Emma Kane CEOSEC Newgate UK

Interviewed by Vincent Abrams

You are currently CEO of Newgate Communications, part of SEC Newgate S.p.A., the world’s fastest growing global communications consultancy which you are Deputy Group CEO of. What challenges did you face in your previous position or positions which made you a success in your current role as you occupy today?

The negative experiences that shaped my approach were ones around poor culture and rigid/siloed approaches to meeting client needs. These were the catalyst for launching my own agency, Redleaf Communications, in January 2000 after 15 years in in-house positions and agencies.

My vision was to build a brand that became synonymous with great service, that delivered measurable results, and was truly viewed as an integral part of the success of its clients’ businesses – all elements I have sought to replicate in my current role. Over the next 14 years, I created my dream agency and that led to it receiving many accolades.

I have witnessed in former roles what happens when businesses fail to evolve and in 2014 decided that boutique, specialist agencies would struggle in an increasingly global, digital world. So, I embarked on a plan to pivot the business and started the stepped sale of the business in 2014 to an international group, a process which completed in 2018; that group is now known as SEC Newgate which was formed in 2018.

My previous experience of integrating teams I acquired and creating a consistent culture has been invaluable. When I took on the role of CEO of the enlarged business, I inherited a culture and a team based on two previous CEOs’ ways of doing things. Implementing a programme to transform the culture and create one that was positive, collegiate and based on a strong set of values was core to the turnaround plan I implemented.

Having an entrepreneurial spirit is also an essential quality because our entire group is run by people who have founded their own agencies – it is that entrepreneurial spirit which guides the research, advocacy and communication skills that we employ to assist our clients with their own corporate entrepreneurial aims.

Which industries have you collaborated in most?

My personal passions and experience lie primarily in real estate, professional and fnancial services, retail and leisure, consumer industries, TMT and charities. My roles as Chair of Target Ovarian Cancer, Chair of the Barbican Centre Trust and as a trustee of Nightingale Hammerson have given me a particularly in-depth understanding of the charity sector. In my day to day roles with Newgate Communications and SEC Newgate, the string that runs through the counsel we provide, no matter what the sector, is the fact that we help business better understand what their audiences want from them, and vice versa, and help them apply this – it is all about helping achieve positive change.

What would you argue is your biggest success at Newgate Communications?

My biggest success is naturally linked to my biggest challenge - the merger of Newgate and Redleaf and then becoming CEO of the enlarged agency. Using the great foundations of two agencies, we’ve added more expertise and can now deliver seamless communications locally, national and internationally.

The success can be measured by recently being ranked in the UK’s top 30 PR consultancies for 2020 by PR Week and our group, SEC Newgate S.p.A, being ranked as the fastest growing agency group in the world as well as the 26th largest in the Top 250 Global Agency Rankings 2020.

None of what we have achieved could be possible without the team and I am incredibly proud of the level of expertise, innovation, and drive that we have to offer our clients today.

As a leader yourself, what advice would you give burgeoning business leaders, in your feld of business?

Surround yourself with the very best people. Ensure you have someone as part of that team who is prepared to tell you when you are wrong and whose views you respect. Treat everyone with respect and celebrate difference – the best team is one that has balanced skills and views – consider who you want to be in the bunker with; it’s easy when times are good but when the going gets tough you need to have the best people in it with you.

Listen – it is only by listening to people that you get the nuances of what they actually think and feel (often expressed in the last fve minutes of a meeting) – encourage your team to talk to people too, not just hide behind electronic communication. Understand the needs of your different stakeholders – they are not the same. Celebrate success.

Don’t try to protect people’s feelings by ignoring mistakes – people get better and stronger by learning how to improve and diffcult decisions are made easier if you explain the context in which they are made. Lead from the front which means set examples and be generous with your time. Use the data that exists around your business to be the best you can – a great management information system is a very good investment.

Issues and initiatives of wider interest to Emma Kane?

Much of my time is taken up by my pro-bono commitments; which make up most of my wider interests. Any extra-curricular time (if there is such a thing today) is predominately taken up by my leadership of non-proft, fundraising organisations focused on solving issues that are dear to my heart.

These are roles that I take great pride in having and involve me collaborating with a cross-section of corporate and cultural leaders to produce solutions in the face of modest resources. Two simultaneous roles that stand out, and of which I am immensely proud, are being Chair of Target Ovarian Cancer, and Chair for the Barbican Centre Trust – organisations working tirelessly to improve outcomes for both communities and individuals. I am also passionate about sculpting, primarily in stone. I have a studio at home, but I also try to ft in escaping to Marina di Carrara in Italy twice a year to source materials and have some intensive time with my hammer, chisel and angle-grinder.

What’s next for Emma Kane in 2024 and beyond, and where, do you see the business in twenty years’ time?

