• It has become something of a taboo in our society to say you don't want to be a leader — especially if you are one. Richard Hytner, a former CEO at the global advertising giant Saatchi & Saatchi, experienced it firsthand and is trying to break that stigma.- Lillian Cunningham, Editor, On Leadership, The Washington Post
  • Hytner notes that talent development, for example, is crucial to companies now, so the lack of a great track record for hiring, inspiring, and keeping star employees sometimes trips up aspiring CEOs.- Anne Fisher, Fortune Magazine
  • He argues convincingly that a great team of a chief executive and a number two is a more successful proposition than a solitary leader. Mr Hytner describes the various types of consiglieri – lodestones, educators, anchors and deliverers, according to his segmentation.- Luke Johnson, Financial Times
  • Richard Hytner, deputy chairman of London-based advertising giant Saatchi & Saatchi, thinks corporate understudies are too often overlooked. He’s set out to burnish the reputation of the second-in-command...- Adam Auriemma, the Wall Street Journal
  • It’s a trove of advice about how to be a great deputy and principal adviser, a calling that has brought out the best in people as varied and admirable as Warren Buffett’s Charlie Munger, Anna Wintour’s Grace Coddington, Abraham Lincoln’s William Seward, and Henry VIII’s Thomas Cromwell.- Frederick E. Allen, Forbes

Media Article

HR in the Boardroom

HR in the Boardroom

Richard ran a session with an exclusive group of leading HR professionals convened by HR Magazine. His ideas focused on how to elevate HR in the Boardroom, to ensure that HRDs performed more effectively as beta baboons in support of their CEOs – the alpha baboons.

Richard suggested that the Human Resources Director’s role had the potential to be the most rewarding in the organisation, with job satisfaction measured by contribution rather than relative compensation. HRDs need to use their A leadership muscles because they are accountable for the people function, as well as their consulting, coaching C leadership muscles with the CEO. To be helpful to their CEO, they need to be exemplary Cs to their peers, too.

HR magazine interviewed Richard after the event on leadership, purpose and the joy of being second in command…

Read the interview

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