THE BIG INTERVIEW
‘In my industry, when you’re leading large operational centres, most roles are about going in and improving things – making it more efficient and changing the culture’
“The initial plan was to go from zero to 250 people
within 18 months. I was very interested because start- ups just don’t happen in UK contact centres – they usually go overseas.” Andrea joined in 2015 and ended up growing the
centre to more than 1,200 people based in St George’s Way, while adding bases on the south coast and in South Africa that took headcount under her watch to more than 2,000 people. When it reached the point that the role needed
splitting up due to the swelling numbers, PPL PRS offered an enticing proposition. The not-for-profit organisation is a joint venture
between PPL – which distributes royalties on behalf of performers and record companies – and PRS for Music, a society of songwriters, composers and music publishers. Its focus is to manage the licensing element of their
operations and make things more straightforward for the two organisations’ customers, who previously had to obtain separate licences from both societies. PPL PRS had grown from a single employee at its
launch in April 2017 to about 250 by the time Andrea was approached. She was familiar with the company after hosting
directors at the Hastings office on behalf of Leicester’s inward investment team while they searched for a site in the city. “I had followed its journey and was interested in its
plans,” she recalls. “It came at a point in my career where I was ready to do something different and gave
me the opportunity to run the whole business rather than just the operational side.”
ARMED WITH 30 years’ experience working in and leading contact centres, Andrea’s CV was praised by PPL CEO Peter Leathem for “establishing and growing first-class customer service operations” when she was appointed managing director in November 2019. The company has a contact centre that liaises with
businesses to educate them about TheMusicLicence, which allows them to legally play music in public through radio, TV, digital services or live performances in accordance with The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998. Businesses that play music are licensed according to
legislated tariffs, which vary depending on their sector. PPL PRS licenses companies in line with these tariffs and collect royalties on behalf of PPL and PRS for Music, which then distribute fees back to their members to ensure they are paid fairly for their work. The idea had been to continue expanding the
company throughout 2020 but the pandemic has paused any more ambitious plans. Andrea explains: “A large proportion of the
businesses we work with are in the hospitality industry so the revenue we expected is nowhere near what we thought it would be because many of them haven’t been trading. “While we expected a reasonable growth trajectory,
it’s not going to be there and is unlikely to be through 2021 either.
business networkMarch 2021 27
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