Leadership
equitably. As Krichefski summarises: “I also don’t think you can be a successful CEO in this day and age if you don’t have empathy.”
Impacting industry change
Krichefski is certain that this focus on mental health is the right track to take, explicitly linking it to business outcomes. “I really care about mental health – but I’m also trying to run a tight ship,” he says. Not that Krichefski is exactly alone here. As Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development data from last year shows, more than seven in ten companies focus on mental well-being, while the body’s 2021 study in mental health found that over 80% of employers had taken a greater interest in employee mental health since the pandemic.
All the same, corporate enthusiasm for mental health seems to have slipped since the pandemic, a fact that leaves Krichefski concerned. “For me, it’s important that companies and leaders have a good understanding of how their people are, as that’s the only way we can positively change.” Indeed, Krichefski is so passionate about these questions that he’s using his CEO position to make mental well-being an industry and political priority. “You can’t have a cause for the sake of having a cause,” he adds. “Mental health and well-being mean something to me and that comes across as authentic.” Public about his own struggles with anxiety and insomnia, as president of The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) Krichefski has also launched a charter to improve mental health across advertising. Among other things, the document promotes better training and dialogue, while also advocating for evidence- based interventions around mental health, accommodations for those struggling at work and better monitoring of overall workforce well-being. In a similar vein, Krichefski is working with the UK government to explore the idea of mandating internal well-being reporting, so individual business leaders are obliged to focus on the issue. “The follow-on needs to then be for CEOs to build empathic leaders across the organisation and focus on building trust and connection with their people,” he adds. In turn, Krichefski believes this will enable executives of all stripes to build resilient workforces – able to power future success and withstand economic volatility. “For me,” he says, “resilience is a superpower and if we can get that in business we’d be such a force.”
Executive legacy
Krichefski is bullish about the future of GroupM. The company is pushing ahead with further transformation plans, including better enablement
Chief Executive Officer /
www.ns-businesshub.com Other stress-reducing initiatives
As a CEO, there are many ways to set out your stall. Some choose social or environmental causes. Others, like Mignon Buckingham, focus on innovation. As the CEO of Airport Dimensions, a global airport lounge provider, explains: “Consumers are used to accessing everything via their phone but airports lag behind.” More to the point, Buckingham admits, airports can be fragmented, stressful places. “The moment you step into an airport it can be: ‘Where am I going? How do I find this?’” With multi-decade experience in the travel industry, Buckingham knows that less stressed guests are more likely to spend money while waiting for their flights. She also knows that the pandemic created industry challenges, and that customers are used to joined-up personalised, digital experiences. That’s why AD developed a platform, Connecta, to link up flight information, duty-free shopping and lounge booking, among other services.
This innovation was not magicked out of thin air – but rather required servicing of relationships with other stakeholders, as well as a reliance on big data to understand how customers behave. “This can help us understand what optimum seating configurations might be,” Buckingham adds, “and how to make the guest experience better.”
Such focus on understanding the market has allowed AD to develop elsewhere too. That includes creating new experiences, including a gaming lounge in Dubai, and a sustainably developed space in San Francisco, set to open next year. Buckingham sees her role as a “cheerleader” for these projects, ensuring that experts across the business can help push novel ideas forward. “In five years’ time,” she says, “the [travel] landscape will look very different.”
of client media-buying decisions with data, creating even more synergy between its separate agencies and the use of AI within its Nexus business. Looking out the window of his corner office, less than two miles from where MPs rolled out nascent health and safety legislation more than 200 years ago, one can appreciate why Krichefski is so focused on resilience when it comes to making good on future ambitions.
“I also don’t think you can be a successful CEO, in this day and age, if you don’t have empathy.”
Continued growth and evolution, alongside the intensity of a media world day job, require backstopping mental health. Indeed, down on the manicured lawn of Red Lion Square, office workers look calm as they snatch breaks from work, read a book at lunch or grab a coffee from the café at the centre of this space. Readying themselves to step back into intensive jobs.
While Krichefski explains that he isn’t into dictating what staff should do to stay happy, whether that is accessing mental health services or simply having time to recuperate with a coffee, he does impress the importance of focusing on mental health at work. Ahead of anything else – be it GroupM’s impressive results or plans to keep on innovating in the media space – he emphasises that he wants this to be his lasting impact. “If I have any form of legacy when I’ve finished,” he says, “it’s that workplaces where I’ve led have people that thrive more than they ever have before.” ●
$64bn GroupM 13
GroupM’s total billings at the start of 2023, making it the global leader in media investment.
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