IN almost three years as chief executive of BT Group, Ben Verwaayen has made little impression on the office that was occupied by Sir Peter Bonfield. The beige leather furniture is still in place, standing on the blond-wood floor.

The only sign of the Dutchman’s presence is a family photo and a small pile of books, topped today by one entitled Brilliant Orange: The neurotic genius of Dutch football.

“There’s enough going on in the transformation of the company without me having to change my office,” he said.

And, make no mistake, BT is changing. In place of the debt-laden and accident-prone business that Bonfield left behind, there is emerging a more confident organisation — more fleet of foot, more focused on the opportunities of the future than the problems of the past.

A recent report by Forrester, the technology-research firm, named BT as the innovation leader in the European telecoms industry. Lars Godell, Forrester’s analyst, said: “BT has the most comprehensive but also the most open approach to innovation. It has been at the forefront of partnering with external companies.” Its bold plan to invest £10 billion in a 21st-century network put the company “at least a couple of years ahead of its peers in western Europe ”, he added.

Verwaayen recognises that many customers have yet to see the benefit of this investment in the form of more advanced or better services. But he is determined that they will.

“The thing I want people to say about BT is, it feels like ‘wow’. That’s a high bar, but we need to get there.”

BT is trusted as a reliable telecoms supplier. But Verwaayen wants the brand to say much more — that BT “is modern understands my needs, is really at the edge of what’s possible”.

For much of Verwaayen’s tenure, evidence of transformation has been difficult to see. In common with other big national telcos, BT is struggling with the decline of its legacy landline business as customers make more use of mobile phones and the internet.

Traditional revenues are still in steady decline, but under Verwaayen BT has created a “new wave” business based on broadband and computer technology. These activities are now generating £1 billion a quarter — the equivalent of an FTSE 100 company, BT’s boss notes.

This has enabled the business to achieve modest top-line growth for the past three quarters. The shares, for months becalmed at about 180p, have finally noticed this, recently climbing above 200p, giving BT a market value of £17.5 billion. This is still below the level on Verwaayen’s arrival.

Verwaayen said: “What we’re doing is what everybody else has to do. We do it first, we do it fast, we have the benefit of being first out of the blocks. Our market is changing rapidly and technology is changing rapidly. The ability to identify the needs of individual customers and bring (new services) to life much quicker than ever before is an absolute necessity for a company to stay successful.”

When he arrived at BT, Verwaayen was quick to embrace the roll-out of broadband as a key goal. BT now supplies high-speed internet services to more than 4m customers. By this summer its investment will make broadband potentially available to nearly every home and business in Britain.