'My boss was ex-Army, shunned hierarchy and took ownership to get things done'

Rob Woodstock, ex-HMRC chief commercial officer, was appointed managing director of global technology and business firm Slalom in 2023.

Woodstock started his professional career at Unilever (ULVR.L) as a research analyst before spending 17 years at Accenture (ACN). He has been recognised for leadership excellence externally by The Times as one of the Top 100 BAME Leaders in the UK.

Andrew Berger, a successful, innovative and quite intimidating partner at Accenture early in my career, could be direct and even brutal of people's work. But he was doing extraordinary things and I wanted to be part of the magic. I wanted to test myself to see if I could thrive in his world.

I saw it as a massive learning opportunity and a bit of a challenge to work for someone who was impressive and exacting. There was an edge of action to Andrew, even in the way he dressed. He was well presented, with blonde flipped hair, and he would roll his sleeves up as a way of getting things done.

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In my regular consulting work, he did a lot of teaching and took a personal interest in me. He would use a whiteboard and explain what a storyboard of a successful, effective presentation would be, how to start it with impact and how the mind takes information in.

We would do walk rounds in the forum where he might open up a cupboard and say things looked a bit dishevelled in there.

I was about to note it down and he would say, ‘No, don’t write things down, we are going to sort it here and now’. He was ex-Army and his view was to take ownership and just get things done.

He was non-hierarchical for someone with an Army background. For example, we had one important pitch for a client where global partners had flown in.

It wasn’t going well and Andrew decided that I would be the one directing the partners on how to finish the presentation. He knew that I could take the vision he had and show them how to produce the output.

I became the intermediary and flipping a hierarchy was something I hadn’t seen before. It gave me the belief to operate within a group of people who were more experienced and that I could be effective.

It was a liberating and empowering episode and I took that on later where I would ask myself if I was looking for a senior person or the right person for the job.

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I emulated a lot of his traits when I later became a leader. I was quite hard to work for and took pride in high standards, being innovative and taking risks.

I had feedback from people who worked for me saying that it was hard — perhaps those with less of a thick skin — but also from colleagues who said that being shown how to do things had moulded them. Over the course of time as a leader, and helping other leaders to find their way, I have adapted a more nurturing style.

In my younger leadership years, I worked and played hard and I’ve always enjoyed a party.

I use humour quite a lot to try to counterbalance the drive and a conscious recognition that working is fun too. I also learned that it was good for some people but that it excluded others.

Slalom is a company which is innovative and mould-breaking in the way it works. An organisation that talks about being fiercely human in the way we treat each other and our customers.

We are also unconventional — we don’t have a customer satisfaction survey, we have a customer love survey.

It’s not a typical way of approaching business but it really resonated with me; wanting to love work and for customers to enjoy working with Slalom. And to ask the question: ‘Do you love working with us?’ It’s slightly awkward for a Brit to adopt but I really loved that.

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I found out later in a conversation with Andrew, when he became more of a friend than a boss, that in Army training he had trained with a black recruit who had not made it through and had a torrid time.

I believe, years later, that he saw someone with talent and that was part of his motivation with me.

A lot was done behind the scenes but also in public as the relationship developed and he became more of a sponsor. He might say ‘Rob’s looking quite partnerial today’ to the other partners. That praise in public was extremely helpful and I am very grateful to having learned under his leadership.

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