By James Broughton, October 8, 2024
If you’ve ever worked in a large corporation, you’re probably all too familiar with the dreaded term: “stakeholder management.” Ah yes, stakeholder management—the ultimate creation by corporate professionals, for corporate professionals. It’s the sacred art of running modern meetings, ensuring every minute is soaked in mind-numbing boredom. Stakeholder management is designed for those who thrive on order, adore statistics, and have an undying passion for spreadsheets. These are the people who, naturally, are brimming with excitement and whose originality shines through their reliance on metrics to navigate their careers. I mean, of course, to determine the future direction of the massive, soul-crushing monolith they call a company.
And…breath… I could go on all day about Stakeholder Management. Adrian Newey has seemingly rejected the dark arts of Stakeholder Management for the unpredictability of old school management. Old school style of management is looking at the stats, looking at the revenues, looking at the product and saying let’s do it this way despite the evidence saying the exact opposite.
Data Driven
Old school style of management is having an idea and committing to it, and not waiting for a committee or analytical data to back up the idea. And telling the accountants to take the day off. In other words it’s about using instinct and using data to guide that instinct. The truth is very few companies operate in this old school way, even company connected to the web is by definition data driven.
Aston Martin is as data-driven as any other modern company. However, the world’s “poorest billionaire,” Lawrence Stroll, embraces a more old-school style of management—thinking on his feet, relying on instinct, and barking orders at his subordinates. This traditional approach seemingly resonated with Adrian Newey.
However, the real draw for Newey may have been Aston Martin’s willingness to meet his $100 million contractual demands. Stroll’s management style might be a convenient red herring, perhaps used to explain why Newey turned down Ferrari’s more stakeholder-driven approach.
In a recent media interview, Newey stated that he preferred Stroll’s old-school, wheeler-dealer style over a more committee-based management structure, which was a key reason for rejecting Ferrari’s advances. It’s also well known that Newey favors the rolling hills of the English countryside over the Italian landscape.
During the erstwhile Aston Martin press conference, Newey elaborated on his reasons for joining Aston Martin:
“Towards the end of April [2024], I decided that I needed to do something different. I think from my part, I was very flattered by the number of teams that did approach me,”
“I had discussions with some of those teams, not all of them. In the end, it became a very clear and natural choice, for all the reasons I stated earlier in the conference. you have to be honest with yourself and keep yourself fresh, so I felt I needed a new challenge.”
“The reality is, if you go back 20 years, what we now call Team Principals were actually the owners of the teams, Frank Williams, Ron Dennis, Eddie Jordan etcetera. In this modern era, Lawrence is actually unique in being the only properly active team owner.”
“Lawrence [Stroll] and I have known each other off and on over the years, we often bump into each other in the gym, particularly at the Middle East and Far East races.”
“It’s a different feeling when you have somebody like Lawrence involved like that, it’s back to the old-school model. And to have the chance to be a shareholder and a partner is something that has never really been, or hasn’t been offered to me before. It’s [an opportunity] I’m very much looking forward to. It became a very natural choice.”
