Contemporaries reported that he commanded A-R as though it were a battleship. His "Official Office Memoranda", giving instructions and setting rules for everything down to the frequency of filing and the decoration on the walls, became a legend throughout ITV. Under his leadership, the company went from having one employee (himself) to becoming Europe's first and largest commercial television broadcaster in under a year. In that time, he supervised the conversion of the former headquarters of the Air Ministry, Adastral House, into Television House, A-R studios and administration headquarters, which also served as the headquarters for ITN, the TV Times and, at first, Associated TeleVision, A-R's main rival. At the same time, he was also actively involved in defining the station's identity, formulating the programme plans, creating an advertising market for television, chairing ITN and negotiating industrial relations with the film and broadcasting unions.