BE THE CHANGE!

ROB PIERRE: BE THE CHANGE!

Whether it’s work, family, golf or philanthropy, ‘be the change’ is the ethos that underpins every aspect of RGS parent, Rob Pierre’s life. As CEO of award-winning digital marketing company, Jellyfish, his passion and drive show no sign of diminishing. But his journey has not been a simple one...

Rob (pictured left) with his younger brother Kenric, who drowned when he was just nine years old

Schooled by priests in the West Indies

My Dad was from Trinidad and was in the Royal Air Force – he met my Mum while stationed in the UK. I was born in Chertsey Hospital, and we lived in Woking, but moved to Trinidad when I was four. So, from four to 14, I lived in Trinidad.

I attended Briggs Prep School, followed by St Mary’s College, which was known as ‘CIC’ (College of the Immaculate Conception), where I was taught by priests. Trinidad is a small island and the perception is that to make your mark on the world, you need an education.

My parents split up when I was 14 and I returned to the UK. When I joined the Third Form at St Bede’s I felt like I was ahead of everyone else, so I just cruised. Bear in mind that my peers had been together for years and here I was from the West Indies with the strongest Trinidadian accent! Ironically, when I went back to Trinidad, everyone thought I had a strong British accent, so neither side treated me like it was home.

Some of my best friends today didn’t talk to me because they didn’t understand me. My core group of friends from St Bede’s are still my core group of friends today.

I was quite artistic and loved problemsolving. Any subjects that required me to read and retain information weren’t great. I often joke that I’m like a computer: my processing chip is okay, but my hard drive is terrible! I have to keep dumping information to make space for more.

When things don’t go to plan!

I didn’t know what I wanted to do – possibly something around animation, robotics or computing. We didn’t have a lot of money, but then I saw a Computer Studies degree course at Portsmouth, where IBM paid you to study for three years, with a guaranteed job at the end. Places were highly sought after, but I completed the application form and made it through to the two-day assessment, which was like the most aggressive episode of The Apprentice! The smartest people congregated at IBM HQ for aptitude tests, role playing, group sessions and interviews. It was tough, but I was accepted. I told my friends and family that my life was on track… then failed my Physics A level and the offer was withdrawn.

I had to figure out what to do next! I looked at studying Computer Graphics at Ravensbourne but needed to have done a foundation course. It was too late to apply to Reigate Art College, so I figured I’d take a year out. I went to Gatwick Airport looking for a job and ended up at Sunglass Hut.

Managing the world’s number one store, aged 21

My job at Sunglass Hut was all about problem-solving and motivating a team to care about what they were doing. By the time I was 21, I was Manager of the departure lounge store at North Terminal – I enjoyed selling, loved KPIs and started to explore scientific ways to improve performance. I loved playing computer games, and could apply the same principles – of testing, analysing and refining my strategy – to work. I started achieving great results, with the North Terminal outlet becoming the number one store in the world out of 2,200.

But if I saw my job at Sunglass Hut as a stop-gap job – and I was the manager –how did those working for me see it?

To motivate my team, I put lots of different initiatives in place. We had league tables based on the volume or the value of the glasses they sold. We explored how to change the store displays based on the different flights that were coming through. I looked at who was good at what: a more artistic person would merchandise the store; a good salesperson would be on the shop floor in peak times and would train others to sell; a natural organiser would have responsibility for inventory control.

The pivotal moment was when the area manager was sent to fire me because I wouldn’t work in the proscribed way. Instead, I explained my rationale for working the way I did and ended up being sent to Miami to share my strategy with the President. The meeting went well and by the time I was 25, I was European Sales and Operations Director!

From Sunglass Hut to Jellyfish

Rob enjoying the view from his office in The Shard

In the late ‘90s, the President of Sunglass Hut, who was Australian, went to work at Brazen, which owned Sanity, which bought Our Price in the UK. He made me Managing Director of Sanity UK, but they sent over a new COO from Australia – we didn’t see eye-to-eye and within six months I left.

I went to work with an entrepreneur in Southampton who owned a motorcycle and mobile phone accessory manufacturing and distribution business, as well as a chain of mobile phone accessory stores. Here I learned the sharp end of business. While he was a multi-millionaire, he was a self-proclaimed market trader at heart, so this was quite an agile, innovative role.

By the time I was nearing 30, many of my friends were getting married and there was an endless round of stag dos! I kept bumping into Paul Walsh (RGS parent), who was already engaged in digital marketing at the company he founded, Avondale IT. Our conversations often turned to business and I liked his passion.

Finally, we met at the Abbot Pub in Redhill, waiting for a train to another stag do in London – by the end of the journey, I said to Paul, ‘Okay, let’s do it!’ I will always be grateful for his persistence. I am also grateful to the original Avondale IT angel investors who sold me the majority of their shareholding: Kevin Uphill, Tim Hardman (both RGS 1981-86), Denise Uphill and Paul Uphill.

In 2005, we consolidated the business to focus on digital marketing, rebranding as Jellyfish.

“People ask about my work-life balance, but to me there’s just life! There are a bunch of things at work that I don’t enjoy doing, but equally, there are things I have to do outside of work that are a bit of a chore! All I’m always doing is prioritising life.”

The Jellyfish vision

The Jellyfish leadership team

At Jellyfish, we encourage everyone to own their career like it’s a hobby. Why do I find the time to golf? Because it’s my passion, and my handicap is the way I calibrate my success. But how do I get better? No-one else is responsible for helping me get better – it’s my hobby! So, I practise, get a coach, watch YouTube videos, play with better players. At Jellyfish, we encourage people to take full responsibility and accountability for their growth. They create the tangible KPIs that demonstrate their success.

