The media Industry needs to open doors, not just talk about inspiring talent

Opinion

The CEO of Bauer Media Publishing UK discusses why the route into the industry needs to be built deliberately, rather than celebrated occasionally.

Twenty young women came to our London office last week on an Adland visit organised by the Advertising Association with BelEve, a charity that works with girls and young women.

I’d been asked to talk about how I came to be CEO of one of the UK’s largest publishing businesses. Afternoons like this are easy to feel good about, but I’ve been in enough of these rooms now to be honest about their limits and, perhaps more importantly, what they have the potential to be.

An hour of encouragement doesn’t get anyone hired. It doesn’t tell you which jobs exist or who’s recruiting, or that who you know sometimes still counts for more than it should. Every inspired 20-year-old still needs a door, and across every industry, we can be far better at supplying inspiration than doors.

That’s the part that falls to those of us leading businesses. It means paid entry routes, recruiting outside the same universities, agencies and partners and keeping these programmes running in the years when it would be easier to let them quietly drop off.

As leaders, we’re expected to look at the commercial case, rather than just the ethics, so here it is. Our audiences change constantly – what they read, where they go, what they pay attention to.

As content consumption evolves, so do technology adoption and monetisation models. The best way to keep pace is to have people around you whose view of the world doesn’t match your own. If we recruit from the same narrow pools for long enough, you end up in a room where everyone sees the same thing and misses the same thing, and there’s a limit to how well you can serve an audience you’ve never had to understand. 

I’ve a personal stake in this too

My own career began because someone took a chance on me as an intern, and I’ve never lost sight of how much of what came afterwards rested on that one decision.   

The experiences that followed were made possible by the colleagues and leaders who shared wisdom, created opportunities and often opened doors when I wasn’t brave enough to push them open myself. We all know this to be true for ourselves; careers are never built alone; they are often shaped by those around us. 

I shared a story in the room about my childhood and an experience that still defines how I show up today. 

My upbringing was humble, but what we lacked materially, my mum made up for in strong values. Growing up, almost every Sunday morning she would wake me before sunrise, and we would walk together to the local Gurdwara. There, in the kitchens, I would wash dishes or help prepare food to serve anyone who came through the doors later that day. No questions ever asked. No expectations. Anyone could come in and enjoy a free hot meal.

That was my first experience of seva (a Sanskrit term that means selfless service).

For many years I understood it in a very simple way: you give because it is the right thing to do.

On the walk over, my mum would remind me that although you may think you have little, you always have something to offer. And I learned, through experience, that giving is never about surplus; it’s about spirit – and that lesson has never left me.

Showing up is important

My mum taught me that we always have something to offer and that one can add value in many different ways. That’s the message I communicated in the room to the women I spoke with – we all have something to offer. For the next generation entering the industry, the advice we offer and the doors we open can shape a career and even a life.

Which is why what we do matters far more than any words I could share in an afternoon.

The Bauer Academy has been running for over a decade and is one of our country’s leading providers of creative apprenticeships. At Bauer Media, we’re also proud to support the newly established PPA Creative Work Experience programme, providing further opportunities for young people to cement themselves in this industry. Organisations such as BelEve and Brixton Finishing School are also vital to securing a strong future for the next generation of media talent. 

So, I’ll keep accepting the invitations to talk to people. Showing up is important. Inspiring, encouraging and motivating is important. But I’d rather be judged on what we do. 

Amrit Baidwan is the CEO of Bauer Media Publishing UK