July 23, 2025
By Annabel Hooton
We welcomed HR leaders from across sectors to our latest dinner event at 20 Stories in Manchester, centred on a timely and relevant theme: how to lead with purpose, clarity, and compassion through complex, business-critical transformation.
Our featured speakers were Robyn Richards, People Director, and Steve Nolan, Chief Information Officer at The Very Group. Together, they shared their lived experience of delivering a major multi-year change journey within their organisation – aligning commercial and people strategies, embracing new models of work, and maintaining a strong values-led culture in the face of change.
Aligning People and Business Strategy
The transformation at The Very Group began with a newly defined five-year business plan and customer proposition, underpinned by clear strategic priorities and OKRs. With a clear investment roadmap across tech and operations, Robyn shared how the people strategy had to evolve in lockstep. The challenge? Keeping colleagues engaged, high-performing, and connected to purpose during a period of shifting roles, new capabilities, and evolving ways of working.
Robyn emphasised the need to bring the organisation with you by connecting colleagues to customers and community, showcasing the strengths of the internal culture, and aligning teams to a shared sense of goals and values. In parallel, talent development and retention became even more critical as the business moved through key moments of transformation.
Transitioning to a Flexible Resourcing Model
Steve Nolan spoke about the evolution of the technology team. Following three years of rapid tech growth post-COVID, and in response to a changing market and ecommerce landscape, the business needed to rethink its model for delivering both efficiency and capability. The transformation happened over two core phases, starting with the identification of areas within the tech function that could reshaped, which led to a structural split into two key domains - Service Operations and Information Security - that run concurrently. One major outcome of this was the decision to move to a flexible resourcing model by outsourcing via TUPE, which also created the opportunity to leverage their resource partner for a broader range of tech functions, providing greater flexibility while helping to manage costs.
This shift wasn’t just operational; it had deep cultural implications. Steve reflected on the challenges of changing expectations within the business, balancing resource needs with strategic priorities, and managing the cultural identity of the tech community throughout the process. Success, he noted, came down to a few critical ingredients: strong communication, aligned expectations from the executive team, and working hand-in-hand with a trusted people partner.
Creating Conditions for Change to Succeed
Across both perspectives, one theme remained constant: transformation is not just about changing structures, systems or processes. It’s about mindset, trust, and creating the conditions for people to thrive during uncertainty.
Robyn and Steve both highlighted the importance of:
- Clear and honest communication throughout the change journey
- Consistently linking people strategy to commercial priorities
- Role modelling values and behaviours at every level of the business
- Taking a people-first approach, even when making difficult decisions
Whether leading tech or people functions, transformation at scale only works when it’s built on shared ownership, transparency, and a culture that supports innovation and resilience.
A big thank you to Robyn, Steve, and all our guests for making it such a dynamic, thoughtful and energising evening.