Case study

Hiring a Managing Partner for Havas Media Manchester

A retained search for a senior agency leader that resulted in James Reddington joining Havas Media Manchester as Managing Partner — and later progressing into the leadership of the Manchester agency.

View James Reddington on LinkedIn Read the Havas leadership update

Context

Business context

Havas Media Manchester needed an experienced Managing Partner who could bring commercial strength, credibility with senior clients, strong people leadership and, importantly, be the right fit for the agency.

At this level, having the right companies and job titles on your CV only gets you so far.

Problem

The business problem

Havas wasn’t simply looking for somebody who’d already been called a Managing Partner.

They needed somebody who could handle major client relationships, lead people, make good commercial decisions and play a senior role in where the agency was heading.

The job title wasn’t the brief.

Impact

Why the hire mattered

Get a Managing Partner hire right and they can have a real impact across clients, people, culture and the commercial performance of the agency.

Get it wrong and it’s an expensive mistake — in more ways than just salary and recruitment fees.

This was a hire worth taking the time to get right.

Challenge

What made it tricky

There were plenty of people in the market with recognisable agency names and senior job titles.

That wasn’t enough.

We needed somebody commercially strong, credible enough to sit opposite senior clients, capable of leading good people and culturally right for Havas Media Manchester.

That’s a much smaller pool.

Profile

The kind of person needed

An experienced senior agency leader who understood clients, people and commercials.

Somebody who could operate credibly at leadership level but still understood the realities of agency life.

And somebody with enough understanding of the Manchester agency market for the move to genuinely make sense.

Hiring challenge

Related service / hiring challenge

At Managing Partner level, CV matching doesn’t really cut it.

Two candidates can have similar agencies, clients and job titles on paper and be completely different propositions in reality.

So the search needed to go further.

How did they lead?

How commercially strong were they?

What relationships had they actually owned?

How did they deal with difficult clients and difficult decisions?

What had they personally contributed?

And would they actually work within Havas?

That’s where the judgement comes in.

Approach

Got properly underneath the brief before approaching anybody
Mapped the senior agency market rather than waiting for people to apply
Approached strong people who weren’t necessarily looking for another job
Looked beyond the CV at commercial strength, leadership, client credibility and fit
Focused on fewer, better conversations rather than sending a pile of CVs to make the search look busy

Shortlist / Process

The search was run on a retained basis.

That gave us the time and commitment to properly map the relevant market, approach senior people directly and understand whether somebody genuinely fitted the opportunity before introducing them.

The objective was never to produce the biggest shortlist.

It was to produce the right one.

See the search and assessment process

The Outcome

James Reddington was appointed Managing Partner of Havas Media Manchester after almost 24 years at Carat Manchester, where he had been Group Business Director.

For somebody to leave a business after nearly 24 years tells you this wasn’t simply another job move.

It had to be the right opportunity for James as much as James had to be the right person for Havas.

What happened next

This is probably my favourite bit of the story.

James subsequently progressed into a newly created Joint General Manager role for Havas Media Manchester alongside Lucy Barnes, becoming part of the senior leadership of the agency.

That’s important because recruitment shouldn’t really be judged by whether somebody accepted the job.

The better question is:

Did we help the business hire somebody who went on to succeed there?

In this case, they clearly did.

The wider business impact

Havas later reported that James and Lucy played a key role in the growth of the Manchester agency, including retaining the BBC account, winning new clients and contributing during a period in which Manchester billings increased by 150% in a year.

I’m not going to pretend Essential gets the credit for what James went on to achieve.

That’s James and the Havas team’s achievement.

But seeing somebody you originally introduced go on to progress within the business and become part of its leadership is a pretty bloody good sign that the original hire worked.

And ultimately, that’s what good recruitment should be trying to achieve.

Not just:

“Did we fill the vacancy?”

But:

“Did we help the business hire the right person?”

Finding the CV wasn’t the job. Finding the right person was.

The Essential View

This search is a good example of why I think senior recruitment is increasingly about judgement, not access to candidates.

Technology can find people.

LinkedIn can find people.

AI can find people.

The valuable bit is understanding who’s genuinely good, what they’ve actually achieved and whether they’re right for this business.

That’s where recruitment earns its money.

Next step

Making an important senior hire?

If you’re recruiting a Managing Partner, Marketing Director, CMO or another senior marketing, digital or agency leader, I’m always happy to sense-check the brief before you start.

Even if, honestly, you don’t need a recruiter for this one.

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