Name: Jim Stevenson

Title: CEO, Partner

Organisation: Bletchley Group, Bletchley Venture Partners, Spark International

Jim Stevenson is the founder and CEO of Bletchley Group, a boutique International Growth Consultancy with 23 years of expertise in strategy, transformation, and growth. He established Bletchley Group, inspired by Bletchley Park, with a fundamental belief that while technology is powerful, it should always serve a meaningful purpose.

Bletchley Group initially operated as a technology consultancy but later transitioned through a marketing/digital focus into strategy, transformation, and onto a broader growth-focused firm. Jim served as Bacardi’s Global Head of Digital Marketing, leading all digital marketing activity and driving customer engagement for all global brands. In six months, he achieved an impressive feat by generating £116 million in revenue for Marks and Spencer, a prominent UK retailer.

Additionally, Jim launched The Guardian in America and collaborated with the Switzerland-based company Scout24.ch, significantly boosting their valuation by $550 million in an 18-month period. Throughout his career, Jim has consistently driven company growth through strategic transformations.

Seven years ago, he recognised that companies often require funding, leading him to create Bletchley Venture Partners and to collaborate with Spark International Ltd, a firm specialising in helping businesses grow through financing, mergers, and acquisitions.l.

Thank you to the 2,000 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 Questions on Leadership!

I hope Jim's answers will encourage you in your leadership journey. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Jonno White

1. What have you found most challenging as a leader?

I always found managing people to be the most challenging, especially when I was younger. As a very young leader, probably one of my first leadership roles, I was leading a team of about 60 people split into smaller teams. On one of the smaller teams of 6 people, one was not performing. He was never where he should be, his work was never done, even though he told me it was, etc. I’m sure we have all had people like this on our teams at one point or another. I remember talking with him and him telling me all the excuses, from work-related to personal and family-related issues.

I gave him a second chance and then a third chance, and as I was trying to avoid a conflict, a fourth chance and a fifth chance. Eventually, I couldn’t give him any more chances, so I resolved to address the issue. I spoke to him and fired him. It was the most challenging conversation I ever had in my life to that point. It was eating me up before and during the talk. When I fired him, a sense of relief spread over his face. He told me later that he wanted me to fire him all along as if he had resigned, we would not have gotten social security from the Government.

The lesson I learned from this was that in trying to be ‘fair’ to this one employee, who wasn’t being fair to me, I was allowing him to be unfair to his team, who were all doing extra to cover the work that he was not. Now, when dealing with these issues, I balance being fair to the individual and whatever problems they are facing with being fair to the team who are picking up the slack. I have a firm three strikes, and you are out, rule now. I keep in mind that it is better to have a hole in your team than an assh*le.

2. How did you become a leader? Can you please briefly tell the story?

I have had a very diverse career, but I first became a leader within a construction company in Scotland. I started as a Quantity Surveyor, a uniquely UK role. I moved into Leadership by being helpful and filling in for others. When it turned out I was good at it, the roles stuck, and I started leading teams of up to 350 people on multi-million-pound projects.

Ultimately, construction wasn’t for me, and I moved into technology, marketing, strategy, product and leading businesses. I will also love my time in construction, though, as it is where I got my commercial understanding, which has served me well throughout my career.

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

Planning is essential to any successful day, so my work days start at the beginning of the week. I put a little time aside on a Sunday for my weekly plan. My weekly plan is where I set my objectives for the week and any project-type tasks I want to achieve. The nature of working with clients means every day is different, so my weekly plan is a great foundation for what I do daily to make sure I have time to complete everything I need to.

I typically wake up early, maybe 5:30 am or 6:00 am, as I usually have early calls with the UK or global clients, and these early calls seem to be the best time for everyone. I think they don’t like the idea of me having a lie in bed. I have started stretching in the morning. I will do 15 to 30 mins of Yoga. I call it Yoga, but it’s more movement. I have found it a game-changer. Even if I can only do 5 minutes, it helps make me more flexible and has taken away my lower back pain.

I then jump into the shower, and if I’m brave, I try to follow Andrew Huberman’s advice and go with a cold shower. I’ll be honest and say I’m not always motivated, but I can tell the difference in my day when I do. Again, to improve my health, I have a coffee with some freshly squeezed lemon juice, cinnamon, and some honey. I started trying to be healthy, and now I really enjoy it.

