Hello everyone,
I’m back with a new Simon Cez… but this one’s a little bit different.
Today I’m celebrating 2 years at Cezanne HR. So, whilst I’m stuck on a train heading to Manchester, I thought I would share some reflection with you all.
It’s been an amazing 2 years and there have been some exciting things happen, some significant challenges overcome, and exceptional achievements across our teams defying the odds, and out pacing the market.
Has it been easy? Of course not! But I am extremely grateful and privileged to be able to lead Cezanne through the next phase of its journey. With that in mind, I wanted to share with you five things I’ve learned over the past 24 months – I hope they’ll resonate with you, too.
LESSON 1
As the legendary Rolling Stones put it, “You can’t always get what you want you want… but if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need.”
The economic and political landscape we operate in make investment and trading hard. Decisions need to be scrutinised, and every cost increase clearly justified. However, if you focus on what you’re good at, and build on your strengths, then really – anything’s possible. It’s all about controlled, sustainable, and incremental forward motion. It might not be at the speed you really want, but it gets you there in the end… just ask the tortoise…
Take Cezanne. As a business, we’ve experienced 49% organic growth over the last 12 months by being easy to engage with, offering a high-quality solution at competitive commercial terms, and perhaps most importantly, putting the customer experience at the centre of what we do.
Of course, we haven’t been able to get everything we want (company retreats to Barbados are still a long way off…), but that’s a great start, I’m sure you’ll agree.
LESSON 2: AI is non-negotiable now… but it’s not risk-free.
There’s absolutely no doubt that AI is here to stay, and while companies race to find cute names for their AI assistant, most users want to make sure it’s safe, secure and can be used to add real value through time saved or automation.
Obviously, we’re totally on board this train. But, we want to make sure that when developing any new AI-powered feature, there are some core principles that must be followed to ensure our customers can trust they’re secure, safe and can get real assistance and insight from the power of AI.
With that in mind, I’m absolutely certain using AI in Cezanne will add clear value and – most importantly – have all the guardrails you need to be safe and secure. No gimmicks, no fluff. Just useful and helpful assistance when needed.
And, spoiler alert: even this article was refined by AI to make sure it read better and wasn’t too long . If you’re not using in your day-to-day life, then you risk falling behind.
LESSON 3: People come first, second and third.
We know the economic environment is all over the shop right now. It means we regularly hear of hiring freezes, redundancies and wage inflation slowing to a stop… but our people are what makes this business.
Making sure we have the right people who define our culture, create the standards to which we need to operate, and ensuring we can provide them with an environment they can be successful and thrive both personally and professionally is a non-negotiable – regardless of trade wars and tariffs.
However, it’s also about who shouldn’t be on the journey with you. Carrying passengers in this environment is dangerous as it sets a low bar and puts additional pressures on those around them. So, dealing with performance and attitude in a proactive and constructive way is critical to ensure those who do create the value are protected, and have the right support.
Once you have the right team, trust them, and trust in yourself. Transparency builds trust. Being open to challenges builds trust. If your team understands why tough calls are made, they’re more likely to accept them.
Of course, not everything we do as a business is good for everyone in it – you just can’t please everyone all of the time. There are always going to be hard decisions to be made; but, being open and transparent as to what decisions you have made and why you made them is key.
LESSON 4: Remember to celebrate the wins.
There are so many great things happening in Cezanne right now. Take the recent acquisition of Occupop. It’s transformed what was once a weakness in our offering into huge a strength – giving us a best in breed recruitment platform. Our partnership with Litmos also takes a mature world class learning platform, makes it affordable to our customers, and supports the ongoing development of our core product that will see a significant step forward this year.
Our growth rate, customer sentiment, retention, and the strength and stability of our product have all been strong indicators of how well we’re performing as a business. But, the conversation internally often shifts to how we can do better, move faster, and keep improving.
When that’s combined with meetings that naturally gravitate towards what isn’t working, it can sometimes feel like the focus is more on the negatives than on what’s going right. The reality is often skewed by the bias of conversation to what’s not working. Obviously, we’re not a pessimistic bunch, but improvement only happens when we know what isn’t working.
While that is a critical part of thinking and developing a culture of high performance and continuous improvement, once in a while you need to step back and admire the view of how far you’ve come, and how well the business is doing.
So, let’s all celebrate the wins (even the small ones!), recognise those who deliver, and share those stories across the business. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying the moment and putting the spotlight on those who created it.
LESSON 5: Time is the scarcest of resources.
Lastly, you might not be surprised to learn that my calendar is full (and not as some might have you believe, just with visits to local karaoke establishments).
I have more emails than I could possibly ever hope to read. Unless I recognise the number, I don’t answer my phone. If something isn’t scheduled and planned weeks in advance, then it doesn’t get done. There are simply no gaps to catch up.
Being so time poor does, though, have the positive effect of ensuring my diary is a good reflection of my priorities.
It tells me how much time I’m committing to each area of the business, or on the people who need it the most. It shows how much time I spend on customer activities vs internal. It makes me question whether I’m creating time to ensure vital strategy is being realised and continuously challenged. It also nudges me to make sure we don’t miss on key opportunities because we have our heads down in the weeds.
Moving into the CEO role from being a leader in the Sales and Marketing side of the business has meant stepping back from my comfort zone and thinking of the world from a different perspective. Is my time spent on all the right things in the right quantities? Do I have all the answers to all the challenges on the horizon? Probably not! But it’s a work in progress…
What I do know, however, is that it’s an immense privilege to have this role and work with some great people partners and customers. I feel a strong sense of pride about what’s been achieved by this team, and I’m extremely optimistic about the future. These really are exciting times for us all.
To quote the slightly less legendary Timbuck3: “The future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades”
Simon
