We are lucky to be surrounded by a lot of people that are really good at what they do, and when those people all come together, we can do some extraordinary things.
About the series
I have always been interested in the stories of individuals. As an avid reader of biographies, a listener of Ted Talks, and a scourer of Wikipedia pages, I love learning about how people get to where they are and what makes them tick.
In this blog series, I speak with Savanta’s leaders to understand how they’ve shaped the unique culture at Savanta and, hopefully, glean some pearls of wisdom that we can all incorporate into our professional lives.
The ninth interview in this series is with Shaun Austin, Head of the Media Team. Shaun’s role covers the overall responsibility for managing, leading and delivering financial performance for the UK division.
Follow Shaun’s story from starting at a media tracking agency to leading a division at Savanta.
Charles: What do you do at Savanta and what has been your journey to get here?
Shaun: I head up the Media Team in the UK. We work with a wide range of clients, predominantly in the Media sector, but also with brands or agencies that work in and around the media space, helping them to ensure their campaigns have the desired impact. I’ve worked agency side my whole career and I love the variety and the pace of life. Plus, the media industry is constantly evolving which keeps things interesting for me.
Before Savanta, I worked at Future Thinking (which was acquired by Savanta) and I couldn’t have been happier to be folded into the Savanta brand where I think there are lots of really smart people that I continually learn from.
Charles: What project have you worked on at Savanta that you’re most proud of? And why?
Shaun: I wouldn’t want to single any out but it’s usually where we’ve influenced the clients’ decision making in some way to help them progress as a brand or with a product or service we’ve focused on.
We aim to make a real impact, and I’m proud that many of our projects have delivered just that. Whether its boosting sales through research-driven marketing campaigns or helping stakeholders use our insights to spark internal change and transform how their business operates.
Charles: One of our core values at Savanta is ’empowerment’. What does empowerment mean to you?
Shaun: Empowerment to me means a couple of things. Firstly, empowering my team means giving them opportunities to push themselves outside of their comfort zone in order to develop, but also ensuring that they feel supported and know they have people behind them to help navigate through any difficult challenges. Giving people the freedom to push themselves, means that our clients also get better outcomes. I’m incredibly lucky to have an extremely talented and dedicated team, all of whom are eager to develop and progress their careers.
However, I would also like to think we empower our clients directly – we try and do this by giving them access to high quality data and insight, in a format and speed that means they feel equipped to make better decisions, grounded in evidence.
This might be in an easy-to-use dashboard, so they can quickly find the information they want when they need it. This could be one of our AI powered outputs where they don’t need to read through a big slide deck to find the insight they are looking for. Or maybe in one of our interactive workshops where we are using our research to help with planning and strategy.
Charles: Another principle is centered around being truthful. What’s one of the hardest things you’ve had to do as a leader?
Shaun: We have very high standards that we expect from a high performing team, so, when we need to have conversations around people falling short of those standards, the conversations are always hard.
However, as a leader, I know those conversations are needed otherwise it can have a knock-on effect on the team, their motivation and their engagement. Ultimately that’s what is most important in order to retain that high performance culture, along with the ability to nurture and progress talent.
I also believe in openly admitting mistakes; everyone makes them, and they’re valuable learning opportunities. For example, I once made an error with survey sampling that affected the representativeness of our results. I had a tough call with the client, owned up to the issue, and worked to fix it. Ultimately, the client appreciated our honesty and continues to work with us to this day. This experience reinforced that handling difficult conversations openly builds trust and long-term relationships.
Charles: Is there a life / work hack that you swear by?
Shaun: I try and get for a walk every morning before I start work. It helps me to clear my head and get some exercise. It sets me up for the day and means that when I sit down at my desk, I’m ready to embrace what is to come.
Charles: How do you help deliver on Savanta’s purpose as a leader?
Shaun: Savanta’s purpose revolves around truth, empowerment and progress. I try to lead by example and have difficult conversations when they are needed, either with my team or with my clients. I want to empower people to fulfil their full potential in their careers, giving them opportunities to learn and develop and push them outside of their comfort zones, as I believe that is where growth comes from.
Finally, I want my team to ensure the research that we deliver to our clients has real tangible impact and helps them to progress as a business. If we can do this, then both my team and my clients will be empowered and progress, and that’s ultimately what I’m striving for.
Charles: What’s a skill you’re currently working on?
Shaun: As a business, we’re trying to inspire our clients. So, I think trying to understand how we can make our work more inspirational and how can we get C-Suite execs seeing more of our work and using it to help them make better decisions.
Charles: Have you made any mistakes in your career? What have you learned from them?
Shaun: Yes, many mistakes. But for me, making mistakes is part of our journey and gives us more experience from which we can learn from. I guess the biggest thing I’ve learnt from my mistakes is it’s the way that you deal with them. If you deal with a mistake in the right way, the client can often end up being happier than they were beforehand, but it means you have to front up and tackle it head on.
Charles: If you could give your 25-year-old self a piece of advice, what would that be?
Shaun: When it comes to work, keep an open mind and try and get as much varied experience as possible. It’s important to find the things that you are good at and that you enjoy doing, because that’s where you will have the biggest impact. We spend a long time at work, so finding something that you enjoy doing is really important.
Another piece of advice that has always stuck with me is to stay balanced – don’t get swept up in the highs, and don’t sink too low in the tough times. It’s easy to forget in moments of success, but just as important to remember when facing challenges.
Charles: For you, what makes Savanta a special place to work?
Shaun: It’s the people first and foremost. I mentioned earlier that I think at Savanta we are lucky to be surrounded by a lot of people that are really good at what they do, and when those people all come together, we can do some extraordinary things as business.
I think we have a lot of fun while we’re doing it too, and I think that’s really important. I’m lucky to be a part of the UK Management Team, and I think there is a collection of really good people. This gives me confidence that we can lead this business successfully, evolve with the new technology that is constantly impacting on how we work and tackle any challenges that might come our way.
To find out more about life at Savanta contact us, or visit our careers page.
Further reading:
- Savanta Life: catching up with Caroline Hawkings
- Savanta Life: secrets to success with Dr. Nick Baker
- Leadership one-to-ones: catching up with Vin DeRobertis
- Leadership one-to-ones: catching up with Nikki Lavoie
- Leadership one-to-ones: catching up with Harry Kounougakis
- Leadership one-to-ones: catching up with Steven Brown
- Leadership one-to-ones; catch up with Michelle Eule