As a group we have been working on a very exciting artifcial intelligence (AI) tool which we think will supercharge the insights and intelligence we are able to bring to projects for our clients. This is currently being trialled and I am very excited about the formal launch of this product. We are also expanding the reach of Newgate Research across Europe. We are very ambitious for our group and our vision is that we will be the most desired communications agency in the world.

Looking ahead, I hope to continue to be at the vanguard of progress and best practice in ourindustry and to help organisations to communicate strategically, and in the most effective way to infuence all their multiple stakeholders.

Which industries have you consulted in most, and what has been the outcome, of that time in industry?

There’s no better place to start than the business sector as-a-whole, and the emergence, and now ubiquity of digital platforms. To say there was reticence on the part of corporates to communicate with their stakeholders on platforms like Twitter, or even LinkedIn for that matter, would be an understatement. Initially business underestimated how symptomatic social and digital platforms would be in terms of the way individuals wanted to engage with them... and it is a two-way dialogue they are now demanding. Having capabilities in this area was never a ‘want’ it was always a ‘need’.

In the space of under fve years we have seen a near 360-transformation. The pace of change has been dizzying. The integrated communications model has naturally benefted from this and I dare say I’m proud to have been privy to some companies genuinely scaling their sectors by simply adapting to the communication demands of the increasingly digitalised world.

About Newgate Communications, what growth have you seen, and what are some of your key near-term objectives for the business in the future?

The key focus when we embarked on our turnaround programme 18 months ago was to grow the bottom line. That mission has been achieved and our margins transformed – of course there is room for improvement so that will remain an ongoing focus. However, we are now moving to the next phase of our three year strategic plan with a near-term focus on raising our profle among all our key stakeholders to ensure that everyone is aware of the scale and scope of our offering and our ability to offer a one P&L approach, bringing in all the different disciplines required to help clients build and protect their brands and reputations.

Clearly the Covid-19 environment has thrown a large number of challenges for the business to respond to. In this respect, I see a huge opportunity to fast-track some of the key innovations we had been working on, to transform the way we work so we provide our team with more creative, safe collaborative spaces and reconsider the way in which we work, communicate and evolve. At the end of the day it is about providing best-in-class service to our clients and creating a lovely place to work.

Do you see communications in general, on this, growing in importance, over time, or is a lack of general intelligence or back up of communication and organisation necessary at all, in whichever department?

Effective communications are fundamental in business, politics and all walks of life. There are very few great leaders who are not also great communicators. Poor communications impact on brand equity and make it far harder to recover from a crisis.

All stakeholders are impacted positively and negatively by communications, in particular an organisation’s ability to attract and retain the very best people. As we move into a new decade, the defning challenge facing business will be how to reinvent the brand to show social and ESG purpose. Delivering this will be essential to securing investment, recruiting new generations, engaging with consumers who will buy brand as much as they buy product and ensuring that the organisation is ‘future proofed’ without future risk of being legislated out of business. If the 2010s was the decade of the compliance offcer, the 2020s will be the decade of the purpose driven communicator.

Why are independent communications or branding counsel so important to business, we know it matters but can you explain why?

Reputation is everything in business. The intangible ‘brand’ has overtaken the tangible ‘product’ as the litmus test for corporate suc- cess. Today there is a razor-sharp focus on materially important factors such as corporate purpose and responsibility, employer brand, environment, social and corporate governance (ESG) and leadership vision which are as critical in determining how a company is perceived as its products or services.

Companies operating this way will naturally have an advantage over those that don’t place value on their brand.

The independence of that counsel ensures that an organization is able to beneft from best practice and insights beyond its own gene pool and without any agenda other than what is best for the organization in question.

How has the coronavirus affected business?

The group had an excellent start to the current year and continues to operate successfully amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

We had tried and tested business continuity plans in place and had invested in our systems to allow every member of the team to work remotely. The team is working extremely effciently and effectively despite working from home.

We have also been extremely busy as the reliance on communications has been heavy as organisations have had to communicate with internal and external stakeholders on a far more regular basis.

We have adapted with our clients’ needs and this pandemic is a challenge for businesses, but a greater challenge for humanity, therefore we fnd that constructive dialogue, support and counsel, both on and offine, is valued during times of stress.

Many businesses have been signifcantly impacted by the virus and some have reacted by cutting all expenditure including communications. I may have a vested interest, but these are the businesses that will take the longest to come out of the crisis and rebuild. There is a signifcant opportunity for those who are bold to invest and in doing so build market share and share of voice.

Emma Kane is Chief Executive of SEC Newgate UK and Deputy CEO of the Group, SEC Newgate S.p.A. Emma specialises in creating positive change through communications. She has 30 years’ experience in the communications industry.