THUS Managing Director Stewart Smythe is confident, affable and gets things done quickly. He's now on a mission to drive his channel and has the staunch support of parent company Cable & Wireless Worldwide.

In June this year THUS promised resellers a refreshed portfolio focused on its range of data products. Following the pledge for a better future, Smythe confidently assured resellers of big improvements in the way THUS worked with the channel. He wasted no time in dropping THUS's overseas call centre for business customers in favour of an in-house British-based operation. "I want business customers to speak directly to technical, experienced data specialists who can fix their issue in one call with empathy. When people ring us, they want to talk to people who get it and don't use scripts," he explained.

Smythe's straightforward approach, empathy with people, competitive edge and understanding of how to monetise business processes stems in part from his background. "Having been bought up in Devon I'm a bit of a worzel, but I have been very fortunate with my upbringing and confidence has been instilled in me," he said.

An education at Millfield, one of the UK's prestigious private schools, certainly helped, and a door into corporate business life opened when he left university with a degree in Economics. "On leaving university in 1996 my choice was to work in a bank or a big accountancy firm. I chose the latter and secured a post at KPMG where I worked for three years. But it wasn't for me. I wanted to get under the skin of business rather than do their books, so applied for a role at consultancy firm Anderson."

Smythe spent four years working in a team of consultants developing big projects based on financial structures and processes. In that boom era, Anderson wanted ambitious people to grow their business in Spain, Portugal and Switzerland.

"I was on a plane flying to Europe one Sunday night, thinking it's time to settle down when I saw an advert in a newspaper. It simply said, ‘I have just taken over a telecoms business and if you want to help me turn it around ring me'. And there was a rider which stated, ‘If you have every worked for a telecoms company don't apply'.

"That advert was placed by a certain Mr John Pluthero, then Chairman of Energis. Six weeks later I accepted a job I hadn't been looking for, to be an internal consultant at Energis with a remit to halve its operating costs. It was a tough job but I enjoyed it. The company was cash flow negative and I had to change a lot of procedures to make it work. Pluthero said ‘never take your eye off the customer' and that's a philosophy that has stuck with me.

"I was operational Finance Director and worked for the CFO Eamonn O'Hare who is now the CFO at Virgin. We sold the business to Cable & Wireless at the end of 2005 and thought that was it, but Pluthero had agreed to take over the helm at C&W on the basis his management team at Energis would replace the inherent team. Hence I became C&W's Finance Director working for Jim Marsh, now CEO, then director of its worldwide products portfolio, and finally Managing Director of the UK enterprise business."

Smythe is a family man with four children including twins that came ‘out of the blue'. So why, last autumn when he was clearly destined for the higher echelons of the C&W Worldwide corporate ladder, take over as Managing Director of THUS, a company with three sites and 300 people, which in C&W terms is a small business operation? "It was the challenge. There's a big difference in running a large division of a corporate giant and running a small business. It really stretches you. THUS is almost a start up. A third of its customers have gone over to C&W Worldwide, so we are focused on bringing new customers on board via the channel using the C&W Worldwide network portfolio. In every respect it's a fresh start."

Importantly, Smythe has not been cast adrift from the C&W Worldwide management team. "I am on the executive board of C&W Worldwide which is unique and very important to the channel because it means I can shape strategy and prioritise for our channel customers," he added.

Smythe is passionate about helping to migrate partners into the supply of data services utilising C&W's core networks, and he says he has the financial backing he needs to do this. "Upwards of £120 million annual revenues coming into THUS makes us cash rich and we know we need to help the channel," he said. "The progression towards selling data as well as voice means we have to have a grown up conversation with partners and put the necessary collateral into it."

And he is confident he has the team behind him to provide that support. "For me, having a core team with an average service of 10-plus years at THUS means that we understand the pain points within the channel, and ultimately how we can help. We get to this point by forming close working relationships and getting under the skin of our partners. With a team like this supporting me I know we're in a great position to leverage the assets within the business and propel THUS's new direction forward. Quite simply, it's my aim to make THUS the most straightforward and easiest business to work with. And I believe we're pretty close to nirvana."