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Our Group CEO Barrie Brien was recently interviewed by Nathan Anibaba, the host of industry podcast This is Influence, a show about how B2B brands and execs can become more influential.
So you have a really strong segmentation, designed against clear business objectives…
In this episode, Barrie tells Nathan what he’s learnt about building businesses and driving growth both within a PLC and now at STRAT7. He also explains what makes for a successful M&A process and the importance of a strong culture that unites teams. Plus, you can discover the famous people that Barrie would invite to his dinner party. We’ve distilled some highlights below, or you can listen to the full podcast here.
Q. From all your experience in M&A, what's the biggest takeaway that you can share with us?
I think it’s always more difficult than you think it is. The actual buying of a company, going through the legal and due diligence, is quite straightforward. It’s the part after that, how you integrate a new company within your existing group which is more difficult. To get value out of that acquisition takes years and years.
Q. Can you tell us a bit about STRAT7 and the space that you're operating in?
We launched four years ago, and we’re close to 400 people now with teams from Sydney to San Francisco. So it’s been quite a high growth charge from us, both via M&A as well as from organic growth.
STRAT7 are operating in that big white space between the market research and insight companies and management consultancies. The market research sector alone is forecast to be worth $85 billion. The data analytics sector has grown to about $40 billion. So we’re operating in a $100 billion plus marketplace.
Q. Thinking about yourself as a leader and the other leaders that you’ve interacted with throughout your career, what do you think makes leaders successful, special, and effective?
Q. What are the fundamental ways of creating and disseminating a vision that can help create a culture in an organisation as disparate and diverse as yours?
I think it is super important to have a North Star, whether you want to call it your vision or your mission or your purpose. What is the purpose of starting and launching a group.
The chemistry and culture of the teams are really important. Probably more important than the strategy alone because if you haven’t got the teams working with each other and working towards that North Star, then it can so quickly fall apart. I’ll use the football analogy, an agency could be playing for its club, but then it’s got to be able to play for its country as well.
Communicating the vision internally, externally, over and over again until you’re almost sick and tired of saying it, then people will start to understand it and be motivated by it as individuals.
Q. What do you think is going to define the next generation of leaders of great businesses?
I think emotional IQ is really important. You’ve got to be able to understand and respond to the people around you. The world has become more complex, so we now have specialists rather than generalists. Looking at our business, our tech team are very different from our analytics team, our creative and cultural teams are different. People are becoming more narrow in what they do. We’ve got to operate as a joined up team.
I think the pace of change will only continue. We have to have a very open mindset of how we innovate, how we embrace change, how we keep changing. Even if you are becoming an expert in a smaller field, that’s got to keep changing as well.
Q. Final question… What three people, living or dead, would you invite to a dinner party to make you smarter, better, healthier, increase your performance in some way?
Barack Obama, not my greatest political hero, but the first black US president, quite incredible. A huge intellect. I’d want to learn from Barack on his communication skills.
A bit of a mixed bag there, but I think all inspiring characters.