I typically have calls between 7:00 am and 11:00 am with clients. Since my father passed away, I always try to call my mother if I can between these calls, too. The rest of the day is when I do some projects and more significant tasks that I have to think about or complete any of the actions from my earlier calls. If I’m in Santa Monica, a lot of the afternoon is about meeting people looking to fundraise or sell their business or meeting with investors and buyers.

As I start so early in the morning, I try to finish up around 4:00 pm when I walk the 2 or 3 miles home, listening to podcasts or audiobooks. My evenings are like most people’s: a combination of relaxing in front of the TV, dinner with friends, grocery shopping, walking, etc. Bedtime is around 10:30 pm, although I am still a little jet-lagged this week, having just returned to Santa Monica from my home in London.

4. What's a recent leadership lesson you've learned for the first time or been reminded of?

I recently learned a lesson on making assumptions and incorrect assumptions, but that is a story for another time. The lesson I am constantly reminded of is the need for storytelling in sales; when I say sales, I mean most negotiations.

Much of what I do is helping founders or business leaders fundraise, but a considerable number of the pitch decks are all about what they do and how they do it. They focus on the output they achieve rather than the outcome they reach.

Whether you are pitching to your boss for a promotion, to a prospect to become a client, or an investor to fund your next growth phase, the ability to convince is all about storytelling. There are more than enough books and resources about storytelling that I won’t reiterate here, but I would encourage you, if you haven’t already, to take some time to learn storytelling.

5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?

There are so many books that have changed or evolved my thinking. I think when people are asked this question, your mind goes to productivity, so I tried to think differently, towards Financial Engineering, or Measure What Matters by John Doerr, but the one book that had the most significant impact on my Leadership was: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love by Marty Cagan.

I was lucky to meet Marty when I worked at the Guardian and launched the Guardian in America in 2011/2012. What I loved about the book was that it introduced me to a new way of thinking, taking an agile approach to delivering work and pairing it with a similar mindset to define and understand the work required. The Product Teams Yin to the Engineering Teams Yang.

I saw how this thinking, along with the thinking of Steve Blank and others, could be applied to other areas of a business and across the business itself. We called it the ‘Silicon Valley Way’ at the Guardian, but I have no idea what it should be called. I just know it works amazingly well, and it started with Marty and Inspired.

6. If you could only give one piece of advice to a young leader, what would you say to them?

Given all the challenges young leaders face in their working life today, I’m not sure this is the most comprehensive piece of advice, but it is one of the core beliefs I got at a young age from my mother. “Be nice to people on the way up, as you will meet them on the way back down.”

I loved this, and as I said, it stuck with me, as it always reminds me to be nice to people. In a work environment, I have seen many managers, directors, or leaders forget that their most important asset (I hate describing people as an asset) is their people.

7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a leader, so far?

I have added a couple of stories through my answers already. I have lots more, including inspirational stores of Product Leaders resigning to look after their mental health to create massive value in months rather than years, but I think the one I’d like to share goes back to the Guardian. At the Guardian, I had a fantastic client, Tanya Cordrey. She was what all Leadership should aspire to be.

I won’t go into all of the ways she was inspiring, but there is this one story I want to share. I will avoid any political commentary, but from a cultural and Leadership point of view, the Guardian was quite groundbreaking at the time. It very much led the way in introducing the ‘Silicon Valley Way’ into the UK, from Agile at scale, to product teams etc.

Through Tanya, we were lucky enough to be connected with some great people to help and support our journey, from Marty Abbott, ex-CTO of eBay, and Mike Fisher, ex-eBay and CTO of Etsy, as well as Marty Cagan, who I mentioned above. On one visit from Marty Cagan, Tanya arranged an informal lunch with the team and Marty.

I remember an almost out-of-body experience as I realised and watched in awe Tanya introducing each team member one by one around the lunch table and giving each their ’15 minutes of fame’ talking with Marty. I have seen many leaders in similar situations make these opportunities about me, what I have done, how great I am, etc.

Tanya made me realise that Leadership is not about me. It is about the team, promoting the team, supporting the individuals who make the team and creating opportunities and an environment for the team to flourish and grow to be greater than they believed they could be.