Size matters to big cheese Bowden-Doyle

Size matters to big cheese Bowden-Doyle

What a difference four months makes.

Avid Cutting Edge readers may remember former Thomson Holidays managing director Richard Bowden-Doyle taking up with relish the chance to join thetrainline.com as chief operating officer (Travel Weekly June 12).

He said he was looking forward to mucking in with about a dozen people instead of the 10,000 he used to look after at the then market leader.

“Being at the top of the pyramid in a big company means that no-one lets you do anything. You spend your time being a social worker. It’s nice to actually get out and do something rather than sitting on your backside all day,” he said back in June. It seems Richard was kidding himself. Last week he admitted he couldn’t handle working for such a small outfit and quit.

Insiders tell us another factor was that he had taken a relatively low basic wage with an excellent share package that would make him very rich when the company was floated.

The fall from grace of Internet stocks has made that float very unlikely in the short term.

Bowden-Doyle is taking some time off but shouldn’t find it too hard to get back to what he’s used to.

Sources say there are plenty of vacancies at the top companies and he’s still highly regarded.

He could even turn up at the home of his former arch rival, Airtours.

It’ll be back to social work for him then.

Trainline: too small for Bowden-Doyle