Hunger, curiosity,
constant learning and
reinvention is
fundamental
In this Up-Close interview, we speak with Sean Cornwell, Chief Executive Officer at Immediate.
What drew you to join Immediate in early 2021?
There are two main things - the first is that it is very rare to come across a business that has such a stable of phenomenal brands within it. We have some of the category leading brands across consumer verticals that people love such as Good Food, Radio Times in Entertainment and BBC Gardeners World in Gardening, and many other sectors - and that's pretty unique. The people that we touch monthly, weekly, and daily is very unique because there's tons of opportunities with different brands to do interesting and exciting things and build on past successes and continue to evolve them.
The second reason is the culture at Immediate - the business really walks the talk; it's an incredible people-first culture that creates an environment that you want to be in everyday and allows people to be themselves, which I think is really important and helps bring the best out of people. Our people are doing what they love and really care about in a collaborative, supportive and exciting environment. You don't find this that often and it is worth its weight in gold.
If you look back, what are you most proud of in terms of what you've built out and the impact you've made in the past couple of years?
I think there are a couple of things. The first is that I'm really proud of how we have taken the huge success that Immediate has had to date over the first 10 years of its existence, and actually built on that. We have evolved and rolled out a new strategy and got alignment and excitement around where we want to take the business over the next few years. There are a ton of different things we could do or could have done, but to have that alignment and clarity of vision and purpose has taken a huge effort from all the teams; a lot of work has gone into it. Having that alignment, not just at leadership level but now cascading down through the business is incredibly gratifying.
The second is, like many media businesses, it’s a process of continuous change and transformation. One of the most exciting and satisfying things is that we have well over a million subscribers within the business today, and we now have more digital subscribers than print subscribers within the business from pretty much a standing start on the digital side three years ago. It’s a testament to everyone's hard work, to taking some big bets, to being bold and to the great work the teams have done.
What would you say is your career highlight to date?
I have this philosophy that 'the best is still to come' and I don't really look back. I think that actually, that hunger, curiosity, constant learning and tweaking and reinvention is really fundamental. There are lots of different highlights, circumstances, and times; to me, to pick a career highlight or two slightly misses the point.
“The first question you have to ask yourself is why would someone want to come work for you and your business?”
Every CEO faces challenges. Can you share a particularly tough challenge you've encountered in your career and how you overcame it? What lessons did you learn?
The hardest thing in my career, point blank, was the onset of COVID-19. I was running an Online Travel Agency (Direct Ferries) and overnight we got to minus 99% YoY bookings and revenue. In addition, we had outflow in the millions of pounds due to refunds, and I was looking at the business going down the pan. At the same time, I had different investors and the leadership team all adding divergent inputs. Yet I surprised myself with how I overcame it - by putting one foot in front of the next and keeping things going while trying to solve each problem one at a time. I learned a huge amount looking back on it now, the first being, even if an individual has been value additive or a great team member in the past, when they're no longer on the bus you have to call it, and call it fast. The second and bigger one was a realisation that the more you invest in your team beyond just ticking typical boxes, but an ongoing investment, spending time together, really thinking about the individuals, the stronger you become collectively and the better equipped you are to weather the storms and the ups and downs.
The economic uncertainty over the last few years has also taught me resilience and the ability to keep going, to do the hard things, as well as the ability to switch out and turn off sometimes and frankly focus on the most important things such as family after hours.
In your opinion, what are the top attributes of a great CEO?
Firstly, I don't think there's a playbook here, although I used to be a big believer in playbooks. I think great CEOs can come in different shapes, sizes and forms. I do think; however, fundamental to this is a curiosity and hunger, and an ability to continuously reinvent, be open to feedback, learn, calibrate, tweak, rinse and repeat. If I think about the leader I am now versus the leader I was 15 years ago coming out of Google, it's a night-and-day difference. Some of it is down to experience or changing times, but one has to change and evolve and accept that what has made you successful in the past may not be the same today.
