Ask our non-execs. Stephen Kenwright. Stephen has launched his own agency and grew it to over 100 staff before exiting and subsequently had board roles at two other agency groups. He's also been head of digital at £4.7bn turnover Pendragon, was a consultant to Missguided and in his spare time founded SearchLeeds.
Stephen - you bring a wealth of start-up, rapid growth experience and scaling agencies up to our panel of NXDs. What started you out on your journey.
I joined agencyland by accident, freelancing for a small integrated agency while studying for a Masters in Shakespeare. Eventually I found myself at a digital marketing agency called Branded3 at just the right time: they got acquired and I joined the management team quite quickly because they needed to think about succession. I had some strong advocates there, especially Tim Grice, who eventually became CEO. The rest, as they say, is history.
What prompted you to decide to launch your own agency Rise at Seven
I launched Rise at Seven almost by accident. I took a role brand-side at Pendragon PLC - then the UK's largest automotive retailer - and it quickly became clear that it wasn't going to work out. At the same time, Carrie Rose was applying for the Apprentice and asked me for some input into her business plan. She didn't get onto the show (which is a shame because she'd have been incredible on it) - but the plan seemed good so we decided to do it together, rather than me going looking for another job.
In just three years with Rise at Seven you oversaw remarkable growth with staff rising to 110 and sales climbing above £7m. Can you briefly outline the key reasons that drove this growth?
We had a good plan and we executed it; there was a strong focus on sales and marketing throughout the business and everyone felt responsible for (and part of) the business' growth; we decided we would use social media to scale and hired people who had the skills (and following) to make that happen with us; we had a more proactive approach to recruitment than agencies usually do, with a wish list of potential hires and a constant pipeline of budding employees waiting in the wings. Ultimately we grew very quickly because marketing works - and we did a lot of it.
And after just three years, you stepped down. Why was this.
My co-founder and I had different visions for the business: I'd always wanted to grow and exit and Carrie decided that she wanted to stay. If we'd continued, one of us wouldn't have achieved the outcome that we wanted, so we had a grown up conversation about it and determined that I should exit sooner rather than later. The accelerated timescale was definitely influenced by the pandemic - most of Rise at Seven's fastest growth came during COVID and I'd had a baby when the business was 3 months old, so I basically hadn't slept in 3 years. I feel very lucky to have been able to exit when I did and spend a lot of time with my little boy before he went to school.
You helped the ambitious agency group Ride Shotgun in its formative years and the merger of Branded3 into Edit. These are both in many ways different sides of the coin - what skills do you believe you were able to add there.
I love learning and I joined Ride Shotgun because it was new to me: I'd never worked in production before and I wanted to understand it. Lots of the skills I've used have been required everywhere I've worked: Rise at Seven's business model was very similar to Branded3's - and I'd seen the M&A strategy at Ride Shotgun before with the merge of Branded3 into Edit, so those two businesses also felt quite similar in the end. Sales has been the consistent thread throughout my career and I would certainly say that anyone who wants to make a difference in agencies should develop their selling skills.
You also consulted for two well-known brands in Pendragon and Missguided - how do you feel you were able to add value there as opposed to your native agency world.
Pendragon and Missguided were quite different engagements (and I've done more consulting besides). Both were under the guise of digital but, to be honest, tended to be more focused on commercial and strategy, which I've done in agencies for my whole career. I was at Missguided, for example, to help the team deploy a large project over three months, but the actual job was asking questions and working through business cases with analysts. That being said, I'm definitely happiest in agencies - I've seen enough now to recognise the patterns and solve problems very quickly.
And finally, what sort of agencies or companies are you ideally seeking to work with?
Having worked in digital marketing, development, content production, PR, media and creative, I bring a wider perspective to any type of agency - but I primarily work with those that have a leadership team in place (or are looking to create one), which typically means they have at least 20 staff and turnover more than £1.5m. The problems I solve are mostly growth-related: lack of pipeline, lack of conversion, lack of margin and a lack of fun while doing it.
Thank you Stephen
