It was the IT wedding of the year. But will Martin Read make the marriage work?

Business Profile: LogicaCMG's chief insists he can bridge the cultural divide between former rivals

On visiting the LogicaCMG building in central London, you could be forgiven for thinking that the tie-up of the two IT services companies had still not been completed.

The Logica sign still hangs proudly outside while the reception area is covered in black and yellow Logica rugs and, as a visitor, you still get a bright yellow Logica badge.

Considering the merger is easily the biggest deal of Martin Read's career to date, you would have thought he could have at least got some new rugs in to celebrate.

To be fair, the deal did only officially close on 30 December, and Mr Read's obvious enthusiasm for LogicaCMG more than makes up for the lack of re-branding. He can't wait to show off his new LogicaCMG business cards and is quick to pick out a photograph of Cor Stutterheim, his former rival at CMG, from the many that adorn the walls of his office. "It [the photo of Cor] is even hanging above one of my wife," he says.

Mr Read is also wearing one of the famous CMG ties. Every CMG worker got one on joining and special ones were handed out to staff who had been with the group for more than five years. Mr Read has got four already. "I don't know whether we'll have a corporate one but if anyone from CMG wants to wear their CMG tie, they should be proud to wear it," he says.

It is an important point since many City analysts fear that the culture of the two groups is so different that the road to their successful integration will not be an easy one. At CMG, for example, every worker had access to the personal details, including pay and assessment records, of all of their colleagues.

But the issue of culture, Mr Read reckons, is the least of the pair's worries. "It's not very high on our worry list. You have to look at the alternatives [to a merger] and I'm quite convinced that for both companies, it's exactly the right thing to be doing." Besides which, Mr Read is adamant that the two groups are very similar and made up the same sorts of "independent-minded, free-thinking" people. "We do the same sorts of things. We're in a similar space," he says, noting: "I had expected a lot more overlap."

And on the question of the open-file policy, firstly he doubts that CMG was as open as it was made out to be. "I'm not sure that it was ever quite as simple as that because, as you know, there are legal restrictions." Secondly, while he says the LogicaCMG way will be both open and honest, he hints that it won't be all that transparent. "The issue about whether files are open or not, we will leave to individual line managers who will take account of legislation."

That can hardly come as a surprise. Mr Read, who was brought up in Basingstoke, Hampshire, the son of a salesman, is hardly an open book and is clearly uncomfortable talking about his personal life.

The mere mention of the £27m or so that he raked in for 2000, mainly through an £8.7m bonus and share sales, leaves him uncharacteristically lost for words. "It's not really something I want to talk about. It's a private issue," he says, pausing, then adding: "I don't live a flash lifestyle." But surely he must have treated himself? "I wouldn't say that our lifestyle has changed very much."

A new car maybe? "Look. Most of my friends are people that have been friends, close friends, from the age of 16 to 22. My relationship with them is more important to me than a whole load of flash cars or flash houses or anything else.

"What I'm trying to say is no we didn't go out and spend, spend, spend. It sounds really boring and I'm sorry about that. Money is nice because it gives you choices. But the things that matter in life to me, frankly, are about people, relationships. I value my wife, my children, my friends."

Enough of the personal stuff, he says. "Let's move on and talk about what we've done on the merger." Passionate about drama, although he has not trodden the boards since his 20s, he illustrates the logic of the deal with a quote from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. ("There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries.")

"The whole point is – you can sit and do nothing and let the world go on around you or you can take your destiny in your own hands and that really was the whole basis behind the deal," Mr Read says.

What he means is that last year, after eight years of growing earnings per share by more than 40 per cent a year, Logica suddenly found itself issuing profit warnings after business dropped away which made a tie-up seem sensible. Shares in the company collapsed from a high of around £27 in March 2000 to current levels of around 138p.

Despite the continuing tough markets, Mr Read is adamant that IT services is still an excellent place to be in the medium to long term. "We're like the steel makers of the Victorian age when, if you were making steel, you were at the core of economic activity. Today, that's what an IT company is, so this is not a bad place to be."

And, he reckons the current tough times will not last more than two years. "There's going to be an increasing amount of pent-up demand because you can only delay stuff for so long ... but don't ask me whether it [a recovery] is this year or next year because I don't know."

Fiercely bright and educated at Cambridge and Oxford, Mr Read also has a reputation for being ruthless at times and for getting his own way.

In the short term, he will be focusing on integrating the two businesses, which he reckons will be complete by the end of the year albeit with the loss of around 1,440 jobs, and on getting debt down from around the £92m level. Beyond that, he wants to see the business back in the FTSE 100 index and, ultimately, wants it to be among the top 10 players in IT services in the world. More acquisitions are likely too, particularly in Spain, Italy and the US.

On the personal front, at the age of 52 and with a great deal of money stashed away, you'd be forgiven for thinking he might want to slow down a bit.

While he admits that he doesn't expect to be at the helm when he is 60, he is not going anywhere for a good while yet. "Life is too interesting to think about hanging up my boots at the moment. I don't have to work and, frankly, that's an extremely privileged position to be in. I'm working because I believe in LogicaCMG and I think it is a fascinating, interesting and challenging business," he says, adding: "We're in the top 10 in Europe; the real goal is to be in the top 10 in the world."

Martin Read

Position: Chief executive, LogicaCMG

Age: 52

Pay: £443,000 last year. He also got £30,000 and £22,000 for his work as a non-executive director at Boots and British Airways respectively.

Career history: After a degree in natural sciences at Cambridge and a research doctorate in physics at Oxford, Dr Read began his career at Overseas Containers (now P&O Nedlloyd Containers). After a four-year stint at International Paint, a subsidiary of Courtaulds, mostly as commercial director of its marine business, he moved to GEC where he headed up the GEC Marconi Radar and Control Systems group of companies. Moved to Logica in 1993 as chief executive.

Interests: Drama, history (particularly military), French & German literature.