Interview Transcript

How do you look at driving credibility for yourself, in these instances when you’re pitching a new vision or idea or coming in as a relatively young leader in a business?

I had this conversation, with a public body, who wanted me to sit on their board. The first question they asked me was, you’re young, how do you think people will respond to that? My response was, that’s not my problem. They asked what I meant. I said, if people respond to me in a way because I’m young, guess what, I’m not white, as well. Guess what, I’m a male. Is that going to work against me? They didn’t get what I was trying to get at. I said, the fact that the first question you’ve asked me is about my age, says to me that you’ve got a real problem. Now the next point, after we’ve solved the age issue, are there racists here? Are there homophobes here? For me, that kind of culture, I’m very keen on getting rid of all that. If you talk sense, you’re fine.

I think, from my perspective, I would probably say that I’ve been somewhat fortunate, in that Just Eat and Treatwell are brands that people recognize. Being part of that journey from go to IPO, from Treatwell to majority acquisition, being part of this, for me, it certainly adds that credibility. I very rarely go in and say, this is what we did at Just Eat. This is what we did at Treatwell. What’s it my past is in my past and if they need the brand, the brands are there. For me, getting that mission, getting that vision, getting it logically there, something the team can relate, that gives me credibility. The moment somebody mentions something, be it age or something else, is the moment that you’re not the right type of profile to fit here. Myself, as a leader of this organization, I’m going to get it wrong more than I get it right. Well, hopefully, I get it right more than I get it wrong, actually. But I’m not going to be right all the time.

I don’t want an engineer, for example, saying this is what I’m thinking and people saying, you’re just an engineer. I think it’s just the culture of the people that you hire. Again, people warm to things that make sense. When I think about our model and we say, it’s healthcare, partnered with the NHS, helping the NHS into the digital world. We’ve got the opportunity; we’ve got a Secretary of State who backs it. We’ve got an NHS 10-year plan that backs it. Let’s go in and nail this market.

You take the logical approach and lay out your thinking?

Exactly. I would never, ever, ever say, this is how we did it at Just Eat; this is how we’re going to do it here. This is how we did it at Treatwell; this is how we do it here. It wouldn’t be a very logical; we’re in healthcare now. This is what’s happening in healthcare. What do you all think about it? Actually, when we made this shift into the NHS, we put it to the whole team. We said, I’m going to the board next week; this is my proposal. I want to make sure that everybody in here, and I’m not just talking about my exec team, I’m talking about all hundred members of staff, what do we all think about it? We had questions and answers and it was actually a three, four, five-hour session. It was very productive. We changed a few things and that was great, because I had the team on board. I went to the board; the board absolutely loved it and it really brought everybody together.

Some people will always ask me the question, well how did you do it at Just Eat or how did you do it at Treatwell? I’d say, this is how we did it, but you’ve also got to remember that it’s a different market. The onboarding will be the best example of that.

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