The Big Question: ICL must look outside industry for new CEO

ICL should look beyond the conventional candidates for a chief executive who will restore credibility and change the company culture, according to guests on this week's Big Question programme.

Those interviewed said ICL's next CEO shouldn't necessarily come from inside the company or from the UK IT industry, but he or she must have strong market understanding and vision.

Andy Mulholland, CTO with Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, suggested a character like ex-Oracle CEO, Ray Lane, would suit the job.

"ICL badly needs a leader that people can believe in. They've got to believe in what they have to say and what they've done in the past. So when they radically want to change the culture and position in the market, it will be believable.

"The kind of person I would think about would be someone like Ray Lane. I don't believe ICL could attract him. They're going to have to find someone they can make the right offer and package to," he said.

Martin Brampton, operations director at Bloor Research, agreed that ICL needs a CEO who can bring about a dramatic change in culture.

"The company should be looking for someone from outside ICL to change the culture. I think they should be looking for someone who at least understands markets, rather than somebody who is on the operations side. I'd be very interested in seeing a company like that hiring a person who really is not an out and out IT person."

Andrew Hart, UK CEO of AskJeeves, suggested that ICL's lucrative deals with the government would make it an ideal takeover target.

"There's a great opportunity for another - probably a PC-based company - to buy ICL. What you're buying is a great brand heritage, but also a good relationship with the government. It's a fact that the government is the biggest IT spender in the UK at the moment. Someone like Dell or Gateway could be the interested company," he said.

You can see this week's Big Question in our Reseller Channel (http://www.silicon.com/a39195 ).