How do you transform an established agency without losing the people who made it successful in the first place?

Chris Jones is CEO of Space & Time, the growth marketing agency he acquired through a management buyout in 2018. Since then, he’s led the business through a major repositioning to focus on commercial growth, innovation and long-term client impact.

In this episode, Chris shares how he:

• Protected the agency’s strongest qualities while redesigning how the business delivers value to clients
• Reframed client conversations around revenue, business outcomes and commercial impact rather than marketing metrics
• Developed a 10-year AI vision centred on amplifying human talent rather than replacing it, helping drive adoption across the business
• Built an innovation culture by giving employees the confidence to experiment with AI and lead new initiatives
• Created an internal ‘Netflix-style’ learning platform where teams share innovations, experiments and lessons across the agency
• Helped sceptical employees embrace major change through direct conversations, transparency and relentless communication

Chris offers a practical perspective on agency transformation, showing that change is rarely about processes alone. It comes from creating clarity, communicating consistently and helping people build confidence in the journey ahead.

How do you step into your first CEO role, make difficult restructuring decisions whilst merging two businesses and still build trust quickly?

Rebecca Crook is CEO of MSQ DX, the digital impact company. She leads a 150-person business across the UK and Spain as part of the wider 550-person global MSQ DX group.

In this episode, Rebecca shares how she:

• Learned that first-time CEOs should throw away their perfect 100-day plan and spend far longer listening than acting
• Redefined high performance around client commercial outcomes - and not utilisation, delivery milestones or agency output
• Built trust during a major merger through radical transparency, open access and a genuine “Ask Me Anything” culture
• Created unusually high engagement with internal comms with optional all-hands deep dives, team-led sessions and practical forums
• Hired an AI Collaboration Director to align the business around an AI strategy for its people
• Uses office culture deliberately to accelerate learning - especially for younger talent who benefit from informal day-to-day exposure

Rebecca offers a candid look at leading through uncertainty, making difficult calls early and why trust is the operating system behind meaningful change.

How do you transform a 1600-person global agency without leaving your people behind?

Annabelle Walters is Global Chief People Officer at Jellyfish, leading the people and talent strategy across 30 offices in 22 countries. She’s helping reshape performance, culture and leadership while preparing the business for an AI-driven future.

In this episode, Annabelle shares how she:

• Defines high performance around impact - and not visibility, busyness or activity
• Pushes leaders to talk openly about change, rather than letting uncertainty fill the gaps
• Treats AI adoption as a shared responsibility between the business and individual employees
• Rebuilt performance management to connect individual goals to wider business outcomes
• Explains why removing line managers created distance between leaders and their people
• Uses radical transparency, frequent town halls and open dialogue to keep a global business aligned

Annabelle offers a candid perspective on how to lead people through large-scale transformation and prepare teams for an AI-shaped future.