Jenny Kitchen, CEO and founder of Yoyo design was motivated to create a people-centred brand and digital agency 12 years ago. They recently won the award for the Most Admired Agency for Purpose and were described as: “a forward thinking agency, working to do business differently. Trailblazers in their game with a proven power of creating authentic work that achieves more than just profit.” Jenny talked to Lucy Chaplin about Yoyo, and her leadership journey so far.
YoYo are a brand and digital agency. Over 12 years, we’ve built many websites, brands and marketing campaigns. We help clients with many different aspects, from SEO to audience understanding, research and insight. We’re an extension of their digital and marketing teams.
About four years ago, we took the business through the B Corp journey and that has fed into our clients in terms of how we approach things and the services that we offer. We were the lead digital agency for the RNLI for five years. Because the RNLI is one of the largest charities in the UK, that set in motion us working within the charity sector. Following that, we’ve built relationships with charities such as Marie Curie, Lord’s Taverners and Young Minds. About 50% of our work is within that charity space.
Following our B Corp accreditation, we’ve gained new clients like Vivo Barefoot, the Sustainable Restaurant Association, and designed and built B Lab’s website.
B Corp leaders have the same values and they’re grappling with the same challenges. That makes us consider ‘how can our businesses support one another?’ True partnership, where there is trust and respect, and each company is getting something from it, is a value exchange.
What really motivates and inspires you?
Having worked in other agencies, my motivation was to create an agency that was people-centred; a place where people love coming to work. For the first seven years of my agency leadership journey, that was front and centre of everything I did. I was determined not to have crazy office hours or work for crazy, unrealistic clients. We did work very hard and very efficiently. But I’m not having my team work the same ludicrous hours or be in the same environment that I was in when I was younger.
Five years ago, protecting the planet came into my Psyche. It wasn’t only about the business surviving in fifty years time, it was about surviving as a species in 1,000 years time.
What motivates me is both people and planet, as well as creating something that is different to what has been before; new models of working, of doing business and challenging the status quo.
Can you think back to challenges you have faced as a B Corp and how you’ve led through that time?
It’s the challenge that we’re continuing to face now. One of commercial reality versus what we want to do for our people and to minimise effects on the planet. That’s a tough balance. We’ve had a tough 5 years in the business community and every sector has been touched in different ways. For many clients, the energy crisis absolutely killed them. Then there’s the cost of living crisis, Brexit, the pandemic… It’s a really difficult market to be in whether businesses are B Corp or not.
We’re very lucky that we have a good split of sectors, loyal relationships and a loyal team.
A challenge is that I’m a big fan of individualised approaches when it comes to the people side of things. So, each of our team decide what works for their life. We have core hours, 10 ‘til 4, or some people just do school hours. I believe in that approach more than I do in inflexible business wide initiatives, like four day working weeks. But the individualised approach means listening, and it means sitting down with people 1-1 and understanding what they want and need which takes a lot of time.
There’s also the challenge of maintaining a relationship with the community, with the educational institutes and with local charities. I’m just a custodian for this business. I don’t believe in stakeholder primacy. I don’t believe in complete ownership, even though at the moment myself and my business partner do own the business. I believe that the business should be more than just making us money, and if you believe in that, then you believe that the business needs to be there to benefit lots of different people. The main challenge is the limited amount of time to balance all of those needs with the needs of a profit driven business. We do still need profit to do all of those things.
What qualities do you feel are important in a leader?
You need to know when to lead from the front and when you need to support. When to be tough, and when to be soft. I don’t believe in a single way of doing business or being a leader. Sometimes you need to just be there, showing warmth, comfort and empathy. But also, over the last couple of months, when we’ve needed to re-organise sales and marketing, I have had to take charge. So (leadership) is knowing when to flex those different parts of your leadership tool box.
I also think there is a huge benefit in vulnerability and honesty. I have many fantastic friendships at work, but we easily move between being professional and having a joke down the pub. That’s really important to me. I don’t need to be one of the gang, but I need to have really strong relationships. I don’t believe you can have strong relationships without honesty and vulnerability, because that’s when you gather trust and respect between two people.
Alongside that, transparency is important. It’s about having an open management style. If you have that underlying trust and respect between two people, then it means that you can say the tough things.
What would be your advice to new leaders of B Corps?
They should get involved in as many different things as possible such as volunteering, or different areas of the business. I’ve got a second business that I founded at the beginning of last year called amplifi. It works to unify local businesses around climate and community. It’s a not-for-profit focused on events, content and encouraging collaboration.
The people who get involved in volunteering have an opportunity to have something else on their CV. They make new relationships, widen their network and try out different things.
To find out more about Yoyo design (and see their gorgeous website) you can click here.
Lucy Chaplin is a Leadership and ADHD Coach who helps B Corps unleash full leadership potential. She works with new leaders and managers to build performance and lead with confidence, giving them all the tools they need to amplify their impact. Her THRIVE program helps ADHDers unlock their brilliance and be at their best. You can find out more on her website or book a free discovery call here.
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