How would you describe your role at Mr B & Friends?
Ultimately my role is to create the environment for everyone in the business to thrive while ensuring we balance strategic and creative excellence with commercial performance and client delight.
On a day-to-day basis this will involve leading the Operations and Finance teams to ensure the business is running smoothly and working closely with the Client Service team to ensure we are adding value to our client partners. A key aspect of my role will also be championing our Employer Brand to ensure we’re attracting and retaining top talent, this will include a focus on continuing to develop our DE&I approach and advancing our sustainability agenda.
What attracted you to Mr B & Friends?
From my first meeting with Simon, it was apparent there was a clear, ambitious and exciting future growth plan for the business that I could see myself embracing and playing a key role in delivering. The calibre of the team and the breadth of clients across a range of different sectors was also appealing and offers a lot of potential.
What experience do you bring to the role?
My career path perhaps isn’t typical in the agency world, I started in Client Management working with large global brands such as Nestlé, Mondelēz and Hotpoint across a range of Branding, Comms and CSR projects. I then moved into the role of Operations Director overseeing the Project Management team, HR and the Studio Co-ordinator. I was also part of the Management Team who were responsible for driving the business forwards.
This breadth of roles means I have a strong understanding of all aspects of running an agency and a proven track record of leading high-performance teams.
What has been your greatest career achievement so far?
In my previous role I worked on a project that involved breaking down traditional agency structures and career development and moving the company to an employee-centric personal development programme.
This meant that rather than line managers driving employees’ development and fitting to rigid career paths, the employees themselves had the autonomy to set their goals and shape their careers. This approach centred around playing to the individual’s strengths and the reduced hierarchy across the business meant the focus was on the role you played and not the badge you wore.
To ensure the team were fully supported we also introduced a cross-functional peer-to-peer mentoring programme and brought in an in-house coach. Although this was a big change for the agency it had a really positive result on the motivation and performance of the team.
First impressions count. A fortnight into the role, what has struck you most?
It’s very apparent to me that there’s a strong company culture where the team really are friends. I was fortunate enough to join in time for the summer away day, where there were many examples of people supporting each other professionally and personally and genuinely celebrating each other’s achievements- whether that be promotions, company awards or managing to stay up on a surfboard! It’s also great to see that the whole team is united behind the five-year growth plan and excited for the future of the business.
