Two Years in, How are Pablo's MDs carving out their joint leadership role

From the day DDB founder Bill Bernbach decided that a copywriter and an art director should be harnessed together into a creative dynamo, uniting two top talents to share responsibilities is a proven formula in creative agency land. But when it comes to leadership roles, the format has a chequered history.

At Pablo, though, Harriet Knight and Hannah Penn are showing the way to do it. The pair were named Joint MDs at the agency two years ago, with Knight being an internal promotion and Penn joining from AMV BBDO. Although the casting was carefully considered, such an arranged marriage could have been a risk. Thankfully, love has blossomed and the duo have found in each other both a kindred spirit and a complementary force. And it’s no coincidence that Pablo has more than flourished in the two years since their appointment, landing accounts such as Flora’s global business, P&O Cruises, the Cabinet Office, and HMRC, and also producing applauded campaigns such as ‘What’s Your Thing?’ for DFS and 'It's all on your doorstep' for Deliveroo.

So, two years into their joint journey, we thought it was high time we checked in with Knight and Penn to see how it’s going.

Creative Salon: There have always been questions around joint leadership roles. Especially because power-sharing partnerships are a rarity in our industry. How do you both carve up the joint MD roles?

Knight and Penn: We love getting asked this question because our experience of a joint leadership role is that it’s all upside, and we can’t believe more companies in our industry don’t have them. Obviously the essential ingredient is finding two people whose values and philosophies are aligned as a bedrock, but who by contrast have clear differences in their comfort zones and their strengths. Because when it comes to carving up the role, it’s completely intuitive. You’re aligned on the macro picture, and naturally jump into the parts which are better suited to your skillsets, whilst being able to constantly learn and grow in the areas which aren’t. The best leaders surround themselves with people who are better than them - and Harriet and I both know what eachothers superpowers are, and are proud that these compliment one another. It enables us to both keep learning on the job, a lucky opportunity which we know isn’t afforded to many MDs. Such has been the success of our partnership that whilst power-sharing partnerships are a rarity in our industry,  they aren’t a rarity at Pablo - we’ve rolled this model our across the management team. We operate a ‘Now’ and ‘Next’ organizational structure (which Harriet was the architect of) - at both an account and management level. For us the traditional agency leadership model of just three people really limits a number of things such as growth, ability to support and develop young talent, sharing the load of the day to day management and delivering on the future vision of the agency. Our roles as Joint Managing Directors are no different. It’s absolutely vital in somewhere like Pablo that we’re not just focused on landing the plane right now but also looking ahead to what's next; what’s the next creative opportunity, what’s the next thing in culture and society we can have an impact on. This approach is what helps us be Pablo. It gives us a sense of forward momentum. And with two of us as Joint MD’s we can wingwoman each other to switch between the Now and Next focus and ensure that we don't lose that. And it’s a happy by-product [says Penn] that Harriet can teach me a thing or two about the glorious world of excel formulas, and I can teach her a thing or two about the benefits of good time keeping. And that I’ve found a work wife who not only stretches me professionally but who will come to see JLS with me on her Friday night too (yes, that did indeed happen. You’re in safe hands Pablo….)

What are the biggest challenges you have faced together?

We are aware that this is a nice problem to have, but managing a rapid growth trajectory is a hard job and by far our biggest challenge. Keeping the essence of who we are front and centre as we scale. Knowing the things to hold onto and the things to liberate ourselves from. Keeping the momentum which we know is such a huge part of our success and treading the fine balance of ensuring this feels energising and not overwhelming. Growing our staff base by almost double in the context of an industry talent crunch. It’s all a very careful balancing act and one which we know we don’t get right every time. And there’s pressure on it now. For years, Pablo were the underdog who no one expected much from. So it was easy to surprise and delight people. That’s not the case anymore - there’s expectation and that brings with it positive pressure, it’s something we’re determined not to let permeate the agency as we’ve seen this happen elsewhere and become the thing that can really choke up a culture and its people.

What are some of your highlights from your time so far at Pablo?

We talk a lot with the agency about the impact we want everyone to feel they have. At its simplest, it’s what we see our role as being - helping our people and helping our clients have the impact they desire, which is the key outcome that people are drawn to Pablo hungry for. So when we see this impact in action, it’s when the job is most rewarding for us. And impact can mean so many different things. It’s the impact great campaigns have on our clients businesses - seeing the work, work - and being celebrated for this across Flora, Deliveroo, and DFS by the APG and Effies. It’s the impact you can have in the world through projects like CPQR, ‘The manikin you’d want to save’, Shelter and United 24 - the latter thanking us for our work with a Ukrainian Grand Prix Kaniv Lion, which isn’t quite the Cannes Lion you set out on the journey striving for but along the way turns out to mean so much more. It’s watching a new band of superstars in people like Adam & Gus, Chris Turner, Amie Goldstein, and Lily Gray come in to join forces with decades-in, died-in-the-wool Pablos like Mark Harrison, Viren Patel, and Mandi Nixon and feeling proud to be retaining superstars whilst attracting the best new talent out there. It’s being able to do things that meaningfully move the industry forward, like rolling out a gender-neutral parental policy, offering unlimited holidays and flexible working permanently. And ultimately all of this is to be recognised by being made Campaign’s Independent Agency of the Year and Global Independent Agency of the Year. I think it was obvious to everyone in the room what a shock that was and how much it meant to us thanks to the loud squeal and gasp which Haz and I let out when it was announced. There are so many ways we hope we can, as a collective, have a positive impact. We’re proud of where we’re already doing that and hungry to keep doing it even more.