Progression is all evidence based, taking out all the subconscious bias. It’s about putting forward a business case outlining what you’ve done and the outcome.

Traditional hierarchical management structures keep people down, where your only chance of promotion is if someone above you leaves, and where managers are concerned about colleagues displacing them, or being more innovative or smarter than them. And we get the benefit, because we’ve dealt with this challenge at the core. We don’t have ‘Heads of...’, so we don’t have to lose our senior people to bring others in. Everyone owns their careers – you put a business case about your value exchange and get a vertical line of progression.

We have career stages, but we can have multiple people in each career stage.

So, instead of one Head of Global, we have a steering group, which gives more people the opportunity to get to that next level. It means we have cognitive and cultural diversity. Not to mention an environment where everyone works to their superpower.

My car number plate is ‘9KAP’ and I often get asked, ‘Rob, if you’re going to have a personalised plate, why don’t you have your initials?’. But it’s in memory of my brother, Kenric Anthony Pierre, who drowned when he was nine. I was just eleven and was in the water with him. I don’t know how much that has impacted me, but undoubtedly it has.”

What’s your superpower?

‘Superpower’ is a term we use a lot at Jellyfish and it’s very defined. It’s something you do on a day-to-day basis, where you can rate yourself eight or above out of 10 on five things: skill, knowledge, experience, aptitude and passion. Your aptitude means you can continue to get better; your passion means you will love it, do it and won’t consider it a job; your knowledge and experience are applied; and if you’re brilliant in all of those areas, I want you doing that thing 95% of the time. And I’ll put you back-to back with someone who has a different superpower. It’s all about formation and knowing what part you play, and the value you bring to the collective goal.

The challenges of 2020

Jellyfish is evolving, and while we’re nothing like we were when we were six people in a small office in Reigate, our ethos is the same.

Within Reigate, we have 120 people, plus the spin-off, Infinity... we’ve hit 1,400 people globally and that’s soon to increase. Jellyfish occupies one of the buildings on the one-way system in Reigate and, importantly, we have a good reputation.

With the pandemic, 2020 has required me to be a philanthropist, entrepreneur, philosopher, activist, politician, medical expert – it’s unbelievable what’s been expected of a business leader in these times. With Covid-19, Black Lives Matter, diversity and inclusion... my social responsibilities have been amplified.

You really learn about your community in a crisis. Some people couldn’t fulfil their role because they had children at home, others were working remotely. We knew we couldn’t have everyone using their holiday allocation in November and December, so we ran a holiday donation scheme, giving days to a pool that could be shared with those who couldn’t work through that period. We had over 700 days donated.

The Sunglass Hut days

With some St Bede's friends

Rob with wife Lisa, daughter Ria and son Marley

Skills for the future

It’s difficult to prepare students for the careers and skills needed in the next five years. Especially in the digital marketing space, the river is flowing so quickly with innovation and change, that there are no veterans! What’s important is having the fundamental problem-solving skills, and a foundation of knowledge. But if you have the right skills, mindset, dedication and passion, you can jump in and compete.

At Jellyfish, we ask for four core values: to be positive, passionate, be the solution and be accountable. Even if someone has had a difficult boss, it’s about their response to that – do they say, ‘poor me’ or do they talk about how they used this as an opportunity to learn and grow? Passion doesn’t mean being the loudest person in the room. If someone quietly said, “I love Google marketing and have 10,000 followers on my blog”, they’ve demonstrated passion.

What about life beyond Jellyfish?

There’s no way I can answer that! My ambition is to make Jellyfish one of the top three global marketing communication companies in the world within three to five years – by number of people, revenue and the level of global brands we work with. I still have the passion and capability to lead the business on this journey.

I’m safeguarding the future of Jellyfish by divesting responsibility to those whose superpowers make them better at various aspects than me. What I’m left with is the bit I’m great at, so how can I not be successful and add value?

Family and philanthropy

Talking about philanthropy is my most challenging subject – for me it’s just something you do. For communities to survive, people need to identify any privileges they have and see how they can use this to support others.

I’m privileged that my children can enjoy all the opportunities that Reigate Grammar has to offer. So, much as you might offset your carbon footprint by planting trees, if I can put my kids through school, can I also put two more children through the school?

As a family, we agreed that when we buy something decadent, we put the exact same amount to a good cause. It’s important to me that my children grow up understanding privilege and embracing a culture of community.

I have a controversial opinion on the meaning of generosity. My feeling is that if you don’t have to sacrifice anything, you’re not generous. I might be thoughtful and kind, but I’m not generous. I didn’t give my family’s holiday money to the homeless and say, ‘We’re not having a holiday this year, because these people need that money more than we do’.

It might not resonate with people, but I won’t be revered for being generous. It’s like Bill Gates – it’s admirable that he gave $589m last year, but his net worth is still over $100b! Then you have people like Jenny Raynor, who runs a local Redhill-based charity supporting mental health and bereaved families – she takes a minimal salary and dedicates all her time. She’s generous.

I have a different path – to build a great business and help a lot of families – but I won’t be compared to those who do so much more.

We have an incredible community at Reigate Grammar, and no-one needs to apologise for what they have, but we should recognise our privilege and use it to affect positive change. I couldn’t be happier to have my children at the school and feel confident that they will emerge with all the core values and ethics that RGS instils.

RGS is hugely grateful to Rob and his Jellyfish team for their support in creating a virtual tour of the school, capturing videos from our Inspiring Minds events and developing the new Reigate Grammar School community App.