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