Chief executive focus, by Kim Benjamin

From MiG joy rides to giant debts digging telecoms holes, Kim Benjamin talks to two leading bosses with colourful pasts and grand visions for the future

Kent Ertugrul tells me that 'his ability to survive' has been his strongest skill to date. I'm meeting the founder and chief executive of 121Media at the company headquarters in London, a rather soulless and non-descript serviced office that does not in any way do justice to Ertugrul's exciting past.

He has already made his mark in industries as diverse as hamburger bars, online dating, voicemail, and micro-gravity flights for tourists (where he charged up to $11,000 dollars for a thirty-minute thrill ride in a MiG jet). His latest venture, online advertising play 121 Media, floated on AIM in December last year, raising £1.72 million at 245p a share. It is looking to tap into the growing market for online 'contextual advertising'. 'I've always valued a new challenge and, over the years, I have developed a 'why not?' perspective, and there is no reason why this business should not be huge,' explains Ertugrul.

Such a perspective is behind his aim to dramatically increase the two-to-three million people that currently use 121's offering. This is a simple product called 'Pagesense Desktop' that is imbedded in free, popular software programmes (especially file sharing ones) that are downloaded in their droves from the net. Pagesense allows 121 to legally interrogate a users habit and then deliver tailored advertisements on behalf of clients.

The future is a browser

The big hope for the future though is Pagesense Javascript, which is a similar technology but bundled up with an internet browser. This could dramatically expand the installed user base as, after all, everyone needs a browser for the web. Apparently talks are underway that could turn Ertugrul's dream into reality, though nothing has been signed yet.

Of course, if this deal does come in, he will have his work cut out to prove that 'contextual advertising' really is more effective mode than the current online advertising techniques. And then there is the simple matter of the £17.5 million market cap to justify, a value that looks very aggressive against the latest results (in the three months to September, sales were £1.1 milllion and the profit a mere £145,738). Ertugrul is convinced though that he can thrive. 'We can deliver the highest quality, best paying adverts in the most accurately targeted way. Thats a great proposition.'

Back for more

Equally indefatigable is Graham Duncan, founder and CEO of Edinburgh-based IT and telecoms provider Glen Group. No stranger to public markets, his previous business, Atlantic Telecom, spent in the order of £350 milllion and once enjoyed a market value of circa £1.1 billion. Alas, when the markets turned, not even Duncan's famed visions for the future could prevent its collapse. With its confidence dwindling (it is expensive to build a telecoms network) and debts piling high (the result of an ill-fated German acquisition), it eventually folded in 2001.

'I was devastated when Atlantic went into administration – for myself, my family and the creditors. But I love the public markets – and you have to put up with its mood swings. With Glen Group, I've catapulted myself right into the front line,' enthuses Duncan.

The company, vauled at £1.75 million, raised £750,000, all from private investors, and Duncan intends to use the money to grow as rapidly as possible. It completed an acquisition last year, and the company is in preparations to open its first office outside Scotland.

In the early days, the business relied heavily on selling pre-paid phone cards, but these 'mucky minutes', as Duncan puts it, are no longer core to Glen. Instead he has identified more robust revenue streams. One is a mobile business-to-business service, which he compares to Carphone Warehouse, 'except we only do businesses and we don't have any shops!' The other is one-stop-shop IT service for SMEs.

Customer numbers are, at present, 'in the hundreds rather than the thousands', and a voice over internet protocol (VoIP) service is in the trial stages and has therefore yet to attract users. It's not as grandiose as his Atlantic, but he reckons he might just get it right this time.