People are our greatest asset. It's in every agency pitch deck, printed in bold, framed on the wall by reception. This roundtable was about what it actually takes to mean it.
Three guests, three different agencies, three different sizes. Hilary Gray has kept culture structural through years of growth at Propeller Group, twice named a Sunday Times Best Place to Work. Emily Cousins started as employee number one at Realtime. and watched the business grow to nearly 90 people before its acquisition, tracking exactly where the culture starts to strain. Jana Garous has built teams across sectors and sees the same failure pattern everywhere: the moment a business starts treating people as a line item instead of an asset.
Culture Is a Policy, Not a Party
Hilary joined her agency 15 years ago, when culture largely meant organised drinking. What's changed isn't the fun, it's what sits underneath it.
"If you don't have policies that truly care about people, it doesn't matter how many team nights out you have, your people aren't going to be happy."
Propeller Group runs a hybrid policy of eight office days a month, deliberately built around flexibility rather than headcount presence for its own sake. One of the clearest examples came almost by accident: a post-Covid policy letting staff work from anywhere for a month evolved, once the team noticed who was and wasn't using it, into an official policy covering all school holidays. No client impact, real impact on people's lives. That's the test Hilary applies to every policy: does it cost the business anything real, and does it make someone's life meaningfully easier.
About Supo:
Supo provides people-first intelligence software for professional services firms, helping businesses maximize profit and motivate their people through powerful, AI-enabled business intelligence dashboards. By connecting over 500+ platforms and providing real-time data analysis, Supo helps firms make better data-driven decisions about their profit, projects, and people.
For more information about Supo: www.supo.co.uk
About Hilary Gray, Propeller Group:
Hilary Gray is Associate Director - Group Operations at Propeller Group, a global PR agency specialising in advertising, media and technology clients. She joined as one of five people in the PR team in 2010 and has grown with the agency to over 50, now responsible for people and processes across the group. Hilary also serves as Head of Marketing at Bloom UK, a professional network championing women in advertising and communications.
For more information about Propeller Group: https://www.propellergroup.com/
About Emily Cousins, Realtime.:
Emily Cousins is Senior Vice President of Operations at Realtime., a digital marketing agency she joined as employee number one and helped scale from a boutique social advertising startup to an 80-person global business, through to its acquisition by Pixis AI in 2024. She built the agency's operational infrastructure from the ground up, including profitability reporting, performance management and international expansion into New York, Denver and the Philippines.
For more information about Realtime.: https://realtimeagency.com/
About Jana Garous, DG Solutions:
Jana Garous led DG Solutions, an IT consultancy she built from close to the ground up into a £20 million business advising major UK firms in retail, finance and healthcare. Across nearly two decades she has founded multiple ventures spanning sustainability, digital education and technology consulting, and now serves as COO in Residence at Canopy Community, supporting founders and collaborating with Bayes Business School on programmes for emerging business leaders.
For more information about DG Solutions: https://www.dgsolutions.io/
