'Our focus on people is fundamental': Katie Livingstone on her role as General Manager

CTI Digital's General Manager Katie Livingstone reflects on her first months in the role, having stepped up from Head of Delivery.

We've been catching up with some of the CTI Digital team, asking them to explain what they do and why they do it.

Katie Livingstone tells us about what a general manager does, what defines a successful agency, how she uses AI, and how project work is changing.

CTI: Hi Katie! What does a general manager do?

Katie Livingstone: A general manager does a lot across the agency. But ultimately it means working on the business not in the business.

Tell us about your move into the general manager role in June this year. What did you bring into that role and what is new to you?

Katie Livingstone: Moving from a delivery role into the general manager role did feel like a natural progression.

As a project manager or delivery manager, there was already collaboration with all of the different business units in order to deliver a project. So, I did have good 'visibility' and tended to get involved across the business anyway.

Then I naturally wanted to do more, change more and improve more.

Now I'm able to put in place all the things that I had wanted to implement, or had thought of doing so before.

In terms of what I've brought to the role, I think my understanding of the wider business has helped a lot - understanding all of our clients, their pain points, what they experience day-to-day, allows me to make the right decisions for them. And being a project manager, I was always process driven and risk averse. So, I now bring that perspective to the exec team, alongside some of our more creative and entrepreneurial voices.

What are the fundamentals that stay the same in the agency environment, even as the tech landscape changes?

Katie Livingstone: Ultimately what stays the same is that there is always change - and it's always at a very fast pace. When I take a holiday, I sometimes feel like I come back to a different agency than the one I left a few days ago.

But separately to that, I think the people are fundamental, and our focus on people. That includes how we deliver things - because great work comes easiest when people are working together - but also making sure that what we create impacts people in the right way. We can only do that by bringing together different perspectives and understanding user behaviour.

There's always a problem to solve - so whilst the problem might change and evolve, our role is in understanding what those challenges are and how we can create a better outcome. That's where the value lies.

What sort of project most excites you?

Katie Livingstone: This is something that's changed for me recently. As a delivery manager I was most excited by the large, multi-classified digital transformation programs that I could really get stuck into. But with everything getting tighter from a budget perspective, and an appetite for delivery to be expedited, that focus has kind of shifted.

Now I get excited by projects that we can deliver at pace, get something out in the world quickly, but then follow it up with a long-term strategy that brings our experts from social and paid media, SEO, CRM and content together - and seeing that ROI accrue month by month.

And then, comparatively, we also have scenarios where a brief can be fairly vague in terms of the scope. But ultimately what we're trying to do is work really collaboratively with those clients, get under the skin of that business and their users, and develop a roadmap to deliver the most value.

What advice would you give to somebody joining or starting out in an agency?

Katie Livingstone: Get to know everybody. Even if you don't work with them directly, you never know when you might need a favour from someone in that team.

Also, take the time to understand how things work. I think new starters or people with a lot of ideas can sometimes rush in and want to make a big change, but ultimately there are often reasons why things are done in a particular way, and I think people are much more perceptive to change if they feel like you've understood why things are done the way they are in the first place.

I'd also suggest saying 'yes' to everything within reason. Obviously within your capacity, but if it's a different type of project, a pitch, marketing event, something that gets you out of your comfort zone and will allow you to be seen by teams and externally - that will just help your career.

And then I'd also look for a mentor, someone that you can shadow and learn from. Ask those silly questions but also get advice from somebody who isn't potentially your direct line manager.

From a general manager perspective, what's next for CTI?

Katie Livingstone: I think there's always more that we can do across client experience, collaboration, and visibility of data to help us make those decisions.

And scaling our AI use internally, but also evolving our proposition for clients and then driving those opportunities in areas where we've made a start but there's a lot more for us to go at.

As general manager, where have you used AI so far and where has it been beneficial?

Katie Livingstone: I use AI throughout my day-to-day work life. I tend to do a lot of the work first and then use AI to sense-check or validate my thinking or my wording, in order to present something to C-suite or board level. I can make sure that the angle I'm taking covers everything they might interrogate me on.

When I was first using it, I was almost relying on AI too much and I could feel that I wasn't getting the right benefits. I think that comes across quite evidently when people are doing that. So, I really try to avoid that first. I'll get all my thoughts down, make sense of them, and then use AI to have a conversation, back and forth, to make sure the output is the best quality that it can be.

Connect with Katie Livingstone on LinkedIn.