Managing Director-FT Strategies

FT Specialist

About Us

The Financial Times is one of the world’s leading news organisations with a group-wide global paying audience of over 2.4m. We have successfully transformed our business model in the face of massive sector disruption, and have earned a grade A reputation for doing so amongst the worldwide news and media community. It is part of Nikkei Inc., which provides a broad range of information, news and services for the global business community. We have offices in more than 35 cities, including London, New York, Hong Kong, Beijing, Manila, Sofia, San Francisco and Tokyo.

Established in late 2018, FT Strategies provides digital strategy consulting to content-rich organisations, using the experience of the FT’s transformation (and its industry credibility) as its base. We have worked with over 400 news and media organisations, notably through our partnership with the Google News Initiative.

We founded FT Strategies because we believe in the power of quality content and technology to create successful businesses – and that high quality journalism can be a high growth business. Our vision is to create a future where the creators of valued content can serve their customers directly through sustainable and profitable business models. Combining in-house expertise and innovative solutions, we are on a mission to help organisations thrive in new digital economies.

The first era of FT Strategies has been about developing routes to market, a consulting playbook, and building a world-class team of expert professionals. Through that work we have established a robust business with outstanding industry connections that delivers extremely healthy revenues and high-margin profits. Our client feedback is consistently at the highest possible level of praise, and we’re delivering accountable and sustainable change and growth for our clients.

We’re now seeking a managing director to take FT Strategies into its next phase of growth. The role reports to the Chief Commercial Officer.

Our commitment to diversity and inclusion in the workplace

At the FT, we aim for employees across all regions to have a voice so that diverse perspectives are heard and valued. We believe that a supportive workplace is one where employees feel they can be themselves at work and have the flexibility they need to meet their personal needs. We’ll continue to remove barriers for all, and in particular barriers facing employees from underrepresented groups.

Why this role?

We are looking for an experienced and ambitious individual to lead and develop the business within the Financial Times.

You will be joining a fast-paced and dynamic work environment as we scale our consulting business. You will be central to that growth, shaping how it succeeds, and creating and implementing a strategy based on our core sector, adjacent sectors, productisation and inorganic growth.

We are a mission-driven business as well as a profitable one. You will drive that mission, helping global clients develop digital strategies that will transform both their businesses and the wider media industry in order to secure news industry sustainability with the attendant benefits for society of sustainable media plurality.

You’ll be leading a funded startup (although now emerging into a growth phase) within an established institution – an extremely rare opportunity.

FT Strategies is a key priority for the leadership team at the Financial Times. You’ll have the opportunity to work closely with them and lead the team responsible for making this a success.

Join us and find an inclusive and fast-paced environment with unique opportunities to support every step of your career. Learn more about the FT, including announcements and career opportunities, at

Key responsibilities

You will sell and deliver consulting engagements. This will include:

• Ability to use hypothesis-driven problem solving to develop solutions for the most challenging strategic problems
• Outstanding project management skills, delegating work as appropriate to analysts, internal FT experts and external freelance experts.
• Responsibility for developing (and iterating) the strategy for client acquisition and retention as well as sector development
• Leading client acquisition meetings and closing sales
• Taking a leadership role on consulting engagements, delegating day-to-day responsibilities where appropriate
• High levels of emotional intelligence, managing a fast moving operation and expectations of management and other FT collaborators
• Best-in-class communication skills, using slides and digital tools to efficiently produce output.
• Maintaining strong client relationships and being available to respond to ad hoc requests
• Marketing and thought leadership activity, including contributing to the company podcast series, industry speaking platforms, authoring the regular client and prospect newsletter, etc.

In addition, you will be managing this business unit and its team of 60+ staff. Responsibilities include:

• Hiring and mentoring a team of high-performing professionals, and general team management performed at the highest level
• Oversight of and active involvement in professional and career development
• Effective team communication
• Evolving the team’s organisation structure and relationships – the team has grown threefold in two years
• Internal communication to the wider FT organisation, including fostering key relationships
• Managing and developing the FT Strategies culture, which is highly oriented towards excellence, diversity and inclusivity, open communication and entrepreneurship
• Ownership of the business unit P&L, including budgeting and forecasting
• Act as a member of the senior management group (SMG) of the FT, including encouraging diversity and inclusion in all our activities and contributing to company-wide initiatives

Your skills and experience

We are looking for someone with:

• Experience working in digital transformation
• Experience working within the news and media industry, or otherwise a highly demonstrable passion and understanding for the sector
• Significant professional services and direct consulting experience in a client-facing role, very much including high level account management and networking
• Experience of leading and managing a high-performing team
• Strong evidence of a passion for building and mentoring a diverse team that actively practises inclusivity.
• Commercial experience selling services, acquiring and retaining clients
• Excited by ambiguity and a fast-growing, entrepreneurial culture
• Deep leadership and accountability experience
• Outstanding interpersonal and visual communication skills, including the ability to draw key insights from complex data

Preferred:

• Experience running a small business or startup

Logistics

We are looking for someone to join full time for this role, with a view to starting in the position no later than January 2024. You will be based at the Financial Times office in London.

Our client base is truly global, so the role will require frequent travel to client locations all over the world, including Tokyo, South East and Southern Asia, North America, the Middle East, Africa and Continental Europe. The role is likely to require you to travel at least once per month.

What’s in it for you? FT Benefits

Our benefits vary depending on location, but we are committed to providing best in class perks across all our offices as well as an inclusive environment to develop your career. Examples of our benefits include; generous annual leave allowances, flexible working, medical cover, enhanced maternity & paternity packages and subsidised gym memberships. Full details of our benefits can be found here .

Further Information

At the FT, we are committed to providing an inclusive working environment for all. We are an equal opportunities employer that seeks to recruit and appoint the best talent regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief. We also promote flexible working and will consider specific requests around flexibility for all roles where it can be accommodated. We aim to treat all employees in a fair and consistent manner, promote good working relationships to encourage high standards of conduct and performance within a work environment free from harassment, bullying and discrimination. Please let us know if you require any adjustments as part of the application process or to enable you to attend an interview. If you would like to discuss your requirements, or have any questions, please contact a member of our HR team who will be happy to help.