• 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

Let’s Hear It For Number Twos – The Deputies, The COOs, The Advisers

Let’s Hear It For Number Twos – The Deputies, The COOs, The Advisers

‘First the worst, second the best, third the one with the hairy chest.’

That rule of the playground didn’t make the rounds at my primary school. I only found out that being first might be worst, or at least second best, when I went back to school, aged 43.

At London Business School, I found that life without the CEO’s armband felt like liberation. Four years later, towards the end of my tenure as CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Europe, Middle East & Africa, I reflected that I was rarely happy making the big decisions, yet really happy influencing the cause. So I decided to become a deputy instead of a CEO. It was the best decision of my career.

Read full excerpt at managementtoday.com

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