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Pete Markey – Why Marketing can be a force for good
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Nottingham Business School’s Business Leaders’ Podcast
Episode 53
Pete Markey – Why Marketing can be a force for good
SUMMARY
Pete Markey is Chief Marketing Officer of Boots UK. He has also been hailed as the finest marketer in Britain.
He has held leadership roles with a clutch of stellar brands, including TSB, AVIVA, The Post Office, RSA and More Than. He has also won five national Marketer of the Year titles.
In Episode 53 of the Nottingham Business School’s Business Leaders’ podcast, Pete tells Honorary Visiting Professor Mike Sassi about his love of knotty challenges, his determination to stay relevant and his passionate belief that marketing (and business) should be a force for good.
He also reveals how improvised comedy classes have helped him hone his leadership skills.
INTRODUCTION
• Pete Markey has been Chief Marketing Officer at Boots UK since February 2021
• During a 30-year career he has held senior leadership roles with several brands including Boots, TSB, Aviva, The Post Office and RSA
• He started his career as a sales team leader with British Gas
• In July 2024, he was made President of The Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA), the voice of British advertisers
• Pete has a huge online following across most social media platforms and is lauded as one of the finest communicators in the marketing industry
• In 2023, he was named Marketing Week’s Marketer of the Year
• Pete graduated from Solent University in 1995, with a BA in Corporate Communication. In 2024, Solent awarded him an Honorary Doctorate
KEY LEADERSHIP TAKEAWAYS FROM PETE MARKEY
He tells Mike Sassi…
How classes in improvised comedy have helped his business career:
“In business, we’re often not spontaneous or creative enough… If we are more willing to break rigid structure, we see more momentum and growth in our business.
“I’ve found [improvised comedy] incredibly useful in helping me to be more spontaneous and present in the moment… to think of new and different ideas… to bring a lightness of touch when it is needed.
“Also, three quarters of the [improv comedy] scenes you do, you wish you could have done better. So, the biggest thing it does is [teach you] to pick yourself up from failure!”
About recently going back to ‘performing’, as he had done when studying at university in the 1990s:
“I rediscovered, thirty years on, that I’d become too corporate!”
About the importance, for him, of helping to create future leaders…
“When I look at my team I think, how can I be the person that inspires and moves them on? In the same way that other people have done that for me...”
That, looking back, he might have done things differently…
“If I started my career again, I’d definitely encourage myself to be more assertive… I was always too worried about offending people.
“I’m a very positive and upbeat person. But I’ve learned that I can be assertive and questioning in a very natural style. I don’t have to turn into an ogre!”
Why he is driven to deliver…
“I absolutely love what I do, and I love Boots as a brand. But I feel a weight of responsibility.
“The business is 175 years old. My job is to catapult it on for another 175 years. Eventually, I’ll just be a sepia-toned photograph in the archive!”
Why leadership legacies are important…
“When I’m dead, nobody will say; God, he made a cracking Christmas advert in 2022! Hopefully, they will say; he used the time he had to make a difference – and to make things better.”
That leaders are often evangelicals…
“I genuinely feel marketing can be a real force for good.
“I live with a huge sense of legacy hanging over me. We’re only on this earth for a short period of time. I’ve got to live my life to do good.
“We have to leave the companies we’re in, the people we interact with, in a better place than when we found them. That has to be our mission.”
About the importance of finding a business in which you can grow and learn as a person…
“I love knotty challenges. With almost every business I’ve joined, I’ve known nothing about their industry until I went in.
“Insurance, banking, retail, telecoms… I love the challenge of learning something I know nothing about.”
Why it’s important for leaders to stay relevant…
“[Having a] restlessness and hunger to keep learning more is important. The danger [for more experienced leaders] is that you get stuck and start treading water. I never want to be like that.
“I always want to be at the cutting edge of innovation, because that’s what keeps the brands I work for relevant.”
And Pete’s advice for future leaders?
“Be assertive, confident and believe in yourself, but not in an arrogant way. Particularly early in your career. Don’t be afraid to reach out, push boundaries, open doors… because you never know where they might lead.”
RELATED LINKS
• There’s more about Pete Markey on his LinkedIn page
• Pete Markey's Instagram page
• There’s also more about Pete on the Boots website
If you enjoyed this episode NBS Business Leaders’ Podcast with Pete Markey, listen to previous shows with…
• The former CEO of ASOS Nick Beighton
• The former Chairman and Chief Exec of Experian Sir John Peace
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