Ryan Thomas and Martin Corcoran completed a management buyout of Summit from TCC Global last year.
Thomas, who is now chairman, joined the Hull-based tech consultancy and performance marketing specialist in 2017, while Corcoran joined the business in 2015 and is now at the helm as CEO.
With clients such as Three Mobile, Joules, H Samuel, Ikea, Levi’s and Ann Summers, Thomas shares what a recent week in his life looks like…
Monday
After a busy weekend of cycling, tennis and socialising, Mondays usually begin early with a 6am wake up and a cup of tea. Monday mornings are somewhat of a recovery, so a high protein breakfast is essential with two boiled eggs – a ritual I complete every day without fail.
I feed the six dogs, so they tend to take a bit of time, then I look after myself and get ready for the day ahead. I don’t have a particularly strict working schedule, so I’m usually already caught up on work emails from the weekend.
My priority on a Monday is a call with my business partner, Martin. We completed our management buyout of Summit in January 2022 where Martin became CEO and me, exec chairman. Our weekly call is very top level – discussing new clients, sales leads, financials and our growth plans. Although Martin and I don’t physically see each other every week, we always make time to offer each other counsel and make sure that we are both up-to-date with business matters. Communication is essential to the success of our partnership and we have seemingly struck a very good pattern of working together, each focusing on activities that suit our skill set.
Monday is also the day that I meet with our FD Adam. We keep a good regular eye on our forecast, focusing on the next quarter and ensuring that we maintain good cost control and cash management. Martin and I agreed from day one that looking after our people would be our number one priority. It’s so important that if we want to offer our Summiteers the very best in benefits and bonuses, we must continuously stay on top of the company’s financial health.
Tuesday
Tuesday is all about new business. We’re growing massively right now, onboarding two new clients in June, as well as growing the channel depth of our current accounts. This, of course, means lots of recruiting and welcoming new starters into the team in Hull. It’s an exciting time for Summit, so I spend time working with our sales director, Michael, to focus on how far along we are with new leads, who is close to conversion, what are the priorities, where do we need to focus our efforts and marketing spend.
Summit are experts in digital retail performance marketing. Over the last 25 years, we have helped many retails brands like Argos, H Samuel, Ann Summers and many more grow their digital businesses and improve their ROI. For me, it’s the perfect place for me to be. I’ve spent over 23 years of my career working for large retail businesses, so I like to be close to the detail when it comes to how we pitch ourselves to potential clients. I think it’s important to have senior members of our team who really understand the client’s objectives and have walked a mile in their shoes to be a part of the process right from the beginning.
Wednesday
Wednesday is a long travel day for me. It starts with a 5:20 am train to London from my home in Buckinghamshire, then catching the 7:20am train to Hull for a 10am board meeting – it always amazes people that Hull is only just over two hours away from the capital! Board meetings are a great opportunity to catch up with the team in person, as we’re quite geographically spread out, as well as celebrating the successes. It’s always a good discussion. I might be the first to challenge my colleagues, but I’m also the first to congratulate them on a job well done.
After this, I make sure that I spend the day with the wider team. We have a really approachable and open culture, so I like to make sure that I meet the new starters as soon as I can and get around the business meeting as many people as possible. We always try to finish a board meeting day with dinner and drinks, for team building purposes obviously! I tend to spend the night in Hull as it’s a long way back home. It also gives me another day in the office with the team.
Thursday
So, Thursday begins in Hull. I tend to walk back to the office as my usual hotel is right next to the Hull Marina, so it’s a pleasant start to the day. We’re really fortunate with our location – Summit moved to the C4DI campus about two years ago and we’re now surrounded by other amazing national and international digital businesses. It’s a really energetic place to work
My day is spent providing advice and guidance across lots of different projects with the client-facing teams, making sure all of the actions from Wednesday’s meeting are in progress and that the right support is in place to achieve our ambitious goals. We’re really focused on our culture and talent retention, so much so that we recently revamped our whole benefits package, including moving to compressed working hours and a nine-day fortnight which has been a massive boost to the team. We always employ people that we know will become great Summiteers – excellent in their field and good people to boot – so it’s a genuine pleasure to be in the office with them. It’s almost a shame to get the train home at the end of the day!
Friday
Friday is back at home and it’s back to working ‘on’ the business rather than ‘in’ it. While Martin is quite often in the thick of the client-side strategy, it’s my role to maintain the birds eye overview, so my day focuses on networking, client review calls and planning ahead for the next week.
No week really has a set schedule and our flexible and hybrid working culture means that I don’t have to work a 9-5 every day. I’m a morning person, which means that I quite often wake up at 4am and send a slew of emails (I don’t expect a response at that time, I’m not a monster!). That means that if the weather’s nice, I can take the time to go out for a lunchtime cycle. Both Martin and I find exercise a way of keeping the mind fresh and the body physically intact – he’s a runner though. Just taking this time out allows me to think about the business and I always arrive back feeling energised and positive, ready to tackle the next goal for Summit.
