SUMMER 2019
digital:mastered INSIGHT AND NEWS FROM THE UP GROUP
Up Partnership with Teamscope Up Joins Access Search Partners FinTech Dinner - 2019: Not the year of Blockchain London Board Dinner Stockholm Board Dinner New York Events PropTech: The Journey Continues Digital Masters Awards Winners 2019
Up Partnership with Teamscope Up Joins Access Search Partners
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FinTech Dinner - 2019: Not the year of Blockchain
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London Board Dinner
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Stockholm Board Dinner
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New York Events
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PropTech: The Journey Continues
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Digital Masters Awards Winners 2019
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With thanks to our 2019 Digital Masters partners
Get in touch +44 (0) 20 3005 5600 enquiries@theupgroup.com www.theupgroup.com @theupgroup the-up-group
Welcome Welcome to the Summer edition of Digital:Mastered, which gives you an insight into what we’ve been up to in the first half of an exciting 2019. Our 2019 Remuneration Report for Digital Leaders has been released, providing an up-to-date benchmark for financial compensation across a range of functions and company sizes. We also conducted a piece of research with Teamscope to produce Project MARVIN; an AI-Driven psychometric assessment platform to better understand the values and personalities of top functional leaders across the growth curve. The first of our Digital Masters events was a FinTech dinner in January, where attendees discussed the impact of government uncertainties, the impact of blockchain and the collaboration between the challenger brands and the established organisations. The London Board Dinner in February also provided insights into the tech sector from 300 senior leaders at the Rosewood Hotel.
To continue our Board Dinners, we then ventured back to Stockholm and New York in March and April respectively, which we are proud to see growing into industry mustattends in each city. We will be heading to Amsterdam, Berlin and Paris over the coming months, so look out for them! Whilst in New York we also hosted a lunch for People and Talent leaders in April, which highlighted the issues surrounding diversity and inclusion. We co-hosted a PropTech roundtable with Orrick in May which gave insights into how this sector is continuously evolving. Furthermore, we have announced the shortlists’ for the sixth Digital Masters Awards, this year taking place in September. The winners of the esteemed ‘Green Cubes’ will be announced at an exciting ceremony at the Tate Modern museum in London; an evening which brings together 500 of the very best senior leaders from Europe’s digital community. A busy second half of the year is coming up, and we’re looking forward to seeing you at some of our events! The Up Group
Identifying tomorrows leaders through the insight of AI The Up Group have launched a partnership with Teamscope who are building a talent analytics platform that leverages the power of AI to help companies build high-performing teams. To offer its clients deeper cognitive diversity insight, The Up Group has partnered with the personality analytics platform Teamscope, an AI-Driven psychometric assessment tool, which The Up Group will use to help clients better understand the values and personalities of top functional leaders across the growth curve. This partnership is part of The Up Group’s continued drive to provide the best search and leadership advisory experience to the most innovative clients in the world. Teams that share similar values tend to be more cohesive, engaged and aligned towards common goals, and teams that possess diverse personalities and competencies tend to be more innovative and agile, producing strong results within dynamic environments. This new offering will enable The Up Group to better assess those dynamics and provide deeper insight in a number of ways:
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• Assessment of a candidate’s personality against the Big Five personality traits and a candidate’s values using Schwartz Theory of Universal Values, providing deeper analysis of an individual candidate. • Using candidate and client team data to assess the impact of a candidate on the existing client team, highlighting synergies and challenges ahead of the final hiring decision. • The context of a best in class profile for any functional lead based on an aggregated view of the successful leaders in The Up Group’s network. At the time of writing, The Up Group has assessed leaders within its network in the product, marketing, technology and people functions. We explore the values and personality results of our People Leader study below and consider how they might impact one’s thinking when hiring for this role.
The assessment results overleaf are 1) Personality Attributes, according to the Big 5 framework; and 2) Top 5 Values of the aggregated People Leader profile. When considering the results, it must be noted that this information should inform, rather than dictate, hiring decisions. If a candidate’s assessment results do not closely correlate with our network profile, this should not automatically disqualify a candidate, but rather highlight areas to explore through the interview process. Similarly, understanding what does not motivate a new hire will be as important as understanding what does motivate them, and as such, the bottom five values provide insightful points for consideration in hiring.
We are partnering up with Teamscope for three reasons to help our clients assess candidates in a simple, understandable way; to have an in-depth discussion with our clients about the characteristics of their leadership team; and to help our clients make better decisions when hiring into critical roles.
