Running the show
As Lisa Hannant takes the helm as CEO of Clarion Events she tells Emily Wallin about her plans to grow the business with scale and agility through customer centric events . As one of still a small number of female exhibition organiser CEOs she hopes to become a role model for future strong women
Having joined Clarion through acquisition in 2008 and been group managing director since 2013 , Lisa Hannant ’ s new position at the top will not be a dramatic revolution , rather an evolution of their existing growth , she says .
“ My first month as CEO has been really , really busy ” she says with no exaggeration . Since succeeding Russell Wilcox in October , Hannant had to postpone our interview twice as the nation watched the monarch and the prime minister change hands ( twice ) in the midst of Clarion ’ s busiest time period . With a background of more than 30 years in exhibitions , she revels in the challenge and is optimistic that their hectic schedule is a good sign of recovery .
“ I guess it ’ s a positive , because we are as an organisation really busy . September , October , November , is always the busiest time of our calendar whether it ’ s here in the UK , Europe , US . For Asia it is always the most busy period . This year it ’ s even busier , the UK and USA are pretty much back to original schedules . But Asia just started to come on stream for us . So we had quite a condensed schedule in that part of the world . But we are really pleased in terms of progress , in terms of reopening recovery . I think that ’ s pretty much on par with lots of our industry peers , big and small , it ’ s been it ’ s been a great recovery phase . I would say probably beyond expectations .”
Being well embedded with the teams and regional CEOs for a number of years , the new role is no massive shift , but
Lisa Hannant
she has taken the time to “ re-engage , perhaps with the new hat on ” and dashed across the globe for internal meetings in Asia and the US as well as UK .
Customer satisfaction When it comes to her strategy for leadership , she wants to see Clarion prioritise customer satisfaction .
“ It ’ s not a dramatic change by any stretch and it is definitely more of an evolution of the things that we ’ ve been developing over the last 18 months . I am very heavily focused on how we as a business , realise the vision around high levels of customer satisfaction and delivery , because I strongly feel that that ’ s the that ’ s the route to growth .
“ If we are set up to deliver the highest levels of customer satisfaction , NPS scores , then to me revenue growth comes , pricing power comes , market share comes . So as a way of working , that ’ s where I am focused on doubling down across the whole organisation .
“ We ’ ve started that journey and now
38 — December