Analysis: Can new CEO James Henderson maintain William Hill's success?
With uncertain times ahead, the consensus among former colleagues appears to be that the FTSE 100 firm was right to promote from within
From shop floor to CEO. That appears to be the blueprint for a William Hill chief executive these days after the operator last week announced it had selected director of operations James Henderson as its successor to Ralph Topping.
According to William Hill’s chairman Gareth Davis, Henderson was quick to establish himself as the leading internal candidate to replace the charismatic and, without doubt, successful incumbent.
Despite hiring head-hunter the Zygos Partnership to run the rule over a number of external candidates, Hills opted for a “natural bookie” who first joined the company in 1985 as a trainee betting shop manager.
“I suppose if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Davis said of the internal appointment. “[“¦] we’ve got a strong culture, a successful company and James was clearly head and shoulders above other candidates,” he added.
This is an opinion shared by former William Hill Online CEO Henry Birch, now chief exec and Rank Group, who doesn’t expect Henderson to change once he takes-up the reins on 1 August.
“James will be seen as a continuity candidate but he is very much his own man,” Birch told eGaming Review. “He is fully equipped to take on the CEO role and commands the respect of everyone in the company.
“He’s a first class operator whose understanding of the industry and its customers is unmatched, but he’s also got the vision and passion to be a very successful chief executive. He is totally the right choice for William Hill,” he adds.
Much like Topping, the path to the top has been a long one for Henderson but one which should stand him in good stead for the challenge that awaits. Since first walking through the doors of a William Hill shop in Shepherd’s Bush some 29 years ago, Henderson has held numerous roles within the firm’s retail division.
More recently, he played an important role in the development of the company’s remote business and has been involved in bedding down the acquisitions of Tom Waterhouse and Sportingbet in Australia, as well as the development of its nascent US business.
“I think James is a great appointment “ he’s a very strategic, forward-thinking man who’s well versed in every aspect of the business from retail right up to its current multi-channel set-up,” a former colleague of Henderson told eGR.
“I’m not sure he’ll be looking to radically change the firm, however “ that change happened years ago when Ralph halted a £20m in-house mobile development programme to bring in Playtech,” he adds.
First things first, Henderson plans to sit down with his team to discuss the company’s plans for the future, fully aware of the external pressures that will soon be brought to bear on the business.
“There’s point of consumption. There’s the offshore levy. There’s the race field fees in Australia, but we’re working really hard as a team to be able to mitigate the impact,” Henderson says.
And it is this uncertainty which another former colleague believes prompted Hills to opt for Henderson, rather than take a gamble on an industry outsider.
“It would have been a challenge to bring in an external person to run it [Hills] with all the changes that are going on. We’ve seen before when big gaming companies go external that decisions are made that don’t quite make sense and I’m not sure you want to do that in such turbulent times,” he said.
“So yes, James is the right choice but then again I don’t think they really had a choice given the current circumstances,” he added.
Henderson will also be expected to fill the charismatic void left by the departure of Topping, however. But another former colleague believes he has the right attributes to do so.
“It will be interesting to see how James handles the step-up to CEO where he will spend a lot of time in the company of city analysts, around investors and also having to entertain clients “ something Ralph was very successful at,” he says.
“However, James has the stature and charisma to do just that “ he’s a big, tall, imposing character as well as being public educated “ I think he’ll be popular with the guys in the City.”
The change in leadership has been dubbed “the end of an era” by Davis. Hills will hope the new era will prove to be just as successful as the last.