Running two CEO roles with analogue productivity systems

Executive overview

Managing two CEO roles simultaneously — a global FMCG division and a direct-to-consumer tea brand — demands a rigorous personal operating system. Nicky Sparshott runs her working life on a layered planning structure anchored by Post-it notes, time-blocked calendars, and protected deep work.

Her core method: translate a three-year strategy into quarterly priorities, then cascade those into monthly, weekly, and daily to-do lists crossed off by hand.

The highest-leverage move is protecting time to think, not just time to act.

Quarterly and annual planning

• Three-year strategy is a one-page document — the "strategic compass" covering why, what, and how
• Annual plan converts the strategy into a 12-month picture of what good looks like
• Quarterly priorities answer: what 20% of effort delivers 80% of value over the next 12 weeks?
• Quarterly goals include hard financial targets the whole organisation rallies around
• At month-end, pull tasks off the backlog into an active monthly to-do list
• On Sunday nights, map the week ahead and allocate time across priorities

Daily rituals

• Alarm at 4:45am — early mornings are the only time for uninterrupted personal time
• Exercise every second day (gym or long walk); if not done in the morning, it won't happen
• After exercise: make tea, write the day's to-do list on a Post-it, stick it to the front of the journal
• Writing things down physically locks them into memory
• Evening ritual: protected family dinner — 20 minutes at breakfast and 40 minutes at dinner, regardless of later work commitments

Deep work blocks

• Four hours per week carved out with no meetings and no calls — coded yellow in the calendar
• Purpose: strategy, people, culture, new opportunities — anything requiring uninterrupted thought
• Shifting between 30,000-foot aerial view and deep-in-the-weeds detail is a core leadership skill
• Deep work is also used for "dial a friend" calls with people in other companies or industries
• Sitting with a difficult email rather than reacting instantly produces a better response nine times out of ten
• Buffer time also blocked in orange daily where possible — flagged "do not book meetings"

Managing two CEO roles

• Two businesses with opposite models create natural "outside-in perspective" between them
• Best practice and early warnings transfer across businesses in both directions
• Talent and capability differences between the two organisations are an asset, not a friction
• Having distinct priorities per business prevents one from crowding out the other

Network and reverse mentoring

• Treat network as a resource abundance problem, not a scarcity problem — share generously and others reciprocate
• Diversity of perspective in the network matters more than seniority or industry proximity
• When demand on time exceeds capacity: say yes with constraints — "yes, but in six months" or "yes, but only 20 minutes"
• Reverse mentoring: meet a team member monthly for one hour on a topic they know better (e.g. e-commerce, digital)
• Trades work both ways — the junior mentor gets coaching on strategy or financial acumen in return
• Goal is not to become an expert but to ask the right questions

Unilever's four-day week trial (New Zealand)

• Premise: 100% salary, 80% of time, 100% of output — unlock the missing 20% by removing waste
• Chosen because New Zealand is large enough to be meaningful but small enough to run as a 12-month test
• University of Technology partnered as an independent assessor
• Main unlocks teams pursued: meeting discipline, process simplification, project prioritisation
• The risk to avoid: squeezing five days of work into four days rather than genuinely eliminating work
• External stakeholders (customers, suppliers, global colleagues) should feel no degradation in service
• Leadership must visibly stop things first to give others permission to do the same
• Do not replace killed projects immediately — resist the instinct to fill the gap

Career and leadership principles

• Think of career as a rock-climbing wall, not a corporate ladder — lateral and backward moves add tools to the toolkit
• Conviction matters: be clear on where business can be a force for good and let that guide decisions
• Best career advice received: "When you're skating on thin ice, you may as well tap dance" — lean into discomfort
• Asking for help is a leadership quality, not a weakness
• Holding things lightly — not taking yourself too seriously — is essential for sustainable high performance
• End every town hall with a "song of the week" to mark the mood; the annual Spotify playlist becomes the year's emotional record