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“Over the next two to three years we’re going to see more change in this industry than we have seen in the last twenty five. It’s driven by technologists who can make things happen and we’re trying to develop that capability, we have a number of technologists now, but we need more.”

My name’s Derek McManus and I’m the Chief Operating Officer here at the UK business. Well I’ve actually been at O2 now for nearly 26 years and I’ve progressively worked my way through the organisation over the years, taking up almost every layer of the organisation in various jobs. I’ve done a degree here, I’ve done many courses. I’ve done various roles both in the UK business and outside in various departments. I’ve completed the full career journey whilst working here at O2.

In my Directorate there’s quite a broad set of responsibilities. First of all it looks after the network that all of our 22 million customers use. It looks after all the IT that develops products that we sell externally to customers, but also all the systems and capabilities that are used internally to run the business. We run Property so all the offices and all the retail stores that we have. We run Supply Chain which delivers devices to customers and we run Fraud and Security which effectively means that we can safely go about using our products and services that those guys look after, making sure our data and everything that we do is kept safe.

As a team we’ve done many exciting things. Supply Chain is recognised as the leaders within Europe. Our Technical Network team have won many innovation awards for the stuff we’re doing on the Network, we’re recognised as leading the entire industry. And the building, our main office in the UK, has won an award for the best building that changes working practices for an organisation. So within Operations we do a number of really exciting things.

The Operations team are really leading innovation both from a UK point of view and I think from an industry point of view. We set up a team about a year ago called The Lab, which was really to drive innovation both from a technical point of view so that we could develop products and services around Apps and we’re developed a number of Apps that go on smart phones. But also to change the way the whole organisation thinks about the over the top players and web applications and how it can work with open platforms.

The Lab is the first creation of bringing really clever technical people and getting them to make things happen very quickly, so we can deliver stuff in less than a week now. And I see that really becoming part of the norm.

Over the next two to three years we’re going to see more change in this industry than we have seen in the last twenty five. It’s driven by technologists who can make things happen and we’re trying to develop that capability, we have a number of technologists now, but we need more. So we’re looking for people who like change, who can make things happen, who have got the expertise and the will to want to create change. So I think over the next couple of years this is a really exciting place to come and work.