Carrying a single suitcase and fearing for their lives, the Lalani family escaped to the airport, hoping to find a flight that would take them to safety.

It was 1972. Dictator Idi Amin had branded Uganda's 80,000 strong Asian population as "bloodsuckers" and ordered them to leave in weeks.

The vast majority of them fled, leaving behind their memories and possessions. Among the 30,000 who came to Britain was 10-year-old Hanif Lalani. Along with his family, he swapped life in the small Ugandan town of Soroti for a new beginning in Yorkshire.

Years later, Lalani recalled the first day in his new home town – a snow-covered Wetherby. His family soon integrated and he shone at the local school.

Last week, Lalani was given one of the toughest jobs in British business. He's got to dramatically improve the performance of the BT Group's global services division. On Friday, a shock profits warning sent BT's shares into freefall.

Lalani – BT's former finance director – replaces Francois Barrault, who was shown the door on Friday, after BT issued a statement preparing the market for a "particularly disappointing" performance from its global services division.

Perhaps surprisingly, BT insisted the profits warning wasn't linked to the credit crunch. Cost savings have failed to keep pace with the division's revenue growth.

Last year, the division made a commitment to delivering savings which have simply failed to materialise.

The market's response was vicious. Within hours of Friday's grim announcement, BT's shares hit their lowest level in 20 years. Shareholders will be baying for blood – and worried about what will happen when the recession really starts to take hold.

At least one analyst found it hard to predict when BT's stock would hit rock bottom, because global services – its engine for growth – was contracting.

Lalani's first job will be to find plenty of areas where money can be saved. On Friday, a BT spokesman acknowledged that global services needed to be "fitter and slimmer".

Lalani is probably going to have to pare back global services' 35,000 staff, starting with its foreign-based sub-contractors.

It's a herculean challenge, but, if Lalani can turn round the global services division, he'll have helped to pull one of Britain's best known corporate names out of the mire.

There are two points to be made here. The successful integration of the Ugandan Asians vindicates Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath's brave decision to welcome them to Britain.

To Heath, Britain had a moral obligation to help all Ugandan Asians who had British passports. Decades earlier, Britain had taken many Indians to Uganda to work as labourers. The least we could do was give them shelter.

Let's not forget, they arrived in Britain only four years after Enoch Powell's notorious "Rivers of Blood" speech. Some Right-wing Tories and sections of the Press believed the Ugandan Asians should have been sent packing.

If they had, British business would never have benefited from the talents of Lalani and thousands like him.

The second point to emphasise is that Lalani has only worked at one company – BT. He knows BT and its culture inside out. In today's corporate world, where many executives hop from sector to sector, it's heartening to see an example of an insider rising through the ranks.

So far, his track record suggests that Lalani is just the man for the job.

He was promoted to finance director in 2005 after transforming the fortunes of BT Northern Ireland, where he increased revenue and profits while cutting costs.

Few would have guessed that the boy who found sanctuary in Wetherby on that cold winter's day 36 years ago would go on to play a leading role in one of Britain's biggest plcs.



YOU may recall that comments made by Freeserve co-founder Ajaz Ahmed earlier this year led to an impassioned debate about the quality of advice given by public sector bodies to fledgling entrepreneurs.

Ajaz claimed that too many public-sector funded bodies – such as Business Link – indulged people with dreadful ideas; wasting time and money. In response, a number of people jumped to Business Link's defence, saying that their company would have never got off the ground without the support it offered.

Business Link has undergone a revolutionary change this year. The four old Business Links that covered Yorkshire and the Humber closed on the evening of March 31. A single Business Link covering the whole of the region was launched the next day.

Seven months later, how is it getting on? I would love to hear from readers who can provide an insight.