarounds go, BT may not match Gus Poyet’s Sunderland this Premier League season for sheer improbability. But the company’s return to revenue growth is a tale of sporting bravery, in its own way.

BT Sport is a £2bn bet on the British public’s appetites for football and broadband. It made many spectators in the City nervous but it appears to be paying off. There is no growth yet in the bottom line of BT’s consumer business, but the top line is moving in the right direction for the first time in 10 years and there are multiple signs that the strategy is doing what the team behind it said it would.

But the success and changing perception of BT as a consumer operation now makes Global Services, its corporate IT division, stick out inappropriately. In many ways, Global Services is a relic of a former BT. In the days when regulation and competition were battering its consumer business in the mid-2000s, selling IT services around the world looked like a more exciting and profitable path. Whether a good idea in principle or not, the execution of the strategy was disastrous and led to major profit warnings. Sorting out Global Services in the past four years has been a major achievement of BT’s cost-cutting and restructuring effort.

With its consumer business looking strong again, BT could now look to spin off the division. It could enjoy most of the benefits of ownership through a strategic partnership, while gaining focus on the main way it will create value for shareholders over the next few years.

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