Over the past 18 months Kathryn Jacob, CEO of the cinema advertising company Pearl & Dean, has had to navigate the closure of cinemas during the pandemic and a writers’ strike which threatened to grind Hollywood film production to a halt.
But, with what Jacob describes as a “storming” line up of films set to be released before the year’s end, including Paddington in Peru, Gladiator II and Wicked, she says: “It feels like we’ve got our mojo back again.”
Here, the Raconteur 50 list member explains how businesses can prepare for unpredictability and why good teams should function like a peloton.
How would you describe your leadership style?
I serve to lead. It’s not about me, it’s about the team. I don’t have much truck with people who lead from the front and expect others to follow.
I see my role as being able to reflect, guide, listen and advise and not to be too didactic about the way you want things to be. People need to be given the headroom to thrive. My job is to support them and to give clarity.
What is the best bit of business advice you’ve ever received?
A friend of mine, who is an actor, shared this great piece of advice with me: turn up on time, know your lines and don’t be a dick. I think it’s a good management mantra too. Turn up, have a plan and don’t be difficult.
What is the most challenging aspect of your role?
There are many elements of the role you can be taught but one of the hardest things to adapt to is how lonely it can be. As CEO, you’re not thinking weeks or months in advance, you’re thinking about where we want to be in the next three years. The concerns in your head are about how we get there, the planning cycle and where we need resourcing.
You don’t want to articulate these plans too early because it can unsettle people. This means you have to develop a level of internal resilience and also recognise that you’re not going to be eternally popular.
It feels great to hand out pay rises and promotions. It’s not so good to sit in a room with people and tell them this isn’t the right job for them. Luckily, that’s not something I’ve had to do very often, but talking to other people who are in this role, that’s the hardest thing.
As CEO, you have to balance hope and reality. Pacing yourself is key and you need to have faith in the process and the people around you.
What do you look for when you’re hiring for your leadership team?
People who are smart, empathetic and who have a good value system. We have a relatively flat structure and we only have one shared target, because I think that unites people.
I want to work with people who care and who think about long-term sustainability rather than short-term gains.
How do you motivate your teams?
The entire company works towards a single shared goal. Although we have different functions that deliver revenue, everyone shares the same financial target. That way, you get a cohesive movement towards delivering this goal because everyone wins that way. It encourages people to maximise what they do for the benefit of everybody rather than themselves.
Really good teams should work like cyclists in the peloton. Someone’s at the front leading the rest of the team and then they drop back to get protection from the headwind. Leaders cannot be front and centre all the time and that’s completely fine. Giving others a chance to lead can teach them about themselves and how they want to operate but it also encourages collective responsibility. All of us together are better than one of us alone.
What’s the biggest business challenge you’re facing at the moment?
The pandemic really impacted our revenues because cinemas were shut for 15 months. But we made it through this period without making any redundancies.
That’s the biggest existential challenge I’ve faced as CEO but shortly afterwards, there was the writers’ strike. That was also pretty punchy.
The challenge is coming to terms with the unpredictability of it and, once you get used to the fact that you’re not in control, you gain the ability to ride situations out and make alternate plans. We made the decision to pivot from focusing on screen advertising to doing partnerships and that’s now a really substantive part of what we do.
What’s the most enjoyable part of your job?
Some people think it’s being able to watch movies but sometimes I have to sit through films I wouldn’t have paid to see. The best part of my job is the variety and my team. No two days are the same.
It’s an interesting intersection to be at because we have no control over the films coming out. This makes it really exciting because the people we’re selling to will change all the time. We can be speaking to Caribbean Cruises one year and Co-op the next.
One minute you’ll be working on an ad for Virgin Atlantic and the next you’ll be working on something for Hidden Hearing and you have to understand their pressure points and opportunities. It allows you to peek inside other businesses and gives you the ability to switch between different audiences and approaches. The business challenges you get exposed to in this role are endlessly interesting.
What is one piece of advice you would give to your successor?
You’ve got to work the way that you want to work. Be your own person and lead the way you want to lead. There isn’t one size that fits all or a magic formula for success.
It’s worth remembering that sometimes to really appreciate the highs, you’ve got to have some lows.
What book do you think every business leader should read at least once?
It depends on the stage you are at in your career and the challenges your business is facing.
I’m quite an extrovert but I know people who have benefited a lot from a book called Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. People think business leaders should be very confident and outgoing but introverts can be amazing leaders too because they listen.
What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
I enjoy writing books, going to the cinema and watching performances at the theatre. I’ve also got two non-executive roles. I sit on the development board of Rada and I’m chair of an arts institution in Manchester called Home.
It allows me to help shape the cream of British acting and technical talent, which is so different to the day job. It helps to keep you fresh, which is important, and it allows me to visit Manchester, which is a city I’ve come to love.
