You don’t need a perfect plan, You need better thinking | Maria Koutsoudakis

What does it really take to build a career that keeps growing for nearly three decades? Sometimes, the answer is choosing the uncomfortable option. In this episode, we sit down with Mark Sandys, Chief Innovation Officer at Diageo, for an insightful conversation about career growth, marketing leadership, innovation, AI and the lessons that come from getting things wrong. Mark has spent nearly 29 years at Diageo, working across markets including Ireland, Russia and Singapore before taking on a global innovation leadership role. His journey offers a powerful reminder that career growth isn’t always about climbing the ladder. It’s about learning new things, challenging yourself and understanding how a business works from the ground up.

What does it take to keep growing when the obvious growth levers stop working? In this episode, we sit down with Rob Weston, Chief Commercial and Marketing Officer at Loop EarPlugs, whose career has taken him from Unilever and McKinsey to M&S, Samsung, Beauty Pie, Asda and now Loop Earplugs. Rob shares the lessons he’s learned from moving between some of the world’s biggest companies and fast-growing businesses, including why “the grass is rarely greener, it’s a different shade of green” and why he’s always been drawn to change, reinvention and growth. We also dive into how Loop grew from around €100 million to more than €225 million, the four-pillar strategy behind that growth, and how partnerships with McLaren, Coachella, Tomorrowland, Swarovski and Harry Styles helped build both demand and brand desire.

What if managing your energy matters more than managing your time? In this episode, we welcome back Sophie Devonshire, CEO of The Marketing Society, for a fascinating conversation about leadership, marketing, ambition, AI, career growth and what it really means to thrive at work. Sophie shares why she believes we are entering a new golden age of marketing, why marketers need to become better at “marketing marketing”, and how the profession can play a bigger role in driving responsible business growth. We also get into the very practical side of leadership: managing your energy, staying effective when everything is changing, communicating with confidence, learning from your peers and moving fast without simply adding more pressure to your life.

What makes a brand so good that customers keep coming back? In this episode, we sit down with Sarah Holt, CMO of Center Parcs UK & Ireland, to unpack the thinking behind one of the UK’s most loved experience brands, her approach to marketing leadership, customer experience, commercial growth and the rapidly changing world of AI. Sarah shares how Center Parcs achieved record revenue of £758 million, record EBITDA of £323.9 million and its highest ever occupancy of 97.5%, while revealing why the real secret to the brand’s success isn’t advertising. It’s the experience customers have once they’re there. We explore why Sarah would choose investing in customer experience over increasing the marketing budget, how she approached her first 90 days as CMO, why she deliberately spent her first 100 days learning rather than fixing, and how she identified three key areas for transformation - brand, personalization and capability.

What does it take to build a distinctive brand in a low-interest category like insurance? And how might AI completely change the way insurance is bought? In this episode, we sit down with Ed Birth, Head of Brand Marketing at Hiscox UK, to unpack what great brand leadership really looks like — from his nearly 20 years in agency life to moving client-side, building Hiscox’s brand relaunch in 2023, and thinking about the future of marketing in an AI-driven world.