Mobile boss Snook moves into health care

Joia Shillingford
BBC News business reporter

Hans Snook once predicted we would receive calls via earrings

He may not be a teenager, but Hans Snook, chairman of mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse, has an uncanny knack for picking up on trends.

He downloaded the Crazy Frog ringtone on to his mobile as soon as he heard it. It turns out that hundreds of thousands of young people have done so too.

He also had a Motorola RAZR phone, one of this season's hottest mobiles, as one of his four handsets. Or he did until his partner Helen "stole it".

Futurology

But what does the former boss of Orange - who once predicted we would be making calls from earring-style phones - think will be important trends for the future?

Crazy Frog ringtones and wallpaper have wowed mobile users

He forecasts that one day all communications networks - whether fixed or mobile - will be linked together.

"There'll be one big global network that reaches everywhere," he says.

"When you're near a cheap fixed-line network, bluetooth (short-range radio) in the phone could connect to it and let you make calls over it," adds Mr Snook.

This would benefit mobile operators too, he says, because they wouldn't have to put base stations into every building.

It would also get round the problem of buildings with poor mobile coverage.

Mobile stress reducer

More useful, or more amusing, services for mobiles will also be key, he says.

I don't do anything unless it is fun. I have to believe in it, it has to be good for people. And it has to be profitable Hans Snook, chairman of Carphone Warehouse

For example, he is working with Health-Smart, a small UK company with biofeedback technology that can monitor key health indicators, such as blood pressure, heart rate and heart variability, via a small strap that goes round a finger.

This could transmit the results to a mobile phone via bluetooth, he says.

"The feedback will tell you if you are overstressed, and you can make yourself calmer by breathing better."

Mr Snook, who once said he would have liked to be a psychologist if he wasn't a businessman, seems to have reduced stress in his own life.

It helps that he has made over £40m from sales of Orange shares and from takeovers of Orange by Mannesmann, and by Vodafone (when it bought Mannesmann).

Emphasis on enjoyment

Mr Snook is moving from phones to healthcare

"I don't do anything unless it is fun," he says. "I have to believe in it, it has to be good for people. And it has to be profitable - or it won't last."

He describes his role as chairman of Orange Thailand as fun but demanding. He took it on in 2002, shortly after France Telecom's acquisition of Orange and his departure as Orange boss.

He stayed on as chairman of Orange Thailand after France Telecom reduced its 49% stake in the business to 10% last year, selling out to its listed Thai joint venture partner, Chaeran Pokhand Group.

"My biggest job last year was to broker this deal," says Mr Snook, who spent many years working in Asia - for Hutchison - after going there as a young backpacker in the 1980s.

But the deal means Orange Thailand must eventually drop the Orange name. "We needed a brand that would be as successful as Orange with Thais," says Mr Snook, who expects "True" or "True Mobile" to be the final choice.

"It will be my first experience of changing the Orange brand to something else," he points out.

Health check

SNOOK HIGHLIGHTS 1985: Joined Hutchison Telecommunications in Hong Kong and rose to become chief of Hutchison UK 1994: Founded Orange 2001:Left Orange after France Telecom bought it 2002: Became chairman of Carphone Warehouse, and of Orange Thailand 2003: Moved into the health business

A bigger challenge for Mr Snook is making his health business, The Diagnostic Clinic, profitable. "It's still difficult, we're not in profit," he says .

The focus of the business is on integrated diagnostics, providing customers with a thorough health check combining conventional medicine with alternative therapies.

"Because the analysis is more broadly based, it should detect some problems other health checks miss," says Mr Snook, who is non-executive chairman and backer of the venture.

"I know we have saved at least two lives."

But Mr Snook says making the company, which charges £550 to £600 for a typical healthcheck, profitable has been difficult because: "There is a fear factor; people worry they will find something wrong."

Maverick boss

Bedtime read: Ayn Rand, Russian-American novelist: 1905-1982

Oddly enough for a kind of ambassador for health, known to have tried treatments like colonic irrigation, Mr Snook does not come across as a health nut.

In fact, he is something of a maverick, and says he is not at all bothered if people think some of his ideas are wacky.

Despite the health business, he only agrees to lunch in restaurants where smoking is allowed, and he is partial to a good New World chardonnay, and to chips.

He did manage to give up smoking for seven years, but started again when he got involved in the health venture. "Probably an act of rebellion," he says.

He is also not a very diligent gym goer - only turning up four times in three years, before deciding gym membership was a waste of money.

Out of hours

A big fan of reading books to destress instead, Mr Snook favours those by Ayn Rand, a right-wing thinker and novelist.

He likes to read, and talk about, several books at once. One minute it is anti-capitalist book Altered Carbon, the next it is Voodoo Science, and then it is on to Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth, a historical romance.

Before lunch is over he has promised to send me a copy of the film of The Fountainhead, based on Ms Rand's story of an uncompromising architect who won't be swayed from his vision.

Mr Snook would probably fit right into one of Ayn Rand's novels as one of her ruthless but fair characters. His staff at Orange were too attentive to his requirements not to have been a little scared of him.

His PR minders there also seemed a little worried he would say something "off message", which he frequently did.

Would he go back to the big company 'machine'?

"If it was something in healthcare, I'd look at it," he says. "If it was in technology or telecoms - I never say never - but probably not."