Thousands of screaming fans turned up for which no one was prepared. The book signing at Waterstones Piccadilly was mind-blowing. And then ‘the Alfie Deyes moment’ happened in 2014 – we were the first publisher to work with a vlogger which resulted in a huge bestseller with The Pointless Book. What has been your proudest moment in your career to date?Īlthough Bonnier has a strong reputation in Europe, we were relatively small in the UK at first and operated under the radar. 'From a moral point of view we should always be striving to grow our market and get more people reading.' It hasn’t always been the case for me, but I’m so relieved and happy to say it is now. Someone once asked me if I was the same version of myself at work as I was at home, to which I proudly answered, ‘yes’. As an industry I believe we have a responsibility, not only to recruit inclusively, but to build welcoming and supportive cultures where people can truly be themselves. ![]() If everybody felt more comfortable and empowered to be themselves in the workplace, naturally we’d have more diversity. One of the qualities of a good CEO in this day and age is to promote diversity and supportive cultures. He said to me, ‘You got here by being you…why are you changing? Who told you to change?’ He was right – I was inflicting this behaviour upon myself and that realisation was liberating. Along with the responsibilities of the role there is an unspoken stereotype of how one should look and behave that goes alongside that – I even cut my hair to look older and started dressing more conservatively! It was my husband who pointed out to me that the way I was behaving wasn’t authentic. While I didn’t feel unprepared for the role, I’m not ashamed to say that for a while I thought I had to conform to the idea of what CEO should be. I honestly never planned or aspired to be a CEO – it was a natural result of working hard. 'I thought I had to conform to the idea of what a CEO should be.'Ĭan you tell us about how it felt when stepping into the role of CEO? What do you wish you had known, and what are the qualities that make a good CEO? Ultimately, I want us to keep the spirit and individuality of our imprints, within a ‘one company’ ethos. I’m proud to say we are working much more collaboratively now, although we’re still operating across multiple offices, which brings its own set of challenges! Given our large size, it will serve us well to eventually be under one roof. Because we had grown so quickly, the way we operated had become quite siloed. Our goal then was to lay the foundations for a shared culture that would unite everybody across the business. I set about identifying my new senior leadership team and, since then, we have been working together to create a shared vision for the future. It was important to me that we didn’t forget that and to celebrate those successes, which would then pave the way for the next chapter of our story. Yes, we’ve had several challenges over the last few years, but there have been many hard-earned successes too. We have some truly wonderful people here with so much passion for what they do. I wanted this period of change to be an evolution, not an upheaval. You’ve steered, and continue to steer, Bonnier through a period of significant change – what would you say were the main obstacles you faced during this time of change? Note: Steps may vary by device.'We have been working together to create a shared vision for the future.'
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |