EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH THE CEO OF ITV, DAME CAROLYN MCCALL Tuesday 19 March 2019
Caroline Binham, Financial Regulation Correspondent, Financial Times In conversation with Dame Carolyn McCall, Chief Executive, ITV
Carolyn McCall joined The Guardian newspaper in 1986 as a planner in the marketing department and worked her way up until in 2006 she became chief executive of Guardian Media Group, the parent company. She oversaw the paper’s move from broadsheet to Berliner format as well as the launch of The Guardian website. In 2010, she became chief executive of easyJet. During her eight years in the post the airline achieved record passenger numbers and record profits. Last year Dame Carolyn became chief executive of ITV and is guiding the broadcaster through a time of rapid change in the media industry.
In this exclusive interview for the FT 125 Women’s Forum, Dame Carolyn spoke to Caroline Binham about her career. This report highlights some of the key themes that came out of the discussion. In the middle
One of Dame Carolyn’s first management job at The Guardian was running an advertising team. It was valuable experience: she reported to two boards and had to juggle different tasks as well as manage the expectations of those around her.
“I learnt more from being in middle management than at many other phases of my career,” she said. “I learnt how to manage people well, to listen, to empathise.”
She said middle management could be great fun if you had the right team and environment. “The first thing is to get the right team. If you don’t have that then everything slows down.”
She stressed the importance of having allies. She built strong relationships with colleagues in the editorial and production departments and has kept this approach. “Wherever you go in an organisation, having cross-functional relationships is critical,” she said.
Managing up
Middle management jobs can involve managing up as well as down but Dame Carolyn is unconvinced that managing up always works. “There can be something forced about it,” she said, noting that it is best to be direct and open with senior leaders — though if this is to work well the group’s culture must be one of openness and honesty.
She cautioned against focusing only on what is wrong: “The more constructive you are the more likely it is you will effect change.”
Union relations
Dame Carolyn has been at the forefront of companies’ relationships with trades unions. “I have never worked in a company that didn’t recognise unions – I don’t think I could,” she said, emphasising the importance of dialogue and avoiding threats. “There has to be respect. My way of working with [easyJet pilots] was to listen to what they had to say – and the same with journalists. There is no point having a dialogue that is broken, as it is hard to come back from that.”
Understanding red lines and taking care not to cross them was crucial, said Dame Carolyn. “You can always find middle ground on something.”
The gender pay gap at ITV The median gender pay gap at ITV is 11 per cent, lower than the UK average of 17.9 per cent but higher than the BBC, where the gap is 7.6 per cent. Dame Carolyn believes the way to bring about change is to have strong women ready to move into important posts. “If you haven’t got sufficiently strong women coming through, who can sit on operating committees and executive committees and run bits of the business, then you are not going to change the gender pay gap,” she said. Ensuring female employees gain experience and visibility is important. She said that women should volunteer for opportunities and take on roles that stretch them. “As companies we have to make sure that the culture and environment, and also the processes, are there to support women doing that.”
Career challenges Dame Carolyn had many different jobs in her time at The Guardian. She believes it is good for people to move between departments – such as from finance to operations, or to commercial – and that this does not happen enough. Throughout her career she has been careful in her choice of roles and has turned down those she knew she would dislike, even if she was told they could be a step towards greater things. While rising up the ranks at GMG, Dame Carolyn became pregnant with twins. At first she worried about being able to manage a family alongside her job. “My mother was fantastic; she said: ‘It’s a blink of time in your life, and you will make it work.’ I just had to get my act together, because I have always loved working,” she said. Starting a family coincided with Dame Carolyn’s husband leaving the corporate world to set up a cricket business and this helped create a strong support structure.
ITV strategy A slower economy would affect advertising revenue everywhere, with TV unduly affected because of its size, said Dame Carolyn. Last year ITV made a net profit of £567m and saw total advertising revenue rise by 1 per cent. Dame Carolyn has devised a strategy to withstand and adapt to change and to look at the “total viewing universe”. She sees particular opportunity in streaming and video-on-demand. “There is not one sector that is not experiencing some degree of change, having to transform aspects of their business. We are no different,” she said. She is optimistic about the future of free-to-air broadcasting because of its mass simultaneous reach: “You can’t get that in any other media.” ITV has worked hard to keep live audiences but new revenue streams have emerged as people become more willing to pay for content. There is still uncertainty about the next two years and what politics will mean for the economy. “I can’t control the share price, all I can do is have a clear strategy,” she said. “If we can deliver what we say we are going to deliver, the share price will react to that.”
Building a team Asked by a member of the audience about the qualities needed in a team, Dame Carolyn highlighted: • High calibre and competence – “you need the best person you can find”. • Commitment to the cause; someone who knows the culture of the company and wants to make a difference. • The right blend of people – a combination of the action-orientated and the reflective, the thinkers who take time. Proving your worth Having always worked in high-profile companies, Dame Carolyn is used to public scrutiny. She said the way to deal with this was to work hard and prove yourself. On the move to easyJet she said: “I knew it was risky but I did my due diligence.” Before she got the job she asked to see the operations director. This baffled the hiring panel but the request was grounded in logic: “That person is going to know what is happening with the customers and the crew. If you can’t work with the ops director it’s difficult to be CEO. I spent two hours with him and he told me virtually everything I needed to know.” Dame Carolyn said she faced many challenges, including colleagues’ doubts. She also faced scrutiny over fluctuations in quarterly reporting. “Stay away from that noise and make sure you work on the right things,” she said.
Proudest moment At easyJet Dame Carolyn told staff that beating Ryanair in the rankings was not good enough – they needed to be better than British Airways. Shortly after leaving easyJet she heard that the airline had passed its rival on customer service. “That was momentous,” she said. “When I joined, the gap between easyJet and BA was 35 per cent.”
Building a network Dame Carolyn recalled the recommendation given to her at GMG: get a good financial adviser, a good lawyer and a good financial PR agency. She said: “It’s good advice. When you have a trusted relationship they are extremely good advisers.” She also praised mentorship and said rising managers should have two or three mentors to consult. “These should be people who are only interested in seeing you do well,” she said. “They can help you reflect.”
Being CEO “I thought I would be a researcher all my life,” said Dame Carolyn. “At The Guardian, I was pulled out to try sales and marketing. I liked it and found it easy because it was a lot to do with people.” As the Women’s Forum drew to a close, one guest asked Dame Carolyn what she found rewarding about being CEO. “It is all about the people you work with, and what they deliver, and actually proving some people wrong,” she said. “It’s good to feel you have really made a difference, because you make a difference to people and to organisations. With ITV we are embarking on a very exciting period and it is energising. That’s why it’s rewarding.”