From Public Affairs leader to CEO

Chair of the CIPR Public Affairs Committee David Boot sits down with Max Sugarman, former chair of the committee and Chief Executive of Intelligent Transport Systems UK to discuss public affairs, leadership and the future of lobbying.

Asked about whether public affairs is a good grounding for senior leadership roles, Max Sugarman is unequivocal – “I think it was massively” he said, and “the skills I had through my public affairs career have been really useful”.

“Public affairs people are particularly good at simultaneously having to deal with detail and having to deal with the big picture. Balancing detailed policy with wider political and societal trends is just the experience CEOs and senior leaders need too.”

As a CEO you “need to be able to delve in to a particular problem and understand the complexities of it. But you also need to keep that strategic view of what is coming down the line and how that would impact the organisation.”

This makes those in public affairs “quite attractive” to those seeking to place senior leaders. Good governance, how to set a strategy and how to keep an organisation on course are all things public affairs professionals can bring to senior positions. 

But how can those in public affairs develop their skillset for those senior roles?

Max offers useful advice to get started through “doing a bit of gap analysis on yourself” and drilling down on where you need to develop your skills, be it budget management, public speaking, strategy or engagement with a board.

Secondly, he suggests getting a mentor. “I cannot speak highly enough on the power of having a mentor and having someone that you can talk to who has experience or guidance to offer.” This can be through a formal mentoring scheme or simply through people you’ve worked with, such as by staying in touch with former colleagues.

So how can involvement with the CIPR help in your career?

Max cites his time on the CIPR’s Public Affairs Committee as particularly helpful. “I got to meet a whole range of different public affairs professionals that I would never have hoped to meet unless I was in that position”.

Developing skills was also part of Max’s journey, with the Committee acting as a sandbox – a safe environment to learn and develop. The Committee sets and controls a budget every year, so developing “my finance skills was a fantastic thing to be able to do.”   

“When I became chair, I had to do a lot of public speaking again, something that I had done a bit of, but I wanted to do more of it. As a way of developing those skills it was incredibly helpful”.

The CIPR offers support for every stage of your career, and Max spoke positively of the CPD, events and training offered, particularly when making the step into a mid-level professional role. And for those seeking more senior roles, Max says that “standing for the committee is 100% what I would recommend doing because I think it's helped me immensely.”

Committee involvement also gives a wider industry perspective. “I think you just also get a sense more immediately of what's going on in the industry”, including people to meet at party conferences, outside of the formal engagement in your day job. He added “I think I have developed friendships which will carry on far longer” than his time on the Committee.

Finding time to serve on a CIPR Committee is hard, but Max was clear. “The honest truth is that it might be difficult when you're looking at your workload day-to-day, but it will pay back 100% of the time you put in. And if your line manager believes in you and wants you to do better for the organisation as well, then they will want you to do something like this because it's such a valuable thing to do.” Max emphasises that employers should view being on the committee as doing part of your job as a public affairs professional. 

And how does CIPR involvement look from the perspective of a future employer?

For less junior roles, it is not necessarily expected - Max adds that is often important for managers and leaders to introduce junior team members to CIPR. But “for senior roles, I do think it is more important and chartership is always a really big tick”, he said, adding that “it's a sign that you take your industry seriously, take yourself seriously, that you're willing to commit to being involved in the community…I think it's just a marker of seriousness.”

Moving on to lobbying reform and the future of lobbying, Max said that “There's still the need for more ethical lobbying”.

The standard for lobbying agencies is high, with most registered in the correct way with ORCL, but “the in-house question [around whether ORCL should be extended beyond consultancies] is still a really pertinent one” which needs to be addressed, as the CIPR has called for.

There are still questions about the “revolving door of government where we see peers or former ministers going into lobbying roles and back again”, with a particular grey area around peers being lobbyists. Much, clearly, for the CIPR and its Lobbying for Good Lobbying Campaign still to do.

On the future of the industry, Max is optimistic about the use of artificial intelligence. “It used to be the case where a lobbyist's job was turning up and sitting in a committee room and writing notes and then waiting for a physical copy of Hansard”, he says. Now, online, instant monitoring is available, which has fundamentally changed the role of lobbyists.

Max believes AI could lead to similar changes, but believes Public Affairs Professionals will still be needed into the future. “We don't know where technology is going, but I don't think we will be at a point anytime soon where we have an AI lobbyist that can think strategically in a way a human can.” So, copywriting and monitoring are likely to be taken up by AI, but the strategic nature of public affairs will still need a human involved. 

For those starting a public affairs career, Max is clear - get out there. “I'd be saying to them [new starters]: go out to your place of work and hang around your boss, go to the meetings with them, meet who they meet, go to MP meetings. That will give you the tools you need”.

And if Max hadn’t found his place in public affairs? His love for transport would have come through, so perhaps an alterative career in transport planning would have panned out.