Sir Simon Fraser, the founder of Flint Global, talks to CSW about moving from the civil service to the private sector, and the importance of being calm in a crisis
Sir Simon Fraser identified a niche in the market back in 2015 when he was head of the UK Foreign Office and Diplomatic Service. He realised that very few people in business really understand how government works. Having been permanent secretary at the then-Department for Business, Innovation and Skills from 2009 to 2010, and chief of staff to the EU commissioner for trade in Brussels prior to that, he had a wealth of knowledge that could be deployed in the private sector.
From this idea, Flint Global was born – a policy, regulatory and competition advisory firm that trades on a deep understanding of how governments and regulators think and work. Fraser set up Flint nine years ago and it now has 160 employees, many of whom have come from the civil service.
Was it a culture shock, swapping the civil service for business?
The culture shock was huge. I did the very unusual thing of going from the very top of the civil service to a start-up business, rather than going from one big organisation to another. I went from the Foreign Office where I had nine people in my private office to running my own diary. So there was a real shift in status, and I had to work that through. And I had to adjust to the immediacy of the private sector, where decisions get made much faster. I’d say the biggest challenge was moving into a world where motivations are so different – they are essentially financial, driven by money and profit.
Because I was setting the business up from scratch, the stress was considerable – a totally different type of stress to anything I’d experienced in the civil service. I knew that if I didn’t get out of bed and make this happen, nobody else was going to do it. It was rejuvenating.
"The stress was considerable – a totally different type of stress to anything I’d experienced in the civil service. I knew that if I didn’t get out of bed and make this happen, nobody else was going to do it"
Presumably it all felt like rather a steep learning curve?
It certainly was a learning curve. I had to learn how businesses make decisions, how to sell, how to negotiate contracts; how to cost my time and ensure profitability. And I also had to learn how to be comfortable in a world where things are driven by money.
I learned these skills by doing the job, through trial and error, although I had a lot of help from the co-founders of the business. I do think you need to have an appetite for it, and a basic commercial instinct. I found it fantastically interesting and stimulating.
I was 57 when I left the civil service. I thought, “This has been great, but do I really want to do another five-year loop of another government? If I want to do something different, I need to do it now.”
I did have times when I was worried that it wouldn’t happen – that the business would fail. But I couldn’t let it fail; it needed to succeed, and I needed to succeed. I enjoyed the direct personal responsibility of making it happen, that it was in my hands. Sometimes in the civil service it’s hard to feel that anything is in your hands – you’re part of a big machine.
What advice would you give a civil servant who’s considering a move into the private sector?
I’d say that you have to be very clear what you can bring to the market. What is your skillset? What is your specific offer that differentiates you? Who is going to buy that offer? You need to think those things through in a precise way.
I’d also say that civil servants can flourish in the private sector – their skills and knowledge are valuable. They know how to think analytically, how to write clearly, and how to manage complex stakeholders.
"I did have times when I was worried that it wouldn’t happen – that the business would fail. But I couldn’t let it fail; it needed to succeed, and I needed to succeed"
And the things civil servants do – such as managing Covid, or the fiscal crisis, for example – these are huge challenges. You learn a lot about your own capacity to deal with crises, and you build resilience as a result. Once you have these skills, you can take them with you into other parts of life.
What is the biggest geopolitical factor that’s bringing business your way in 2025?
Donald Trump, without a doubt. Our company operates across the whole of the economy, in all the different sectors, and they are all affected by the things Trump is doing – whether it’s tariffs, or controls on technology, or export controls, or shifting energy policies. It’s those regulatory disruptions that businesses need to be able to deal with. Then there’s the impact of how others respond to it – the position of the British government in relation to that, and of course the China question.
On the other hand, my more regulatory colleagues would say the biggest factor this year is the relationship between Rachel Reeves’s growth agenda the regulatory agenda, and how that’s going to play out in the domestic economy.
Things are constantly changing, of course. You have to be adaptable and follow the market. When we started Flint we thought we’d focus on Europe – namely Brexit and the consequences of that. Then we wanted to expand further, so we opened in Hong Kong and Singapore, which is doing very well. But you have to do these things carefully because you don’t want to over-expose yourself. You have to keep a very close eye on the numbers – that’s the golden rule.
How do you and your team stay current? Do you spend a lot of time sustaining relationships within government?
When I started Flint people said, “In three years you’ll be out of date”. It was simply not true. I have a long background in the civil service, and a lot of people who’ve come through the civil service used to work for or around me. They are interested in what I’m doing, and they reach out.
As time goes by things do inevitably move, and we’ve dealt with that through our recruitment process. We’ve become attractive to people in the civil service who want to go into the private sector, or who want to take some time out and then go back – which is possible, by the way. Over the last two years we’ve recruited people who are coming out of government with current policy knowledge. We also recruit special advisers who are focused on the policy issues, and who bring a political understanding to our work.
"When I started Flint people said, 'In three years you’ll be out of date'. It was simply not true"
What are you most proud of?
We set up Flint nine years ago, and we’ve gone from four to 160 employees, bringing together a very gifted group of people, many of whom came from the civil service. We’re still growing globally.
That’s what I’m most proud of – the creativity of doing this, and of creating jobs for people and bringing together a very gifted group of bright people. They are a tribute to the best of the public sector.
What did the civil service teach you?
The thing about running the Foreign Office is, you turn the radio on in the morning and you know what your day will be, because an embassy’s been attacked, for example. It taught me the skill of managing my reaction and the importance of being calm. It wasn’t natural to me, and I had to learn it. There is no point panicking or over-reacting. When you’re being yelled at by politicians you just have to be calm, and it’s important to project a calm front to the people around you. It’s a big life lesson.
What do you miss about the civil service?
I miss being on the inside of the political process. I miss the excitement and interest of the Foreign Office world, and having a ring-side seat on big international issues. But actually, my position at Flint means that I’m still part of that world in a different way. I have a wider range of senior influential contacts now than I did as a civil servant.
What have you learned from business that you wish you’d known as a civil servant?
I wish I’d had a better understanding of costing time and the utilisation of staff. I would encourage all managers in the civil service to think about that much more efficiently, and also to think about how the proliferation of meetings and advice could be streamlined. In the private sector you learn to say to yourself, “What really matters here?” It’s a matter of vigorous prioritisation.
"I miss the excitement and interest of the Foreign Office world, and having a ring-side seat on big international issues. But I’m still part of that world in a different way"
You have a built-in inefficiency in the civil service due to the process of government, of course. There’s also a lot of risk aversion in the civil service, which I can understand, and it leads to people feeling they need to cover every angle. You need to apply intelligent risk management practices to focus prioritisation. But then, you have to have politicians who want to go along with that. Their own behaviours don’t always encourage efficiency.
What was the most challenging day of your career?
It was during the Arab Spring when I was in the Foreign Office. We had these crises going on everywhere; we were trying to get people out of Libya and David Cameron was not happy with how the evacuation was going, so I was under pressure. At the same time my wife was unwell, so there was a combination of acute professional pressure alongside some personal problems. It was tough. But it was also fulfilling to face those challenges.
Another difficult day was when our embassy in Tehran was attacked in 2012, and we had 24 hours to get people out. It’s intense pressure. You have to accept the things that are in your control and do your best with them, and think through the other things that might happen as carefully as you can.
What’s the last movie or TV series you loved?
The last thing I really enjoyed on TV was a French series called The Bureau, about the French secret service, which was great. So much better than The Diplomat, which I had to give up on – it was totally unrealistic. I absolutely loved the Bob Dylan film, A Complete Unknown. I’m a big fan of '60s and '70s music – that’s my era.