You've recently won the Flora global account, hired two new managing creative directors in Dan Norris and Ray Shaughnessy, and formed the 'Creative Council' - what's next for Pablo and its growth?

The joy for us in running Pablo with our founder, Gareth, is that everyone who has an opinion on the future of the business is actively involved and personally invested in it. So we get to chart our own path, and determine our own growth opportunities. And very simply, and hopefully refreshingly - what’s next for Pablo and its growth is more of the same. We don’t want to do it all. We don’t want to spend our time inventing new adjacencies and up-selling, and feigning expertise in areas which we really aren’t experts in. Because we have a really clear idea of what it is that we are good at, and an even clearer idea of what we’re really crap at. So we want to pour petrol on that magic. We deliver talked-about-ideas that drive brand growth for our clients. And we do it in a way which allows us to attract and retain the best talent, because they have genuine fun and are given genuine autonomy to do it. What spurs us on to keep doing that is that it’s ours to keep defining how to best do this; how do you build and nurture a creative environment that consistently helps people to be at their best. We’re interested in controlled growth and always invest ahead of the curve. We have done that this year and the Creative Council is a huge part of that.

We are excited by the fact that we don’t believe we have hit our creative height yet. Even though we’ve won Agency of the Year, we’re humble enough to know that if we ceased to exist tomorrow, nothing we’ve done would be remembered or pointed to in the future. That’s what we’re striving for here. An agency which through its work with its clients and its focus as a collective, leaves a lasting imprint. Some work which represents a moment in time that people refer back to. And a way of doing it that makes our industry a better, more progressive, and more inclusive sector as a result of Pablo being some small part of it.

What future ambitions do you have for the agency?

The biggest blessing in running Pablo together is the genuine opportunity and remit to do anything. We are in what we know is an incredibly privileged position where collectively, we are only answerable to ourselves and to each other. But all this opportunity comes with a healthy downside. When you can truly do anything, how do you ensure focus - and be choiceful so you’re not an agency which is just all talk? The fear which drives us and makes us hungry as joint MDs when we think about the future, is the responsibility we have to make sure the potential we’ve created together is fulfilled. And to keep us focussed, ultimately that comes down to three things:

1. Delivering for our clients, with work that works, that disrupts categories and reimagines brands across the spectrum of their whole business.

2. Building on our momentum to become a world class creative agency in a way which is genuinely fun, enjoyable and inclusive. 

3. And leaving our people and the industry better than they would have been without us.

How will we know when we’ve got there? You won’t be able to talk about this period of our industry without referencing a piece of work which came from Pablo. 

CS: You've recently won the Flora global account, hired two new ex-ECDs and formed the 'Creative Council' - what's next for Pablo and its growth?

The joy for us in running Pablo with our founder, Gareth, is that everyone who has an opinion on the future of the business is actively involved and personally invested in it. So we get to chart our own path, and determine our own growth opportunities. And very simply, and hopefully refreshingly - what’s next for Pablo and its growth is more of the same. We don’t want to do it all. We don’t want to spend our time inventing new adjacencies and up-selling, and feigning expertise in areas which we really aren’t experts in. Because we have a really clear idea of what it is that we are good at, and an even clearer idea of what we’re really crap at. So we want to pour petrol on that magic. We deliver talked-about-ideas that drive brand growth for our clients. And we do it in a way which allows us to attract and retain the best talent, because they have genuine fun and are given genuine autonomy to do it. What spurs us on to keep doing that is that it’s ours to keep defining how to best do this; how do you build and nurture a creative environment that consistently helps people to be at their best. We’re interested in controlled growth and always invest ahead of the curve. We have done that this year and the Creative Council is a huge part of that.

We are excited by the fact that we don’t believe we have hit our creative height yet. Even though we’ve won Agency of the Year, we’re humble enough to know that if we ceased to exist tomorrow, nothing we’ve done would be remembered or pointed to in the future. That’s what we’re striving for here. An agency which through its work with its clients and its focus as a collective, leaves a lasting imprint. Some work which represents a moment in time that people refer back to. And a way of doing it that makes our industry a better, more progressive, and more inclusive sector as a result of Pablo being some small part of it.

CS: What future ambitions do you have for the agency?

The biggest blessing in running Pablo together is the genuine opportunity and remit to do anything. We are in what we know is an incredibly privileged position where collectively, we are only answerable to ourselves and to each other. But all this opportunity comes with a healthy downside. When you can truly do anything, how do you ensure focus - and be choiceful so you’re not an agency which is just all talk? The fear which drives us and makes us hungry as joint MDs when we think about the future, is the responsibility we have to make sure the potential we’ve created together is fulfilled. And to keep us focussed, ultimately that comes down to three things;

1. Delivering for our clients, with work that works, that disrupts categories and reimagines brands across the spectrum of their whole business.

2. Building on our momentum to become a world class creative agency in a way which is genuinely fun, enjoyable and inclusive. 

3. And leaving our people and the industry better than they would have been without us.

How will we know when we’ve got there? You won’t be able to talk about this period of our industry without referencing a piece of work which came from Pablo.