Richard Hytner

Not everyone can be in charge, but more importantly, not everyone should want to be, believes Richard Hytner. It’s time to celebrate the second-in-commands who very often make equally critical contributions to the success of organizations. We must redefine the traditional pyramid structure of leadership.

Hytner, who has lived through the treasures and burdens of being CEO and then Deputy, turns the spotlight on second-in-commands. In his role as deputy chairman of international creative powerhouse Saatchi & Saatchi – which he joined in 2003 as CEO for Europe, Middle East and Africa – he works with leaders and leadership teams worldwide on organizational purpose, peak performance and communications strategy.

His first book, “Consiglieri: Leading from the Shadows” (Profile Books, May 2014), traverses an array of powerful advisers from the White House to the Vatican, across international business, sports and entertainment, and is backed by provocative research from psychology and academia. Hytner and his book have been profiled by The Washington Post, Forbes, Fortune, The Financial Times, The Guardian and The Wall Street Journal. He also writes on the relationships between leaders and their deputies for Huffington Post.

A Cambridge Law graduate, Hytner is an adjunct professor of marketing at London Business School, where he graduated as a Sloan Fellow in 2003. He lives in London.