Our Devolved Structure
We believe that our devolved management structure, as illustrated below, enables the Group to be managed in a particularly effective way. Local management throughout the Group are empowered to operate our companies as autonomous business units, whilst working together to share experience and expertise around the Group. Many aspects of the Group’s day-to-day operations report directly into the Board through the Group Chief Executive and the Group Finance Director (the ‘‘Executive Directors’’). These include-
- Monthly Board meetings with the senior management of all operating companies;
- Regular cross-business forums such as the Rail and Bus Steering Groups, Finance Director Forum and commercial, operational, engineering and HR forums which identify opportunities to share experience and best practice across operations.
- Weekly meetings with the senior managers responsible for the key centralised Group functions (the "Executive Team Group") to ‘look across’ the businesses to grow, save and find synergies
In addition, there are a number of Group forums that are held on a regular basis, such as the Health, Safety and Energy Forum. Such forums, which report directly to the Executive Directors, enable representatives from all operating companies to share best and emerging practice, to seek synergies and cost savings, to improve quality and to achieve economies of scale wherever possible.
It is this infrastructure which allows the right equilibrium between local initiatives and ones that can add up for the Group’s benefits and enables the Board to be well informed about our businesses, employees, passengers and stakeholders. This in turn means that we are able to respond to the changing dynamics of the businesses in which we operate in a timely and knowledgeable manner.
