Leadership Lessons with Tom Nutt, Practice Head at SEC Newgate UK

In the latest instalment of our Leadership Lessons series, Katie Simpson, Managing Partner at Hanson Search, sat down with Tom Nutt, Practice Head at SEC Newgate UK. They discuss how client expectations are shifting, what is genuinely new in the industry and what the next generation of agency leaders need to understand.

Looking back at last year, what major shifts in client expectations or industry dynamics most affected how SEC Newgate operated?

It is not unique to last year, but it has certainly been building for the last two to three years, this point about complexity and politicisation. There is very little that any organisation is doing, even ones operating outside a regulated environment, that does not carry a political dimension. Business, policy, politics and consumers are colliding in ways that none of those entities were set up to handle.

For us, last year was about dealing with far more high-stakes environments for clients across both highly regulated and less regulated sectors. That was exceptionally challenging for them, but it created real opportunities for us and our teams.

Everyone has been talking about integration for the last ten years, but for a long time I felt it was driven from the consultancy side; we wanted to sell a broader range of services because it made the work more interesting. What has shifted in the last eighteen months is the necessity of it. It is not that we want to do it because we think it is the right approach. It is that clients have recognised they are in a tougher spot than they are used to, and they need all the tools to be delivered coherently.

What that ends up meaning in practice is that it is either crisis or campaign, there is no in between anymore. And often there is a campaign needed to get you out of the crisis as well. That places a much greater strain on all aspects of the business. Everyone must work well together, understand each other’s skills and bring it all together coherently, both in how you explain it to a client and how you deliver it. Siloed skill sets are finished in this environment. But overall, it is good news for the industry, because it means we are operating as genuine advisors.

What emerging communications trends are defining 2026 for agencies, and which ones are overhyped?

You know which one I am going to say. The opportunities around AI implementation are enormous and genuinely exciting. But what is overhyped is simply applying AI to what you already do. The solution will not be the one you are already delivering, automated. The solution will be one you have not thought of yet and working that out is the exciting part.

We are not subcontracting the thinking, but we are bringing outside technology organisations in as genuine partners to spark it. They come to us with technology and ask whether it is useful. We tell them no, but say if it could do this instead, it would be. That dialogue is where the interesting things happen. So, AI is simultaneously over-hyped and under-hyped, depending entirely on what you are trying to do with it.

Beyond AI, the trend I feel most strongly about is what we are calling corporate diplomacy. Most Western governments are finding it virtually impossible to govern successfully. Voter expectations are so high that even when things appear to be going well, something goes wrong quickly. Every leader seems to become unpopular within the first year. It is an extraordinarily difficult environment in which to lead.

In that vacuum, there is a significant opportunity for business, whether in civil society, in leadership, or simply in looking outwards on behalf of its stakeholders at a moment when governments are largely looking inward. But the flip side is that the idea of a coherent global narrative has also broken down entirely. You must be hyper-local while maintaining some coherence at a global level, agile to individual nuance without appearing to flip-flop. Corporate diplomacy means thinking, as an international organisation, about how you are going to influence the environment you operate in at a local, national and supranational level. Some organisations are doing it well. Many are not.

Where are you investing most heavily — skills, tools, capabilities, people — to prepare for the next wave?

People. We have bolstered our senior counsel group with experienced practitioners who are there to advise and win. We have been able to bring in people from elsewhere that we believe can operate at a considerably more elevated level with us. We have also made very substantial investments in developing our own bespoke AI-enabled tools, and we have done a great deal of skills development across the teams.

How do you maintain strong strategic relationships with clients who are under more pressure than ever?

You need to be available all the time. You meet them where they are, that can be WhatsApp at ten at night, a breakfast meeting because it is the only gap in their diary, whatever the moment requires. That is the point of being a consultant, and it is exhausting and exhilarating in equal measure. But it is why we do what we do, otherwise you might as well go in-house.

It is also why generous annual leave genuinely matters. People get tired because they are always on, and they need to properly decompress. I have only in the last couple of years started setting an out of office, but I remain available, and I find that quite liberating. Sitting by a pool watching the kids, you can still give someone coherent thinking. The point is you meet clients where they are, and you are always available. That is the nature of this role, and it always will be.

If you could give one piece of advice to the next generation of agency leaders, what would you want them to understand about the business?

Never stop being curious. We are not trained to do anything in the way a lawyer or accountant is trained, we have no professional qualifications. So curiosity must be the constant. The most interesting work I have done has tended to be on the most apparently mundane subject matter, and the things I was certain I would love have sometimes been the most frustrating. Keep an open mind, listen well and never stop thinking. That is what this industry demands, and it is what separates the people who genuinely thrive from those who simply get by.

Whether you’re hiring top leadership talent or considering your next career move, our team would be delighted to support you.

Katie Simpson works at the senior end of the global Corporate Affairs and Sustainability market across both agency (CEO, MD, Head of and Director) and in-house positions (Director of Corporate Affairs, Director of Communications, Director of Marketing and Communications, Head of External Affairs etc).

Hanson Search is a globally recognised, award-winning talent advisory and headhunting consultancy. Our expertise lies in building successful ventures worldwide through our recruitment, interim and executive search in communications, sustainability, public affairs and policy, digital marketing and sales