Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Chris Kay: How to Lead with Purpose and Creativity

Saatchi & Saatchi has set the bar for excellence in the advertising industry for the last 50 years as one of the largest communications and advertising agencies in the world. In this exclusive interview, Chris Kay, Saatchi & Saatchi’s visionary CEO, shares his refreshing take on leadership, creativity, work-life balance, and the secrets behind Saatchi & Saatchi’s enduring success. He also tells us about the next step in his career journey as he prepares to step down as CEO in late 2023. 

*This article is a recap of the session Unleashing Creativity and Leading with Purpose in Modern Britain’s Most Influential Creative Company with Chris Kay, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi.  

   

What were your ambitions as a child?

The only thing that I look for in life is to be happy and content in whatever I’m doing at that moment, and that whatever comes next is something that’s challenging and energizing in equal measure. My ambition when I was a kid, apart from playing football for England like every young person growing up in England, was to do something meaningful.  Truth be told, I never want to grow up. But it doesn’t mean shirking responsibility. It means having a childlike view of the world. That’s what great creative leaders and organizations have. They have the capability to look at things in a slightly different way. That’s why I don’t want to grow up. I still want to look at things with wonder and opportunity as much as responsibility.

 

Tell us about your journey to become the CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi.

It’s been an interesting journey. I don’t think I ever wanted to be an advertiser. Somebody once asked me why I chose this as a career path. The reason I chose it was because I studied science and management at university, and advertising was the most interesting part of the degree.

So, my natural inclination was to gravitate to the part with the most interesting people, that felt like it was doing something that was radical compared to the rest of the course. I fell into the industry because of that. From there, I realized that I could have fun in my day, have an impact from a mass perspective on a lot of people’s lives from what we communicate, and have an impact on the people who work in our organization. It was an industry that I felt comfortable in.

 

What are your top priorities as CEO?

Being a CEO, my number one belief is to be a Chief Energy Officer.

The energy that you bring as a leader to an organization propels it forward, the energy you bring in clarity of purpose allows people to follow, and the energy that you deliver on a daily basis allows a company to succeed.

I think if you come into an organization like Saatchi & Saatchi which is 51 years old, you have to create a new purpose and a clear mission. The first thing I did as CEO was to be very clear about the ambition for the company, the values that sit beneath that ambition, and then use energy to deliver that and give oxygen in the right moments to the right parts of that mission. The first role of the Chief Energy Officer is to make it clear where we’re going and how people can follow.

Also, that vision needs proof. It needs to come to life on a daily basis through potential products that we take to market, the people that we hire, and the partners that we collaborate with. You need to deliver proof to show people that the mission and the vision are right and that it’s worth following for the rest of the journey.

As for success, it’s an absolute belief in our core product, and our core product at the end of the day is creativity. What I have to do with our organization is create a culture that allows us to be our creative best. That doesn’t mean I don’t believe in the bottom line. The bottom line is what gives me creative freedom. Money in an organization like this is incredibly important because that allows us to dream, invest, and do things that others wouldn’t. An organization like ours only has freedom if it’s financially successful.

 

What about your biggest challenge?

I’m currently residing in London. The UK has gone through a very tough 18 months, specifically coming out of COVID. We’ve had challenges from the cost of living to war in Ukraine to what’s going on in people’s daily lives. As a CEO, we have to first look at our people and what we can do to get them to reach optimum performance. I’m in a people-based organization. The more my people are optimized, the better my output. Secondly, we have to work out how to help our clients and partners in challenging times and take them back to a financial performance that everybody’s happy with.

 

What’s your take on work-life balance and the hybrid workplace?

I believe that we get the best out of people if they’re optimized, which means they’ve got a healthy home life and that we’ve created a system that allows them to be at work at the right moments. There’s been a lot of conversation about working from home or working from the office. I think it’s a wrong conversation. What we’re trying to do is give a bit more freedom to our employees’ decisions that allow them to feel connected here when they need to be, but also allow them to be in a place where deep work is really valuable when they need to do the things that other people can’t.

Work is incredibly important, but life is the only thing you have once.

