Former President of Computacenter North America, Neil Hall, grasped the Focus Group helm as CEO last month with a mission to drive growth and customer value to the next level.
How did you get into the tech sector?
With fairly average A-level results, Business Information Technology was one of the few university courses I qualified for. It turned out to be a perfect fit. My career started in networking and voice, then over the last couple of decades primarily within infrastructure services, helping customers procure, implement and support technology. Over the past 28 years I’ve had the privilege of working with exceptional teams, learning from brilliant leaders and leading teams of my own – something I find rewarding and energising. I firmly believe that the more energy and support you give to people, the more you get in return.
What attracted you to the Focus Group CEO role?
Much of my career has been in the large enterprise segment across Europe and North America. The opportunity to expand my expertise into new market segments and technologies was appealing. Moving from a publicly traded company to a private equity backed business also presented a valuable learning curve, particularly in understanding different ownership structures. When I met with the co-founders, Chris and Ralph, along with our investors and the Focus Group leadership team, it was clear this was the right place for me. The company’s history and future vision were truly inspiring.
What does your appointment signal about the company’s future?
My appointment doesn’t signify a major shift. We remain committed to becoming the go-to ICT provider in our market segment. While Focus Group has traditionally grown through the communications sector, we’ve been expanding rapidly into IT services and that momentum is something I look forward to helping scale further. My focus is on driving the next phase of growth and realising the company’s full potential.
What are your long-term priorities?
Following our acquisition by HG Capital we’ve entered a new value creation phase. This means aligning with our growth strategy, expanding our customer base, broadening our services and scaling operations efficiently. A key priority is keeping our people motivated and engaged so that they can continue delivering customer success while helping us expand our market presence. Our strategy will naturally evolve in response to market demands but the overarching goal remains the same – to build a stronger, larger business by leveraging new technologies, talent, processes and infrastructure to drive meaningful outcomes for our expanding base of customers. For example, we’ve recently approved an expansion of our ServiceNow platform which will enhance our ability to scale efficiently.
Are we likely to see more acquisitions?
We remain active in M&A and in 2024 completed 13 acquisitions of companies and customer bases, of which the majority are fully integrated. We now have over 1,300 employees with a strong leadership representation from the acquired businesses across the UK. And we’ve just finished our financial year which has performed well with contracted growth continuing to be strong double digit. Organic IT, cyber and cloud continue to outpace growth in the rest of the group (and the market), again with strong double digit growth.
How is your go-to-market approach evolving?
We work closely with key technology partners such as Gamma, Microsoft, Giacom, Cisco and all the major mobile networks. Partner engagement is evolving with greater emphasis on collaborative, long-term partnerships that drive mutual success. Our go-to-market strategy is also evolving to focus on customer-centric solutions. We are investing in simplifying the customer journey, enhancing digital engagement and expanding our managed services portfolio to meet the growing demand for end-to-end IT solutions. The primary driver of our evolution is convergence. The boundaries between IT, telecoms and managed services are becoming increasingly blurred and businesses expect seamless, unified solutions. This trend is shaping our portfolio development, pushing us to integrate technologies and provide holistic services.
In what areas are you seeing the greatest success?
We are seeing significant success in our existing customer base with businesses increasingly adopting additional IT services. Future growth will come from doing more of the same, leveraging the increasing convergence of IT and telecoms and addressing new customer needs in areas like cybersecurity and cloud services. Digital transformation initiatives are enabling us to increase automation and a seamless customer experience.
Which new technology areas are on your radar screen?
New and high growth technology areas such as cybersecurity and IoT are firmly on our radar. These technologies are becoming extremely important for UK SMEs, particularly the cybersecurity portfolio as business awareness and cybercrime continues to rise. While our portfolio is robust, we see opportunities to enhance our capabilities by automating our customer journey and integrating products to deliver solutions which are easy to consume and manage.
Which market trends interest you most?
The key trends we are tracking include the PSTN switch off, the increasing importance of cybersecurity and demand for cloud-based solutions. These trends are shaping how we steer the business by prioritising investments in cloud services, enhancing our security offerings and focusing on solutions that enable flexibility and scalability for businesses.
What is Focus Group’s biggest opportunity?
Becoming the go-to partner for UK SMEs navigating the complexities of digital transformation and convergence. By delivering integrated, future-ready solutions we can position ourselves as an indispensable ally for companies looking to thrive in an increasingly digital and interconnected world. We aim to be recognised as a leader in enabling seamless communication and IT solutions that drive business productivity.
What are today’s most important leadership priorities?
I’m a big believer in the Harvard Service Profit chain where if you drive employee engagement, you can improve customer satisfaction which will lead to greater profits that you can re-invest back into the business. The cycle will then perpetuate. As we continue to scale, protecting the culture here is our number one priority.
Just a minute with Neil Hall...
Role model:
Computacenter CEO Mike Norris. I’ve learned so much about culture and leadership from him. He’s also helped me grow so that I know I’m ready for this CEO role.
What talent do you wish you had?
To be a magician.
Your main strength and what could you work on?
I give and get a lot of energy by being around people, but I can easily be distracted when people are around me.
Your favourite comedian or comedienne:
Jim Jeffries.
Three ideal dinner guests:
For a learning night, Churchill, Socrates and Einstein. And for a night of fun, Jim Jeffries for comedy, music by Sting and a good host like Ant and Dec (they’re inseparable).
If you weren’t working in the ICT sector what would you be doing?
I’d be a failing actor.
Best advice you have been given:
People you work with typically need to learn, earn and have fun. If they have those three things they will stay with you and be highly engaged.
The biggest risk you have taken:
In my previous employment I moved with my family to Germany to help the local team there become a stronger part of the wider group. Not knowing the culture, language or the business was a steep learning curve, but I ended up loving everything about the country and the people.
Your biggest career achievement:
Staying relevant.
Tell us something about yourself we don’t know:
I appeared on Supermarket Sweep.
One example of something you have overcome?
After winning a customer 10 years previously, I lost sight of what the client needed and they found another partner. Mentally I found it difficult knowing many of our people would be leaving to join the winning bidder. I worked on my mental health (including becoming a UK first aider for mental health) and now have good tools that have made me stronger. I’m happy to share if anyone wants to connect.
What do you fear most?
Boredom.
What more do you want to see from vendor partners?
Skin in the game. A long-term partnership mindset with commercial innovation and shared risk and rewards.
How do you relax when not working?
I play golf.
Top tip for resellers:
Keep your customers happy and the P&L will look after itself.