Stepping back from running your business day-to-day can be as tricky as starting it. We hear from agency founders at different stages of handing over the reins.
Few New Zealand agencies have been around for 50 years, but Insight Creative celebrates that milestone this year with its founder still involved.
Mike Tisdall launched the strategy and design agency at the age of 23 back in 1976, and he still works two days a week as a corporate communications strategist. He says he started to think about succession planning at around the turn of the century.
“Otherwise, this was going to be another situation of a small creative business run by an old man who slowly and gradually year by year loses relevance.”
He found that successor in Steven Giannoulis, a former client who joined Insight Creative in 2011 and took over as CEO in 2014. Giannoulis is now managing director.
He says: “It was a business owned by the staff, and we wanted to keep that structure. We didn’t want to be owned by someone in France or Japan, where everything we do is about the return on investment.”
‘Named after a real person’
Deborah Pead, founder of PR agency Pead, launched the business from her kitchen table in 2000. She started her succession planning process in 2018 after international agencies started knocking on the door.
“I was very mindful that they weren’t interested in Pead to grow us,” she says. “They wanted to catch us and kill us and absorb us into their agencies.”
She went to Deloitte to get a valuation, as well as a structure to enable partners to buy into the business. She has since been joined by five partners with a range of skillsets.
Pead remains as chair and still works in the business, specialising in crisis communications (and “long lunches”). She had an amusing experience recently when a client hadn’t even heard of her.
“One of Louisa [Kraitzick]’s clients said, ‘Oh, I saw something written by a Deborah Pead… So is she involved in this business?’ And Louisa said, ‘Actually Pead is named after a real person.’”
A coaching role
Fellow PR agency One Plus One Communications has also become bigger than its founder.
In its first decade (2013-2022), 80% of its client acquisition came through founder and managing director Kelly Bennett, but this had dropped to only 11% in 2025.
Bennett has also brought on board two new shareholders in One Plus One: general manager Max Burt and partner Liz Holt.
“If you divest down as a founder, you can share the load and responsibility,” says Bennett. “My focus now is not necessarily time spent at the crease, it’s selecting the team and it’s more a coaching and advisory contribution.”
However, he says he hasn’t started thinking about “putting the bails down” just yet.
“I’ve told the team I will review again in four years, when I’m 60. I’m just super focused on growing our business. I feel so fortunate that the professional part of my life has so much potential even after 13 years.”
This story comes from NZ Marketing magazine issue 87, June-August 2026. Why not subscribe? Get four issues a year for just $50 (including delivery) if you autorenew.
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