Inspiring bolder leadership at McLaren

The day started with a bit of confusion as I found myself huddled with a small number of marketeers outside Woking station unsure as to where the shuttle bus was supposedly picking us up. However, it was a chance to meet some peers (every cloud) and we eventually found our way onto the distinctive jet-black McLaren employee bus heading towards our destination.

The Technology Centre was an impressive and pristine facility with sweeping corridors that guided us to a hearty breakfast, after which we beamed up to the space-age Thought Leadership Centre for a morning of inspiring speakers.

What you understand very quickly, is that right from the start with Bruce, McLaren have always had a drive to win. John Allert, CMO, explained the ‘winning eclipse’ where they are constantly iterating, innovating and doing something first in order to succeed.

It is vital in the sport of F1 to try new things in order to gain a competitive advantage, but it’s not just on the track where you can be overtaken, in business you can also see your competitors pass by if you fail to innovate. I think we all need to constantly remind ourselves of the perils of inertia; just because you are at the top now definitely doesn’t mean you’ll stay there.

And if you are lucky enough to be at the top of your sport or industry, it’s vital to keep your focus and sense of direction, as Simon Roberts, Chief Operating Officer of McLaren Racing, profoundly stated:

“when you’ve been winning for so long you can forget what you are winning for.”

Something John said that I’m sure stuck with everyone in attendance is that “we’re at our best when we’re at our bravest”. It was interesting to hear the inside take on McLaren’s audacious move in 2017. Last year, for the first time in the history of Formula One, they took their star driver, Fernando Alonso, out of the Monaco Grand Prix to compete at the Indy 500 in the US. Alonso didn’t win on the track but everyone agreed that it was a winning move by McLaren and one they are looking at repeating this year.

One of McLaren’s successes has been their digital transformation and how they utilise the digital world to truly understand and communicate with their fans. I know from my experience that a lot of companies touch on digital without fully embracing it, whereas it appears clear that that is not the case at McLaren. Rob Bloom, Group Digital Director, understands that by communicating effectively with their fans they ‘peel back the layers’ and allow fans to engage and ultimately drive brand avidity.

Something Rob and his digital team do that we can all take onboard is to look beyond our own industries for inspiration.

Marketing is best placed to not just help itself but also the wider business with insight and fresh ideas.

What we learnt early on in our day, is that McLaren is not just a race team or super-car manufacturer, they also have a highly impressive Applied Technologies division. Duncan Bradley, the Health Business Unit Director took us on a journey of the evolution of sport science, from the early days of engineers relying on Bruce McLaren’s feedback to make improvements to today where they use McLaren technology in an array of elite sports such as The Olympics, rugby and Premier League football.

Currently they rely on sensors on the body but Duncan cheerily informed us that the future will see sensors in the body. I’ve watched far too much Black Mirror recently to enjoy that thought.

Mike Collier, Head of Human Performance Applied Tech, was on hand to let us know, if we didn’t already, that being a professional driver is not easy. He elaborated on how they use data to create a model of what ‘great’ looks like, and thus avoid the ‘Red Sea’ of driver recruitment – interesting stuff.

Before all the fun and tours of the centre commenced, Simon Roberts was the last speaker up and he gave a fascinating insight into what it takes to create and operate a winning F1 team, including tough decisions and uncomfortable places to be. He elaborated on his Glimpses of the Blinding Obvious (GBOs) but one thing he said that resonated with me is that, “winning races is tricky but winning Championships is very hard”, maybe I can update my version of the life proverb “it’s a marathon not a sprint” – “it’s a championship season not a race”.

By James Faure, head of marketing, CSM Live