London, May 17th, 2023

With offices in the US, UK, India and Australia, WongDoody defines itself as a human experience company. They are a collaborative group of global experts that build experiences that can help transform businesses, offering a wide array of services from brand engagement to customer experience to commerce.

Lindsay Wall is the General Manager (EMEA) at WongDoody, based in London. In an interview with TIA, Wall described the main features of the agency and his day-to-day work. He explained how agencies can stay ahead and listed the aspects of working in brand digital environments that he finds most fulfilling.

To kick things off, what “Non-touristy” places would you recommend visiting when in London?

Borough Market – I spent a few good years walking through this vibrant market as part of my daily commute into the office. It’s a wonderful celebration of good food, drink, and the ultimate social hub – housed within a rich, historic space. It never fails to raise the spirits.

Could you explain to us briefly what’s your role as General Manager of the EMEA region at WongDoody?

I look after WongDoody EMEA, guiding the growth of our business across the region and our team to deliver across our People, Product and Profit objectives.

What is a typical working day for you?

I’d love to tell the story of a disciplined daily routine; rising early, exercising, enjoying power breakfasts but working as part of a Global leadership team with demand, line management and clients across Europe, the Middle East, US and India means there is no such thing as a typical day. As much as I like to plan my time, events can sometimes derail any planning overnight. I take guidance from Bruce Lee via my new oddity colleagues (acquired in 2022) who swear by the motto ‘Be Water My Friend’ and that very much encapsulates my approach to a typical day. I generally try to prioritize face-to-face time with our leadership team, clients and Infosys colleagues as part of the working week, and to make the most of our wonderful studio in Shoreditch.

WongDoody is described as a “Human Experience Company”. Could you please elaborate a little bit on this?

Yes, like any modern Agency, we value user journeys and design assets—but we go beyond these to find ways to uncover and respond to much deeper human needs. In a world where everybody’s online shopping journey resembles Amazon, we believe creativity and innovation is key to elevating a brand. We know brands offering experiences designed to meet these needs will connect more deeply with people than their competitors, winning over hearts and minds.

You’ve worked with some brilliant brands. How does an agency “stay ahead”?

I firmly believe in sticking to some very simple principles; create a working environment that people love being in, where they can show up, be their whole selves and do their best work, deliver products that makes a difference to our clients’ business and preferably the world at large and make a profit so that we can invest it in our people and product. Staying ahead often means adapting how we deliver against the people and product objectives and having an aligned, empowered team committed to the journey we’re on means we’re constantly evolving.

Do you handle all development work in-house?

Yes, either through WongDoody’s dev teams in London or Belgrade or via our parent company Infosys where we have access to world-leading tech and engineering talent pool of 300,000+ Infoscions.

How do you work with and lead teams from different countries and regions?

I have the privilege of working with brilliant teams across the UK, Belgium, Abu-Dhabi, Germany and India. Generally, I like to co-create our overall strategy with the leaders in each market, set the framework for our FY priorities, agree metrics, provide support and guidance and a (hopefully useful) sounding board… and then I get out of the way.

What can leaders do to cultivate a workplace culture that values inclusivity and inspires creativity?

Provide psychological safety for the team so that everybody feels like they can actively contribute and shape what we become, walk the walk and most importantly demonstrate commitment through actions rather than words.

In your opinion, what’s the most important factor that leads companies to create successful overseas experiences and to engage at a global scale?

Building a universal culture and thinking big but acting small. I was lucky enough to work at iris Worldwide as they went from one office to 11 globally and 1000+ people. The biggest driver of that success, in my opinion, was the people and continuity of culture practices across an emerging global network. It didn’t matter whether you were dealing with people in London, Singapore or NYC, you got the same, albeit nuanced, energy, passion, quality and commitment. Clients couldn’t help but be impressed by this. Looking back on that now, I realise what a huge achievement that was and take the learning from this into WongDoody as we scale the business globally.

As General Manager, are there any new initiatives on the horizon for 2023 that you’d like to share with us?

Unlocking what becoming an AI-first business means and how we can support our clients on this journey.

What metrics do you track and how do you define success in your role?

• People – build a culture that people love working in, where they can be their best selves and do their best work.
• Product – build & launch products that makes a difference to our clients’ business and the world at large.
• Profit – get rewarded for our efforts so we can invest in our people and product

Success is defined by our ability to manage all three parts of this. Get the first two right and the profit follows is the thinking.

How does the process of aligning newly acquired studios to WongDoody’s wider team go?

Firstly, and most importantly, cultivate the right culture from the get-go. This makes everything else a lot easier in my experience.

Don’t mess with what’s already working well and if it ain’t broke don’t fix it for some misplaced global alignment reason that makes no difference to clients.

Recognise the value of your acquisitions. I’ve been part of three acquisitions of design and innovation agencies by either tech businesses or management consultancies, and I’m constantly amazed at how the people are almost completely overlooked each time. When the talent feels this disregard, they walk away pretty quickly and all the value dissipates.

Understand and harness the entrepreneurial spirt rather than crush it.

Work hard to create one team with clear, motivating roles and career paths, and learn from the acquired business. Have them in your leadership team. In my experience, mixing up the leadership team and ensuring its culturally representative only makes it stronger.

What aspects of working in brand digital environments do you find most fulfilling?

The ability to create real impact and change. For the Financial Times, we recently developed The Climate Game – putting the fate of the planet in the hands of some of the most influential people in business and global politics, the same people who have the power to save us all, readers of the Financial Times. Within its first 10 weeks, it accrued 8,000,000 impressions and 650,000 plays, with 56% of readers playing through to the end, and spending more than 15 minutes in the simulation. Cumulatively, this equates to 18 years of strategizing how to save our planet. That’s what I mean about our product making a difference.

What’s the biggest societal or global challenge that you care about and why?

Sustainability. It affects us all, and as designers, we’ve a duty to ensure we’re doing our bit to ensure we reach Net Zero. Along with both The Financial Times and The Economist, we are making progress toward this, and sourcing meaningful projects that our people feel fulfilled and a sense of pride working on.

Can you think of three experiences that have helped you grow both personally and professionally?

Working for three amazing female leaders: Lesley Saville, Michelle Blore and Rhian McKenzie, in my first 3 Agency roles. It’s given me a valuable perspective that I’ve carried throughout my career.

Winning Agency of the Year whilst running an Agency that was loss-making.

Being part of the iris Worldwide journey for 8 years, with a bunch of friends, harnessing an entrepreneurial spirt and can-do attitude.

Which unusual skill do you pride yourself in having?

Amazing capacity to retain absolutely useless trivia information… unless you’re in a pub quiz.

Thanks Lindsay!

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