The profile of a People Leader The personality profile section of the analysis highlights how successful People Leaders compare to the general population. The People Leader values analysis provides insight into the workplace culture best suited to inspire and engage these individuals. When considering what determines the success of a People Leader with an organisation two factors stand out. Firstly, that the role of the People Leader changes as a company scales. In an earlier stage organisation, the People Leader is often the main face of the business when hiring, acting as cheerleader for the company and the brand. As a business reaches scale, the role of the People Leader may change towards developing culture, nurturing talent and creating management capability at all levels, coaching the CEO and ensuring processes are scaleable. The changing nature of the role is reflected in the wide interquartile range of
personality attributes, whereas the values results have a narrower range, suggesting that the underlying motivators remain relatively unchanged as the business changes. The second factor is, the People Leader’s ability to complement the CEO. In most organisations the People Leader is acting as a trusted advisor to the CEO on matters beyond traditional Human Resources, whilst also providing balance. This is evidenced by the lower score on emotional range - the ability to make calm, rational decisions under pressure is critical in this role. Openness & Conscientiousness are absolutely critical to the success of a People Leader. When we discussed this profile with current people leaders, they stressed how people functions need to be more innovative than ever. The ability to drive through change to a point where it is genuinely embedded in a business is something every People Leader must be disposed to do.
When we examine People Leaders’ values, Kindness and loyalty are consistently the most important factors for building trust and support networks, both for themselves, and for those around them. Autonomy and Creative Freedom score highly and are an important values combination, re-emphasizing the need for the people function to drive innovation. A People Leader needs to respond to shifts in the talent market and be ready to innovate inside and outside the organisation to retain and attract the best talent. These individuals thrive in an environment where they have the freedom to act on their own beliefs and experiences in a creative way. To hear more about how Teamscope can help your team, get in touch with us at enquiries@theupgroup.com.
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Personality Attributes The personality profile section of the assessment outlines the behavioural characteristics that differentiate People Leaders from the general population.
Extraversion
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Extraversion indicates where an individual draws their energy and how they interact with others. People high in extraversion tend to seek out opportunities for social interaction, they are comfortable with others, gregarious, and prone to action rather than contemplation. People low in extraversion are more likely to be quiet, introspective, reserved, and thoughtful.
Emotional Range Emotional range is the extent to which a person’s emotions are sensitive to the individual’s environment. People who score high are more prone to anxiety, worry, frustration, and self-doubt. People who score lower tend to be calm, emotionally stable, and less easily upset.
Openess Openness indicates a general appreciation for art, unusual ideas, imagination, curiosity, and variety of experience. People who are open to experience are intellectually curious, open to emotion, sensitive to beauty and more willing to try new things. People who score lower tend to be more pragmatic, conventional, and generally have a more narrow range of interests.
Conscientiousness Conscientiousness indicates the way in which people control, regulate, and direct their impulses. People who score high in conscientiousness tend to be disciplined, organized, and goal-oriented. People who score lower are more easy-going and disorderly and display spontaneous rather than planned behavior.
Agreeableness Agreeableness indicates how people generally interact with others. People high in agreeableness tend to be sympathetic, affectionate, and more sensitive to the needs of others. People who score lower in agreeableness tend to be more competitive, individualistic, and skeptical towards others. 06 • digital:mastered
Values Values best describe the work place environment and culture these leaders need to feel engaged and inspired. 0
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Kindness People who score high in Kindness work best in an environment where they can work for the wellbeing of other people rather than for their personal goals.
Loyalty People who score high in Loyalty work best in an environment where they can be part of a close and cohesive group, and build harmonious, support work relationships.
Creative Freedom People who score high in Creative Freedom work best in an environment where they can express their creative ideas, develop their intellectual skills, and learn many new things.
Autonomy People who score high in Autonomy work best in an environment where they can act according to their own internal beliefs, set their own goals, and rely on their own personal experience.
Tolerance People who score high in Tolerance work best in an environment that emphasizes fairness, respect, and protection against discrimination for all members of society.
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We believe in believers At Silicon Valley Bank, we work with the brightest minds across the UK technology market. We’ll help you build your business at every stage. Find out how we could help E: ukenquiries@svb.com T: +44 (0) 20 7367 7800 svb.com/uk Silicon Valley Bank is authorised and regulated by the California Department of Business Oversight and the United States Federal Reserve Bank; authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority with number 577295; and subject to regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority and limited regulation by the Prudential Regulation Authority. Details about the extent of our regulation by the Prudential Regulation Authority are available from us on request.
