EUROPE Winner... EMMA KANE CEO INSIGHT Q
What are your most important professional
achievements at your current company?
When I founded Redleaf in January 2000, I wanted to create a new breed of agency focused on delivering solutions to specific communications issues rather than selling pre-packaged products. There have been many notable professional achievements since this time. However, I think it is the awards that we have won since the start of 2014 that are among the most important. These awards are independent endorsements our team’s achievements and voted for by our peer group, the people we work with and our clients. Since the start of 2014, we have already won three prestigious awards – Grant Thornton PR Agency of the Year 2014, KPMG Financial PR Agency of the Year 2014 and Estates Gazette’s International Property Marketing Award:
Residential 2014 and we
were shortlisted for Crisis/Issues Campaign of the Year. So the greatest achievement has to be in building the very best team in the industry and getting recognition for the powerful results they achieve.
Q How did you do that?
It is all about the people, how they work together and their desire to build a career not have a job. Building a positive and vibrant corporate culture is a key ingredient to achieving this and ensuring that everything we do is in line with our values of being collaborative, meticulous, creative, fun and perceptive.
Q
What education or prior experience helped you
succeed at your current company?
I started my career at the very bottom and worked hard to progress through the ranks - I was the first secretary to be promoted to an executive and as a result I focus on attitude and ambition over pure academic achievements.
I think my understanding of people and what motivates them is at the heart of my success as a CEO – we all spend a lot of time at our offices and the experience has to be fulfilling.
A lot of the talent at Redleaf Polhill has been homegrown – if someone left the Agency because they felt they had been overlooked for promotion or had not got the opportunity to
develop their skills, I would have failed.
Q
What lessons did you learn on your way to
becoming a CEO?
Treat people with respect, understand what motivates them, reward success, communicate regularly and build strong relationships, ask the right questions, and to remember that it is better to part of a team than a one- man-band.
Q
What are the key success factors for a CEO?
• Surround yourself with the very best people you can attract and make them feel valued.
• Act swiftly and decisively when things are not going according to plan – it is very rare that things just sort themselves out if they are ignored.
• If you say you are going to do something, do it – people don’t respect someone who just talks a good talk.
• Share your vision with your team and keep them regularly updated on progress made – you won’t achieve your goals if your team aren’t part of that journey.
Emma Kane - CEO of Redleaf Polhill First Floor, 4 London Wall Buildings, Blomfield Street, London, EC2M 5NT 52
www.finance-monthly.com
• Run a profitable business and focus on cash because otherwise you won’t be able to achieve your ambitions.
Q Q
What are the challenges for a CEO?
• Staying fresh • Learning from your mistakes • Achieving balance in your life
How did you overcome those challenges?
The day you stop learning is the day you should give up – and often, if you don’t stay ahead of developments, the decision is taken out of your hands anyway. For example, technological advances are such that the world of communications is changing dramatically and we have had to adapt our skill base, training, offering and entire approach; but this is what makes my job so exciting and fulfilling.
If you don’t win a piece of business, lose an existing client or a key employee, ask the right questions and find out why it happened, what needs to be done to prevent this happening again in the future – what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger but only if we learn from those mistakes!
In addition to a very busy family life with two children and three
key
Founder & CEO of Redleaf Polhill United Kingdom
FINANCE MONTHLY CEO AWARDS 2014
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86