Late designer sprinted after head of company at work (6)

I believe the answer is:

conran

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'late designer' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot tell whether this works.

'sprinted after head of company at work' is the wordplay.
'sprinted' becomes 'ran' (I've seen this before).
'after' says to put letters next to each other.
'head of' suggests taking the first letters.
'at work' becomes 'on' (on can mean activated or working).
The initial letter of 'company' is 'c'.
'c'+'on'='con'
'ran' after 'con' is 'CONRAN'.

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I've seen this clue in The Independent.

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