Faith, hope and clarity

RICHARD Pym may be smiling, but his body language is unequivocal. The chief executive of Alliance & Leicester does not want to discuss the subject raised. He is not rude, but the answers have become clipped.

It is a technique that Pym, 54, adopts whenever a tricky question is posed.

Even innocuous questions cause unease. For example, the cricket-loving boss initially only admits to supporting the England team because he is worried about the effect on the bank's Leicester-based staff if they learn that he supports Surrey.

But the subject that causes him most discomfort relates to the ousting four years ago of Peter White, the bombastic former chief executive of the High Street bank. Pym, then finance director, was reportedly the first board member to sign the resolution requesting White's resignation.

Two years later, managing director Peter McNamara, widely viewed as chief executive-designate, quit abruptly. Rumours of back-stabbing and political machinations were rife.

When Pym was finally appointed chief executive in June 2002, having joined the bank ten years earlier from Burton Group, many City watchers regarded it as a reward for his unswerving loyalty to chairman John Windeler. In a Square Mile that throbs with ambition, Pym was viewed as particularly Machiavellian.

'All I can say is there is a remarkable lack of a political agenda in this bank,' he says obliquely. 'People who join us from other banks say that it is a very straightforward bank to work for. We do have a particularly good board, which is very robust and questioning.'

Is it the same board famously described by White as only fit to visit the Chelsea Flower Show?

'I'm not sure that quote was ever made,' smiles Pym. He pauses: 'But it fitted. Everyone could believe he would.'

It is one of the few off-the-cuff remarks made by Pym, whose in-house PR man prepared a memo headed: Points to get across.

'I was not at all upset by the rumours,' he replies when pushed further. 'I had a job to do and I just got on with it. The first target was to get a clarity into the communication of strategy so that everybody clearly understood what this bank was all about.'

Clarity is a recurring theme but, ironically, what he means is sometimes unclear. For example: 'What we have achieved in the past two years has been about creating a total clarity as to what we are about and what we offer to the customer.'

This month's campaign might help to explain. The latest poster is basic. It starkly proclaims that the current account offers more interest, charges no monthly fee, has a good overdraft rate, free travel insurance and that it has even won a bestbuy prize. There is no celebrity endorsement, creative writing or even a picture.

'It is old-fashioned but customers react to it,' says Pym. 'We couldn't have a more focused advert.'

It is a far cry from the days when Alliance & Leicester's advertising campaign centred on an Inuit stranded in England. 'That was our low point,' admits Pym. 'It was well-intentioned but a bit of a muddle.'

Today, all advertising is handled in-house. 'That has been a major source of creative advantage,' he says. 'Our advertising costs are down 25%, but we advertise more and get more customers. We have dispensed with the services of some very expensive agencies.'

Did the agencies try to be too clever? The response is measured: 'We certainly were not getting value for money, but I don't want to abuse anybody who provided a service to us.'

Such is the 'clarity' of Alliance & Leicester's advertising that the phones sizzle whenever its television adverts are shown. 'Up comes the telephone number and in come the calls, and please can nobody be in the toilets,' says Pym. 'That is what is driving our business. We communicate clearly, the customer benefits.'

The latest television campaign, to promote current accounts, stars an unnamed female member of staff. 'There were a lot of applicants to go on television,' he says. 'She has a very pleasing personality.'

Did Pym think of fronting the campaign? The former chartered accountant smiles and says: 'That is not my job.'

But the new strategy clearly works. The bank's first-half profits far exceeded expectations at £262m and the days when Alliance & Leicester was perceived as a target for bigger rivals have long gone. The fifth anniversary of its conversion from a building society passed without controversy last year.

On the white walls of his Regent's Park office - Pym splits his time between London and Leicester - is a mock-up advertisement featuring a Pimm's bottle. It seems rather incongruous alongside the landscape paintings, but closer inspection reveals that the label says 'Pymmy'. 'It's my nickname,' he admits. 'The boys at Burtons did that for me when I worked there.'

The other pictures come from the bank's store, with the exception of a watercolour of the Devon village where Pym grew up - I bought it in a church fair for £5' - and another small landscape. 'This was a Christmas card from the Mayor of Exeter that I framed,' he says.

It is a more telling insight than any clarity discussion.

Cheques and balances

Alliance & Leicester's roots go back more than 150 years when the Leicester Permanent Benefit Society was formed. But today's chief executive, Richard Pym, is anything but old-fashioned, sporting a poster of the eponymous drink on his office wall. Alliance & Leicester has more than five million customers.

A quarter of all cash paid through shop tills is processed by Alliance & Leicester's Commercial Banking Business.

It is one of Britain's main direct banks, handling 25m calls a year on current accounts and receiving more than £2bn in loan applications over the internet in the first six months of 2003.

The share price has risen by 60% since flotation in 1997. Over the same period, the FTSE 100 has fallen by 4%.