LONDON BRIEFING:LONDON'S NEW mayor has always had lofty ambitions. When asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, the young Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson would reply: "The world King."
He's not quite there yet but, after his stunning victory against Ken Livingstone last week, the 43-year-old former journalist and Have I Got News For Youhost has some claim to the title of "London King".
The blond, bumbling Tory toff may have started as a joke candidate, but he now finds himself in charge of one of the greatest capital cities in the world - and the annual budget of £11 billion that goes with it.
He will oversee London's creaking transport network, its over-stretched police and fire services and will take responsibility for the general economic development of the capital. He will also have the power to veto major planning applications. The new mayor will also play a key role in the build-up to the 2012 Olympic Games, which London taxpayers are partially funding at a current rate of 38p per person per week, and will sit on the London organising committee's board.
Johnson's only direct experience of business, early on in his career, was a week as a trainee management consultant. He later recalled: "Try as I might, I could not look at an overhead projection of a growth profit matrix and stay conscious."
So just what is in store for London business under the Johnson regime? Some clues were set out in Johnson's campaign manifesto Backing London Businessin which he extolled London as the economic engine room of the nation, noting that London and Londoners contribute around £90 billion to the British exchequer each year and generate 17 per cent of the UK's GDP.
He warned against complacency - "the fortunes of great cities rise and fall" - and promised to "use every strand of Mayoral power" to fight against the government's over-regulation and over-taxation.
The London business community has broadly welcomed Johnson's victory. Although Red Ken was not the disaster for London and the Square Mile that some had feared, business leaders are happy to have a true-blue Tory at the helm of the capital - even one as unpredictable as Johnson.
The CBI welcomed his appointment and said it wants the new mayor to focus on improving London's infrastructure and transport system. Johnson's campaign promise to phase out Livingstone's hugely unpopular "bendy buses", which create traffic chaos on the capital's roads and almost encourage fare-dodging, proved a winner with most ordinary Londoners, who are now looking forward to the return of the double-decker Routemaster, complete with conductors.
Opponents of the Congestion zone - and drivers of the so-called Chelsea Tractors - will also get a break under the new mayor, who is scrapping the proposed increase from £8 to £25 a day for larger gas-guzzling vehicles entering the capital. He also promised a review of the zone's extension across west London.
Johnson may have a reputation as a gaffe-prone buffoon, but he is undoubtedly a highly intelligent politician and is determined to make his mark over the next four years. Key to his success will be the team he gathers around him; the advisors who will bring the experience and expertise, as well as curbing any of his wilder excesses.
News of the appointments to his cabinet are expected later this week and rumours are circulating in the Square Mile that he has secured the services of a highly paid FTSE 250 chief executive who will effectively run the capital.
Johnson has already shown some skill in assembling a team - one of the first on board was Barclays' Bob Diamond, the best-known and highest-paid banker in the City. Diamond, an American, is president of Barclays and runs its investment banking side. Last month it was revealed that he would help set up a Mayor's Fund charity, raising money from the banking and financial industry, cash which will be used to help poor and deprived children in the capital.
Johnson was delighted to have bagged the services of one of the biggest names in the City, who is giving his services voluntarily, boasting at the time about the eye-watering £36 million bonus package Diamond received last year.
Another American will also be on hand later this week to offer guidance to the new mayor - on Friday, Johnson will meet with Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire businessman who is his counterpart in New York. The two apparently got on well when they met in London last autumn and Bloomberg is happy to pass on tips about how to avoid pitfalls in the early days.
Bloomberg will arrive at City Hall the day after he appears alongside Gordon Brown at an economic regeneration conference in Belfast - a painful reminder for the besieged prime minister that the Tories now control one of the biggest political offices in Britain.
Fiona Walsh writes for the Guardiannewspaper in London