The second attribute is thinking fundamentally about what a CEO does. What is your strategy? Are your teams set up in the right way for success? Are they executing well against the strategy? To be able to do these things you need to be a strategic thinker. You need to be able to attract and retain talent, coach your team to be as effective as possible, be a player but also have the ability to step back and assess and bring focus at the right moments. Further, you need to be a great communicator as well to motivate, manage stakeholders and get alignment.
The third thing which is one that I'm continuously working on and calibrating against is the natural tension in, and the real art of, getting the balance right between when to push your team or not. Sometimes, you need to be demanding and unreasonable to drive the bar higher, but you also have to listen, be open and understanding, accept that you can get things wrong, and generally being empathetic. Being able to strike a balance between the two is the mark of the best CEOs I know. I have learnt over the years that the more explicit you can be, the better off you are; contracting with people is a very effective tool to ensure both sides are clear in terms of what one is expecting of the other.
How do you create a high-performance culture and are there any examples you have put into place that you feel have been particularly effective?
I think that there are so many variables in the mix, and lots of different examples of high performing cultures, that I am not sure how much commonality they necessarily all have, apart from being people-first. The larger the organisation, the harder it is to do. If I think back through the different roles I have had and the businesses I've worked in, eHarmony comes to mind. When I was running the international businesses, we were the highest performing team within eHarmony, but that was easier to do because there were 20 to 25 of us internationally; the hiring bar was very high, and we had a clear purpose and a lot of autonomy. You need alignment and clarity of what the strategy, the vision and purpose is and everyone needs to understand what their role is within that. This creates an environment where people can hold each other to account, and they will only do this where they feel there is psychological safety, otherwise you start to rub into negative elements. Leaders need to be accessible and open to questions and challenges. What you also require to be able to get the best out of your teams is an understanding that people need to have room to be themselves, to be able to bring their true selves to work and not feel like they're in a straitjacket.
What strategy would you recommend to businesses to ensure they attract and retain the best talent in such a fiercely competitive environment?
The first question you have to ask yourself is why would someone want to come work for you and your business? It's really important to invest in your people and your culture – Gen Z and Millennials now look beyond their remuneration when looking for an employer. At Immediate, we have a genuine commitment to creating a supportive, diverse environment in which people feel developed, celebrated and want to give their best. It’s an on-going process and needs continued investment, but get it right and it becomes a competitive advantage.
People also want to be part of something successful with a clear purpose, so you have to paint that narrative and that picture of what a successful future looks like, and create a culture where people feel that they can be themselves, but also be part of something more meaningful and with purpose beyond just clocking into work.
How do you keep your finger on the pulse in the market - what are your systematic go to's to stay abreast of trends?
I read a lot, and there are some things which are constant within that. Over the last five years, my go-to has always been 'The Financial Times', it's absolutely brilliant and unparalleled. I like to read lots of different books too, whether in the business field, but also in the sports sector. I feel like I've taken a lot and gotten valuable insights out of them that has made me constantly relearn what I think I know about being a leader.
A lot of my early leadership toolkit came from my time at Google 15 to 20 years ago. Google's School of Management was predicated off the famous, classic management book; 'The High Output Management' by Andy Grove. I've had to drop a lot of things from that and challenge myself around what still really works for me from that early toolkit.
Recent books, which have resonated for me as a leader include 'The Hard Thing About Hard Things' by Ben Horowitz, which is the best eyeopener I've read in terms of all the gory details of being a CEO. A very good reflective, introspective book on yourself and one that raises good questions of a person's underlying motives and purposes is called 'Reboot: Leadership & The Art of Growing Up' by Jerry Colona. It's a great book that allows you to pause and reflect and ground yourself in your career. Finally a more light-hearted one which still has some good truths and insights (beyond the PR!) is 'The Ride of a Lifetime' by Robert Iger - he's a great narrator and communicator.