The Up Group joins Access Search Partners The Up Group, Europe’s leading digital executive search and networking firm is proud to announce it has joined Access Search Partners (ASP). Access Search Partners is a high performance partnership of six leading technology executive search firms that provide clients with recruitment search services on a global scale: SPMB in San Francisco, Stonewood Group in Canada, Walkwater Talent Advisors in India, Ethos BeathChapman in Asia Pacific and Polachi in Boston. Together, they have developed a new framework that delivers search and leadership advisory on a global scale with the access, insight and influence of a boutique.
Clare Johnston, CEO & Founder at The Up Group said “We have always sourced and placed talent globally, and joining Access Search Partners is a great next step to deepen our avenues to global talent and enhance our connectivity with clients and candidates.” With The Up Group’s locations in London and Barcelona, the ASP partnership now boasts 16 offices worldwide: Boston, Toronto, Ottawa, San Francisco, Denver, New York, Singapore, Sydney, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Bangalore, Mumbai, Gurgaon, and Pune.
We have always sourced and placed talent globally, and joining Access Search Partners is a great next step to deepen our avenues to global talent and enhance our connectivity with clients and candidates. Clare Johnston, CEO & Founder, The Up Group
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FinTech Dinner Grace Hall, London
FINTECH DINNER
2019: Not the year of Blockchain The Up Group kicked off our Digital Masters programme for 2019 with our annual FinTech dinner, this year at Grace Hall in London. We bought together a diverse group of the leading investors, entrepreneurs and CEOs from the sectors fastest growing companies. The discussion in the room covered many topics from the potential impacts of Brexit, to which technologies and segments of FinTech will be the most important in the next two years. London has always been Europe’s FinTech hub, discussions about how this can continue once the uncertainty around Brexit clears were fascinating. The growth of the FinTech ecosystem has been driven by a mixture of a friendly regulator, a supportive government and mayor, and a city with access to established global financial services players. There were questions about availability of talent, which is already in high demand and often short supply. Some were asking how to integrate talent from China or Silicon Valley into European countries, while still producing home grown talent. What is clear is that the movement of people and visas needs to support this industry, full of innovation driven by great talent. We asked
attendees at the last FinTech dinner ‘Will London continue to be the FinTech capital of Europe?’ - this question certainly still remains today. As the discussion moved onto the technologies that will dominate 2019, most concurred that this may not be the year of blockchain, which has yet to reach maturity as previously predicted. AI was a hot topic, particularly in areas such as insurance, and some have started to see its application in the consumer financial services space with applications like Cleo. We also asked attendees which of the broader FinTech market will thrive through 2020. InsurTech will continue to disrupt, with the crossover of AI, connected devices and better data and analytics. Crowdfunding will continue its growth as a way to connect more directly with consumers, as we saw with the likes of Monzo and Crowdcube. The final theme was the overarching collaboration that is expected to happen between the ‘challenger’ FinTech businesses and the established financial services organisations, which may be followed by consolidation and acquisition as the race to be at the forefront of open banking and emerging. digital:mastered • 10
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Beam is award-winning platform Funded by Robin Klein & the that crowdfunds training for founders of the UK’s leading homeless people. tech companies. Funded by Robin Klein & the Now growing our funder founders of the UK’s foremost network. Email our CEO, Alex tech companies Stephany, to hear more. Email our founder, Alex Stephany alex@beam.org (formerly CEO of Index Venturesbacked JustPark). alex@beam.org
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London
London Board Dinner, Rosewood Hotel
In February, we hosted our Board Dinner in London at the Rosewood Hotel. Six years on, we’re thrilled to be able to bring together the key players from the UK’s most disruptive, most successful and most transformative companies. 300 CEOs, Investors and Board Members, from VC-backed, PE-backed and corporate companies, all of whom are leveraging digital technologies for growth and transformation, came together for an evening of informal networking. This year, we are honoured to have partnered with charity: water. Attendees heard from Ije Nwokorie, Senior Director at Apple, and a Trustee of charity: water about the huge impact the charity have, and continue to, make across the World.
