Seeding growth

I joined this emerging-markets data provider straight out of business school after working with them during the past January on an operations manual for new country managers. All of my team were 25 or under, and based in 6 markets in Eastern Europe and Turkey.

​None of them had ever managed anyone before, some were not fluent in the local languages, and one had a budget that was 3x what it needed to be – so my first task upon meeting him was to deliver this message and make the cuts. With only one regional product when I joined (Poland), we launched 7 more during my tenure, which together gave us the company’s first complete regional offering.

​I coached the country managers in leading their teams, supported their product development plans and negotiations, accompanied them on local market sales calls, underwrote their growth ambitions and represented them back at home base.

​Before I joined, the company’s founder told me he was confident I could lead an organisation of hundreds. When I left, I was a managing over 50 people remotely and a budget of £2 million, had built close working relationships across the global company, and strong partnerships with my team, later hiring two of them into future businesses.

​Now known as EMIS, the company was acquired by the Euromoney Institutional Investor group in 1999.