Dick Stone - Maintaining momentum and navigating change in national radio

Nottingham Business School Business Leaders

Broadcaster Dick Stone started his career as a teenager playing music on local hospital radio in Derby.

Two decades later he was running the Smooth Radio stations that broadcast to 10 million listeners nationwide.

Now – having taken on managing editor and group editor roles across both the Global and Capital national radio networks – he is in a perfect position to offer leadership advice.

“I’m just glad I did something I loved,” he tells Nottingham Business School’s Business Leaders Podcast.

“Radio and media have always been a great passion of mine. I’m so glad I do something I enjoy.”

His love of broadcasting has helped Dick through the pressures and leadership challenges of helping set up 15 different radio stations, over the years – and closing another nine.

Dick points out to Visiting Honorary Professor Mike Sassi that managing costs and making redundancies are always among the most difficult part of a leader’s role.

He says: “I remember at one point having to have difficult conversations with 21 different people in a single day.

“It was a tough day. But you just try to do it with compassion and understanding… and treat people as you would hope to be treated.”

Dick has spent most of his career directing programming across national radio networks.

He believes his success as a leader has been built around his ability to plan.

“The best leaders are always in a permanent state of readiness,” he says.

“Your job as a leader is to think of the next thing that is going to happen and be ready so you can thrive and survive.

“[For example] you should always hire people who are better than you because you will learn from them – and they will propel you into a far better position.

“But because they are good, they will leave… so I have always been fastidious in trying to work out a succession plan.

“The job of a leader is to think about the future plan.”

And Dick’s advice for future leaders, starting out in their careers today?

“Do something scary,” he says. “If you get an opportunity… grab it. You’ll find out things about yourself.

“And you’ll do things that you didn’t think were possible.”