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Such a distinguished crowd of great entrepreneurs and investors. Managing Partner, Acton Capital Partners
A really impressive event. Chairman, The Hut Group
It is seriously my favourite tech event all year. Group CEO, Receipt Bank
CREATORS. VISIONARIES. UNDERDOGS. THE DARING. We help you disrupt. We help you build. We protect you. We help you win. #1 for European Venture Capital #3 for Venture Capital Globally – Pitchbook 2019 Q1 Technology Practice Group of the Year – Law360 2018 Most Innovative Law Firm in North America – Financial Times 2016, 2017, 2018 AMERICAS | EUROPE | ASIA
orrick.com
It was an enjoyable evening with many new acquaintances and lunches booked
Stockholm
Partner, Permira
Board Dinner In March, it was a pleasure to host our Board Dinner in Stockholm at Bobergs Matsal, for the leading technology CEOs, Investors and Board Members in the region. Over the last five years, it has been exciting to watch the growth of many of Sweden’s start-ups into successful and thriving scale-up companies who are truly innovating and disrupting the digital ecosystem: NA-KD, Klarna, FishBrain and KRY to name a few. These dinners also provide networking opportunities for new ventures, such as VOI and Anyfin to learn from the executives who have faced challenges druing the maturing of their companies, whilst investors gain knowledge and insight into the fast moving market.
I think this is one of the best events in Stockholm Chairman, EQT Partners
What a wonderful evening! Best Board Dinner to date I’ve attended. 10/10 Founder, Carlys Natural Company
Impressive crowd and impressive intuition CEO, Volumental 15 • digital:mastered
New York
I had a great time and made some fantastic connections
Really great mix of people as always
GM, Apalon
Technology Presenter, Bloomberg
Board Dinner It was great to venture across the pond to New York in April for our third Board Dinner in the city. The Breslin provided the perfect back drop for our guests – CEOs, industry influencers and investors from a variety of sectors and funding stages. It was evident that the tech scene is continuing to develop profoundly here; companies attending are quickly becoming the market leaders in their field, such as Blue Apron, Homepolish and Alphasights.
Roundtable
Interesting conversations and topics…we don’t do that as often as we should! Talent Manager, EQT Partners
We also hosted an intimate lunch for People and Talent Leaders at the Manhattan Restaurant, which provided astounding sky-high views from 60 floors above ground. Diversity within teams seemed to be at the forefront of our attendees’ minds; should job descriptions be written with neutral language? Does the mindset of the current employees need to shift? Should all managers receive unconscious bias training? These were just some of the questions debated, with the conclusion that diversity needs to be recognised at Board level not just in gender but critically in skill-sets and methodology of processes in order
to drive business success whilst maintaining employee engagement as a company matures. It was also commented that as a firm scales, transparency of the business journey to its employees is imperative; challenges need to be humanised – it’s an ‘up and down’ process and if teams are privy to information not only do they feel part of that journey, but they’ll also learn from mistakes or suggest alternative paths.
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PropTech: The Journey Continues
PROPTECH ROUNDTABLE
The Property industry is taking a hard look at itself in the mirror as it imminently faces the question of how technology can help alleviate its legacy problems. The archaic structures of the sector now stand primed for change as innovations in blockchain, AI and big data begin to be leveraged to automate traditional paperwork, processes, governance and regulatory frameworks. As the PropTech ecosystem seeks to build a more cohesive and seamless experience, several prominent topics have started to emerge.
• 90% of the world’s data was created in the last two years, yet under 1% of that was analysed. Not only does the Property industry needs to think about how data can be collected more collaboratively, it also needs to get smart on data analytics to enhance how it is interpreted. Breakthroughs in data standards have been made, but now is the time for businesses to start thinking about how they use them.
The importance of building a connected and collaborative ecosystem
• There is a tendency for traditional property firms and estate agencies to feel polarised by technology companies in the space, often feeling threatened that their jobs stand at risk to automated process.
• Whilst the sector is growing at a rapid pace, change in the industry will be incremental as restrictions and regulations from larger institutions diffuse the pace of transformation. Productisation is not the barrier for entry for PropTech; instead the challenge is how new businesses partner with traditional firms.
• The industry seems to have good faith that this is a misconception as people skills are the market differentiators. Instead of automating jobs to extinction, the mood music from tech companies is that their innovations will help traditional firms get back to proper, advisory human interactions where technical parts of the process are automated, but value resides in a person’s ability to analyse that data and give quality advice to their client.
• As these two sectors start to merge and interact, leaders are now facing the test of how they provoke greater collaboration between conventional structures and modern technologies. Where ‘ivory towers’ have tried to block out innovation in the past (e.g. Uber and TfL), the demand of the customer tends to come out on top so institutions should now start thinking about how they can better partner together. For many businesses this will mean creating a ‘new normal’; redefining job descriptions, working habits and locations.
