Andy Doyle is Chief People and Agent Officer of Kantar. He was born in London, studied economics at Loughborough University of Technology, spent a couple of years working in Texas, and has built a career on international roles run out of UK headquarters.

His first chief officer job was, in his words, a baby one. It was 2001, the dot-com boom, an online retailer with an HR team about ten strong, and he was recruited in from a much larger corporate role. The business failed. He still counts it as one of the most valuable jobs he has had, because it taught him what it is to sit with a board and run a company that is running out of cash. Then came a number-two divisional role, and then ITV, where he joined as deputy to a leader who had been there twenty-five years. She went part-time, then left. He was given six months as interim, and he decided on day one to stop behaving like an interim.

He got the job. He also got the financial crisis, and had to take forty percent out of his own function. Today, at Kantar, he leads roughly twelve thousand people and about seventeen thousand agents, with over ninety percent of colleagues using AI every day.

In this episode, Andy tells Tiffany Pham why he never tried to be his predecessor, what actually changes when you go from divisional leader to the top job, why the promotion call is always an anticlimax, what he is proudest of, and the one habit he thinks separates the people who get the seat from the people who wait for it.

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome

00:49 London, Loughborough, and a couple of years in Texas

02:26 The first chief officer role, in the dot-com boom

03:14 Why small companies recruit the top HR job from outside

04:48 The company failed, and it was worth it

05:13 ITV, and joining as the number two

06:28 Six months as interim

07:16 “I couldn't be her. I had to be me.”

08:04 Act as though you already have the job

09:36 What actually changes when you take the top seat

10:21 The promotion call is an anticlimax

11:32 Taking the job in a financial crisis, and cutting the function by 40%

12:35 Chief People and Agent Officer: people plus agents

12:59 What he is proudest of: giving people a chance

14:22 The future of work, and why control is the real question

16:42 Building 17,000 agents, and a culture that lets people fail

18:58 Advice for the next chief officer: think like a member of the board

Quotes:

“The advice I'd give people is think like a member of the board.”

“I said, I can't pretend I don't want this job and I have to act like I'm going to have this job and I'm going to succeed, and not wait until the end and see what happens.”

“One thing that was very obvious to me was I couldn't be her. I had to be me.”

“I now have people in my team that my children are older than.”

“People always surprise me how capable they really are.”