I don’t think it’s about where you work, it’s about how you work. We’ve created a system called 2+2+1. We give our people the freedom to have two days in the office, two days at home or wherever deep work is really valuable, and one day out in the real world. Potentially in our clients’ organizations or just out in the real world seeing what’s happening in culture.

It’s just given our people a sense of freedom that allows them to connect deeper with our organization. And the first question that we get asked is, “Has it affected performance?”

In the two years since we’ve done that, we’ve won more new business than ever, and our creative output is the strongest it’s ever been.

 

What is your definition of modern leadership?

I believe modern leadership has been a Chief Energy Officer as much as the Chief Executive Officer. There is so much noise happening outside of our organizations economically, culturally, in society, and in the world. The trials and tribulations of being a modern leader are harder than ever before. We have to be really cognizant of what’s happening in society in the minds of our clients, the markets that we’re delivering for, and the people who are working for us. Modern leadership needs leaders to be able to be comfortable with change. I embrace change. It’s the most exciting part of the day.

Looking optimistically toward change is the first skill of a modern leader.

It’s sometimes misconstrued that running a human-centered positive organization means that you’re not competitive. We’re really competitive and we love to win. It’s looking at today’s problem as tomorrow’s opportunity. And I think that’s how we run our business. There will always be opportunities and challenges. But if we can attack them, and win against them in a different way, that’s how you win.

Another critical skill of a modern leader is to be a creative thinker. That doesn’t mean that you have to be an artist or a great writer. It means you have the capability to problem-solve in a way that others can’t and that gives you a competitive advantage.

 

You said in a past interview that “we need a new form of creativity”. Can you elaborate on that?

The world has been really challenging, so creativity needs to bring optimism, humor, and fun. It needs to make us all realize that life, even though it’s tough, there are times when brands can show up with real purpose. There are times when consumers can partner with a brand in a way that brings levity and connection to their lives. That’s what new creativity needs to be. It needs to be the smile in a moment when it’s difficult and the purpose that allows me to believe in something.

 

Do you think leaders should be creative themselves and not outsource creativity to others?

Leaders need to be radical. I think great leaders have radical thoughts. When you think of a great leader, brand, or product; it comes from absolute creative thinking that allows for radical change in an industry.

I’m not the most creative person in my organization. If you told my organization I was creative, a lot of them would laugh at you. It’s a skill to look at things in a different way. From trying to work out how a P&L can be more optimized to how culturally you create an organization that thinks in a different way to how you deliver something to market in a new place.

 

How would your colleagues describe you?

I think that I’m incredibly passionate. I think they would say I’m a fair leader, which is important to me. I think they would say that I listen. That’s an incredibly underrated skill in leaders. I feel that the more that I listen, the smarter I get and the more valuable that I can be. I hope they think I’m a leader that uses their ears as much as their mouth.

When we get the most out of our people, that’s when we perform the strongest. Leaders who can unlock that will get the financial performance, beat competitors, and take something to market that others can’t. How we look at our systems, processes, organizations, and our people, that’s how we unlock greatness.

 

What is your proudest achievement as CEO?

I think one thing that I’m very proud of within this organization is we created a national curriculum based in the UK to help the next generation of creative thinkers come into our industry. That is a national curriculum that allows any business in the UK to partner with any school in the UK to create great content together. It’s a three-year program to help people realize that creative thinking is part of the superpower of the next generation.

 

Tell us about the next chapter in your career.

I’m moving into a more fluid existence where I spend more time helping leaders cope with what I think are the trials and tribulations of the modern world. The reason I’m doing that is because I’ve had 25 years in an incredible industry. I’ve seen great leaders and not-so-great ones, and I feel I can make a contribution in my next chapter that challenges me as a leader in my own capability. I’m energized to use my brain in a different way.

I’m very lucky to be leading a 51-year-old company, to try and unlock what its next 50 years will be. That is a legacy opportunity and if my career has got me to a point where I can take a famous name like Saatchi & Saatchi and make it relevant for the next 50 years, then I’ve left a meaningful imprint. What I mean by meaningful is doing things that people really feel, see value in, and remember when you’re no longer in the seat.

 

*The interview answers have been edited for length and clarity.