Getting smarter about using data without threatening privacy • For true collaboration to occur, leaders need to demonstrate the benefits of sharing data. Where Nordic businesses have been more open in the way they share data, the UK seems to be taking longer to collaborate. Across the property value chain, businesses are often reticent to share data out of fear that they’ll lose their own personal IP and client base. • Whilst nobody seems able to decide whether this data belongs to companies or individuals, many leaders affirmed that the value of most services in the Property industry derives from their own personal, advisory skills as opposed to the data they possess. 17 • digital:mastered
The threat of technology to jobs
• Traditional players in the market currently continue to be the leaders in the space; they are signing the highest volumes of transactions and are yet to experience or voice any concern of negative disruption to their jobs. The rise of FinTech has not removed bankers’ jobs; if anything, it has sparked innovation in banks to create their own APIs. Similarly, the growth of smart contracts in the legal profession has not removed lawyers’ jobs and by the same token, the adoption of new technologies in the property sector seeks to modernise, enable and enhance jobs. There is a still some way to go for the PropTech dream to be realised, but with tenacious commitment from iconoclasts in industries old and new, the PropTech phenomenon has asserted its market position and is here to stay.
How can you be both the disruptor and the disrupted? In this transformative age businesses must grasp the upside of disruption today to ensure inclusive growth tomorrow.
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Digital Masters Awards Winners 2019
The Up Group hosted the sixth Digital Masters Awards on Tuesday 17th September 2019, and what a spectacular night it was! The Tate Modern was the perfect venue to host 500 C-level executives, investors and entrepreneurs to celebrate the extraordinary individuals who are truly driving the digital sector. The evening began with speeches from The Up Group CEO, Clare Johnston, and a Partner at Accel, Luciana Lixandru highlighting the strength and depth of the European tech ecosystem before handing over to noted tech presenter, Nikki Dean, to lead the remainder of the ceremony. The winners were chosen by an esteemed judging panel made up of 26 influential venture capital and private equity investors, chaired by Peter Read from Vitruvian Partners. The coveted Green Cube trophies were awarded to 11 highly talented leaders in their field, marked with a green cube in the final shortlists below;
Excellence in Commercial Management
Excellence in General Management
Excellence in Technology
Excellence in Data
Excellence in Marketing
Rising StarH
Excellence in Digital Transformation
Excellence in People and Talent
CEO of the Year
Excellence in Finance
Excellence in Product
■ Annabel Jack, MADE.com Bruce Fair, Metapack Ben Fox, King Chris Whiteley, Netflix Johan Nord, Trustly
Gill Whitehead, Google Martin Ciupa, MindMaze Sanjeevan Bala, Channel 4 Tim Hesse, carwow ■ Vince Darley, Deliveroo
Elen Macaskill, The Body Shop Kash Mahmood, Next Orlando Machado, Aviva ■ Paul Morris, Specsavers Sascha Rowold, Birkenstock
Cristina Alba-Ochoa, OakNorth Josef Gatzek, GetYourGuide ■ Maria Hedengren, iZettle Michael Elalouf, iWoca Nick Bishop, Graphcore 19 • digital:mastered
■ Dan Taylor, PaddyPower Betfair Luke Griffiths, Klarna Olivier Gremillon, Booking.com Phill Burton, Bloom & Wild Rohan Pradhan, Deliveroo
Cian Weeresinghe, Secret Escapes Miranda Cresswell, Tails.com Nathan Levi, TotallyMoney Neil Morgan, GoCardless ■ Nicki Sheard, Charlotte Tilbury Beauty
■ Anna Fredrixon, KRY/ LIVI Kate Humber, MADE.com Noor van Boven, N26 Robin Hancock, Trainline Veronica Sharma, Photobox
■ Alice Newton-Rex, WorldRemit Andrew Lawson, Zopa Bartek Kunowski, Glovo David Fock, Klarna Josh Crossick, Hotels.com
Antonio Gulli, Google Catherine Michel, Sigma Systems ■ Juan Villamil, Department for Work and Pensions Olaf Zschiedrich, OLX Group Thierry Bedos, Hotels.com
■ Amy Cole, Instagram Ana Peleteiro Ramallo, Tendam James Down, Guardian Media Group Melissa Watson, Zalando Nina de Souza, Deliveroo
Alex Saint, Secret Escapes ■ Clare Gilmartin, Trainline Jason Stockwood, Simply Business Jeronimo Folgueira, Spark Networks Philippe Chainieux, MADE.com Poppy Gustafsson, Darktrace Richard Flint, Sky Betting & Gaming Rishi Khosla, OakNorth
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