Move of the week: Supergroup snaps up M&S’s Hugo Adams

Firstly, and most obviously, it’s a great hire for Supergroup.

Adams is extremely well liked and respected at M&S and over the years has become a trusted member of the senior leadership team.

He has also gained experience across a number of functions during his time with the retailer.

Having initially joined from Dyson as head of international business development in 2008 the role that was later expanded to include international strategy.

Adams spent two-and-a-half years running former chief executive Marc Bolland’s office and has been in his current post for a further two-and-a-half years.

Lining up for chief exec?

The move into a marketing function at Supergroup, combined with responsibility for business development, suggests Adams is looking to expand his experience even further with a view to positioning himself for a chief executive job in the future.

There’s little doubt that gaining experience across a wide range of functions is a must for anyone with an eye on the top job.

You’re not going to become a chief executive if you are one-dimensional, nor are you likely to lead a successful team if you have little or no experience of a range of business functions.

The move from property to marketing seems like quite a leap, however Adams boasts more than five years experience in the discipline, at Kraft Foods and Dyson where he was head of global marketing.

But even if that weren’t the case, a track record of delivering successful campaigns would not necessarily be a prerequisite to make a success of the role.

The priority for any director switching between disciplines should be to build a strong team around them, including a reliable number two, who can deal with the minutiae of the day-to-day business function, leaving the director to focus on leading and managing the team.

Looking beyond the golden quarter

I always feel that the passing of Halloween marks the point in the year when the jobs market begins to slow and all eyes turn to Christmas.

All of my new meetings are now being booked for the New Year in the knowledge that from now until the tinsel is taken down business leaders will only have eyes for the golden quarter.

It’s hard to predict how consumers will respond to the current political and economic uncertainty.

Hopefully they will continue to spend liberally and bring some much needed cheer to the high street, but if trading does disappoint I, along with other recruiters, can expect a hectic schedule in Q1 2017.