The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 32

32 Saturday November 13 1999 Benefits menu Fast perks follow fast food across the Atlantic Jobs Money, cover story Bid or not? Vodafone's 60bn dilemma over Mannesmann 27 Interview Robin Saxby, chief executive and president, ARM Holdings to rt-n ini War 'p 3 people had an idea What's the choice of low cost airlines that fly to Vienna? Three buzz flights a day. JohnCassy afi business cultures of the US and Far East. I I "ES2 got me on the inside track of the Mhen Gordon Brown in- Iff if Silicon Valley buzz. Intel was up and run-voked the spirit of Silicon 8 ning and there was a real sense of some-Valley in his pre-budget thing new and exciting going on. I'd also report earlier this week travel to Japan a lot.

I liked the food and he must have wished he Age: 52 the people, I got to see different ways of had Robin Saxby standing alongside him doing business and cultural approaches at the dispatch box. Few British entre- Education: B.Eng in Electronics from to work. We have tried to take the best of preneurs working in the domestic hi-tech Liverpool university each of those cultures and put them into sector have demonstrated more effec- ARM's way of doing things. tively that the enterprise culture Mr Career: Joined Rank Bush Murphy "We're Japanese in the consensus style, Brown is so determined to import from Chiswick in 1968 as a research and de- with everyone approving and buying into the US can be put to work in the UK. velopment engineer; 1972-1984, Mo- decisions.

We've got the US 'let's do' atti- In 1991 Mr Saxby, aged 44 and with a torola Semiconductors as a sales tude, and we have the UK tradition of wife and two children, gave up a com- engineer 1984-1986, chief executive of- analysis. As a mix I think it works well, fortable career with a leading European fice of Henderson Security Systems; Around 90 of our business is outside the microchip designer to run Advanced Risk 1986-1991, president of ES2, aUSsub- UK, so we have to have a multicultural Mechanisms, a start-up based in a con- sidiary of European Silicon Structures; management." verted turkey coop in a village near Cam- 1 991 -present, chief executive and presi- He sometimes feels frustrated by British bridge. dent of ARM Holdings. Also on the attitudes to wealth and risk. "Perceptions Armed with a 3m investment from boards of Glotel and Belgian Sirius are changing slowly but a lot of people joint-venture partners Apple and Acorn, Communications.

Former chairman of still need to wake up and realise wealth is an unproven business plan and "a lot of the Open Microprocessor Initiative Advi-v good." His efforts to promote innovation faith that we could do Mr Saxby and 11 sory Group, an EU panel advising on include chairing the Open Microproces- engineers set about developing a global collaborative research and development sor Initiative Advisory Group, an EU design standard for low-cost, high-power panel set up to advise on collaborative microchips. Family: married with wife and two chil- in Europe, and advising the govern- Eight years on and ARM Holdings com- dren, one of whom is studying at the ment's Science and Enterprise Challenge, mands a stock market valuation in excess London College of Music. Lives near Although he describes himself as "not a of 4bn and employs more than 400 peo- High Wycombe. particularly political animal" Mr Saxby pie in half a dozen countries including the and Psion chairman David Potter have US, Korea and Japan. It has become one Interests: Astronomy, tennis.

Restoring been lobbying the government to change of the hottest stocks on both the London old radios, rewiring his Victorian house, its policy of levying National Insurance and Nasdaq exchanges, rising in value by listening to jazz and blues. Official contributions on unapproved share op-more than 13 times since a dual listing in 'roadie' to his son's rock band tion schemes. "It is a tax on our share April last year. Around 30 of ARM's staff price and could hinder our ability to at-are said to hold shares in the company tract the best engineers. It's brainpower worth more than lm each, while Mr has few direct competitors.

Its nearest ri- that drives this business. We don't want Saxby's stake is worth 112m. val is Mips of the US. Mr Saxby says 3.5bn to have to shift our research operations embedded microchips were sold globally abroad to remain Competitive." StrongARM tactic last year and expects the market to reach Mr Saxby says the demands of manag-Next month ARM is set to enter the FTSE some 13bn by 2004 as demand for mobile ing ARM's growth means he no longer 100 index having established itself as the electronic gadgets increases. Last year takes an active part in research and de-world's leading designer of the low-cost, ARM designs were in 50m chips; this year sign.

Much of his life is spent in the air, high performance microchips found in- they are expected to be in closer to 100m. jetting around the world to meet cus-side mobile phones, games consoles, lap- Mr Saxby's success is the culmination of tomers and colleagues. When in the UK tops and other mobile electronics. Some a journey through the electronics indus- he splits his time between ARM's offices 37 of the world's leading electronics man- try which began when he was 13. As a in Cambridge and Maidenhead.

The only ufacturers, including Intel, Sony, Sega and teenager he discovered an ability to fix time he gets to indulge his passion for IBM, license ARM's Rise processors. televisions and radios. His father, a secu- electronics is fulfiling a promise to build Mr Saxby however is not satisfied. He rity officer at a glass factory in Chester- amplifiers for his son's rock band and fix-wants ARM's chips with everything. field, would tell regulars in his local pub ing the wiring of the Victorian home he "The aim of the company is simple," he that if their TV broke down his boy could and his wife are restoring near High Robin Saxby, micro-architect, bringing a taste of Silicon Valley to the UK Photograph: Tom Jenkins wyeomoe uucKingnamsnire.

Slalom race "In many ways my job is like navigating a ship through unchartered waters, ensuring we identify opportunities for our technology and invest in the right people without hitting any unforeseen obstacles." By the end of this year ARM's technology should have captured 50 of the global market for mobile phones. Mr Saxby says the next boom area for the company could be the automotive industry as digitally controlled airbags, brakes and in-car computers drive demand. "In many ways our biggest competitor is ourselves and our ability to manage our growth and deliver to our customers on time. It's abitlike aslalom race. The more successful you are the faster you have to go.

It's an incredibly exciting and enjoyable position to be in and it's a credit to our staff that we have got to where we are so quickly." mgm JiJSSrI says. We want arm arcnitecture to dc- come the globally accepted standard for homes and hx their IV. 1 was cheaper tnan chips and by 2010 to have a presence in all the local shops and they knew they could consumer electronics. We are inventing call on me at short notice. It taught me two new flavours of design all the The very valuable things: that service is in- moment we ease off is when someone else credibly important in whatever business moves into our space." you are in, and time to market is crucial." ARM essentially is an intellectual prop- After completing an electronics degree erty company.

It designs the microproces- at Liverpool university he went to work sor for a chip much like the engine for a for Rank Bush Murphy Chiswick as a re-car and then licenses the designs. Intel, search engineer. From there he joined for example, licenses the StrongARM Motorola Semiconductors in sales. "I did-branded designs, paying a royalty of n't want to leave Rank and being a sales-around lOp for each chip it builds.ARM man was not something I aspired to, but nx it. "Alter scnooi i a cycie rounu io uieir Motorola were very persistent, men tney offered me a Cortina 2000 GXL, white with black upholstery, as my company car.

It was 1973. 1 mean how could I resist?" In 1984, after 11 years at Motorola, he became managing director of Henderson Security Systems, but it was his appointment as president of the US affiliate of European Silicon Structures in 1986 that gave him his first real exposure of the bub 1 We're Japanese with consensus, we have the American let's-do attitude and the UK 's tradition of analysis'.