Rise of the new age leader

I was born and bred in London, where I dabbled in a few different things after university, from brand management, to creating my own beverage product, and thereafter starting a digital agency that specialised in performance media for e-commerce websites.
I moved to Dubai in 2013 and after various roles I ended up at Bruce Clay MENA, initially as the client director in January 2016.

After a hectic couple of years and poor business results, the opportunity arose in January 2018 within the business to take over and I grabbed it. The business was in bad shape and financially not viable. However, it was a great opportunity for me to become a partner and turn a failing business around – and given my experience from London, I knew that there was a massive opportunity to create something different in the market. The rest, as they say, is history. We turned around all losses within the first 14 months and have been growing year on year since.

As a new-age CEO, how would you describe your management style?

I am a very hands off manager. One quote that always stuck with me from Steve Jobs is something that I apply to everything that I do managerially – “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” I have been extremely focused on making sure that we hire the right people from a values perspective. When I took over, I reduced the agency down to five people, as I wanted different people to take us to where I wanted to go.

My style of management has changed slightly over the years. I am still very much hands off, but when we first got going, we were very entrepreneurial, had to make every decision count, and chase the money. Now we are established and laser focused, investing more into getting to the right people and looking at data as a way to make better decisions.

A ‘born-digital’ understanding of technology’s power and the ability to see around corners are the new leadership imperatives. Do you agree?

As millennials, we have always had to interact with technology like no other generation before us. For this reason, I truly do believe that a lot of companies with leaders in the millennial category have navigated the pandemic fairly as we can adapt to what is around the corner at a fast pace. In the future, change will only come at a faster pace and hence it is imperative that modern leaders are visionary and agile.

A lot of great companies are run by people who had to forge their own way through constant change to get to where they are – a great example would be major tech companies with Indian origin CEO’s. In many cases, these people have come from hardship, had to navigate through challenges others may not have had and come out on top to lead great companies.

Are new age CEOs better communicators?

Rather than being the loudest in the room, the new age leadership is focused on being impactful. It is key for any leader to know their people inside out and to communicate effectively to keep the business moving. In a way, the pandemic has been one of the best things to happen to business communications, as it has made people care about their time a lot more, remove unnecessary meetings and ultimately made communication far more efficient.

Some of the top CEOs around the world are inspiring an informal work culture, including a more casual approach to dressing. What has led to this change?

There has been a wider realisation that you don’t need to look or dress in a certain way to do your best work. This shift has come from tech companies mainly and filtered through into larger established companies through the changing leadership. Some of the leading CEOs have been dressing casually for a while, Steve Jobs being a great example. Now, more and more leaders are outward facing with a casual appearance, and so the next generation of leaders are used to seeing this, hence, to them, it is not that unusual. The pandemic has also helped to accelerate many industries to become a bit more casual.

A few words on the future of emerging CEOs in the age of rapid change.

It is imperative for all CEOs to be people-focused as the world moves to different ways of working. Values and culture will play a bigger role in keeping companies together and innovation is moving faster than ever. The role of leadership has already evolved, but with a new generation coming into the workforce, leaders will mainly work to create environments for people to flourish, who in turn will make businesses grow.