Throughout his senior leadership career on both sides of the OEM-retailer divide, Jon Wakefield has been driven by two principles: delivering commercial results while continuously learning and developing.
Lynda Ennis: You’ve held senior leadership roles across OEMs and retail groups within the UK and Europe. Start by talking me through your career journey, and some of the pivotal points. What was your route into the automotive industry? What would you say have been the key factors to your success?
I made a conscious decision to join the automotive industry, which is different to many peers who seemed to “fall into it.”
When I left university, I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to do, but the automotive sector appealed because of its variety and the commercial growth opportunities it offered.
Its also a ‘relevant’ industry – people need transport and cars provide freedom.
I also found a company that really attracted me – Lex Service PLC. I liked it, not just because of its breadth of operations with retail and importer business units (and ‘new’ businesses like vehicle leasing), but because of the people I met there.
The person leading my recruitment, Debbie Howard (Hewitt), introduced me to a network of future colleagues who inspired me; I felt I could learn a lot from them.
That combination of deliberate choice and the right company was pivotal.
I was given the chance to gain experience in management accounting, even though I had no intention of becoming an accountant. I qualified as a CIMA member.
That role gave me a strong grounding in understanding how the bottom line is constructed, a focus on the balance sheet and how everyday business actions impact financial results across each of the departments in a retail business.
About a year after I joined, the economic collapse of 1989 meant that many middle management roles disappeared. I was kept on, and I was thrown into roles with responsibilities far beyond what I had expected as a graduate trainee.
I got involved in acquisitions of multiple dealerships and figuring out – along with some talented leaders – how to turn red ink into black at some dealerships.
It was a real “sink or swim” time. That experience taught me resilience, curiosity, the importance of detail and making educated and fast decisions. It was also a great opportunity to learn on the job by being fortunate to rub shoulders with great leaders.
There is no learning substitute to being ‘in the thick of it’…!
I’ve always tried to find roles that involved an element of challenge ever since. If you are not learning, you are not growing.
After six years in retail, I had the opportunity – and grabbed it – to move into an OEM role to broaden my perspective, which allowed me to explore sales, marketing, and network development.
Throughout my career, I’ve been clear about balancing two principles: delivering results in the commercial environment while continuously learning and developing.
Switching between retail and OEM roles was undoubtedly a great learning for me, though to be honest, I found the OEM environment a little slow after the retail world. But that’s OK – a chance to make a difference by being an effective ‘bridge’ between the two.
This bit is so often missed. Later on in my OEM career, I favoured people in my team with retail experience. A large part of what an NSC does is engage with, motivate and manage a dealer network. So to have worked in the sector and understand how it works is clearly an advantage.
That, and learning how to manage ‘the centre’ and fight for a business equation that works in the market. That’s where the NSC roles really call on your resilience, logical and commercial argumentation and confidence in your understanding of the market.
I’ve been highly structured about progression. For example, staying in a company for several years but taking on multiple roles to ensure I was both contributing and growing. In my early days I targeted a move every two years and to stay in a company for six. I would frequently ask myself – ‘what have I learned this week that I can use at my next interview’.
The key factors to my success, I would say, have been clarity of purpose, a willingness to embrace challenges, curiosity to learn across different areas of the business, and being deliberate and determined about career moves.
Progressing has sometimes required stepping outside comfort zones and taking on roles that were unfamiliar or demanding, but that combination of delivery and learning has been central to how I’ve developed across OEMs and retail groups.
I’ve always tried to learn new things beyond the role I’m currently in, and I think the best way to learn is to deliberately move yourself in a different role – get rich in experience!
Taking a sideways move for the same pay has never scared me, and that approach has served me well. It allows you to grow to the next level with a broader base of experience. To a degree, it’s not just about your own ability; it’s also about how your portfolio of experience compares to your peers.
Lynda Ennis: Reflecting on your experience, what are the differences between leadership within retail, luxury OEM’s (Porsche, Bentley) and some of the more volume brands (Volvo, FCA). How did that diversity of experience equip you for your more recent leadership roles?Would you recommend future leaders to seek out experience in different areas of the industry?
Yes! The industry offers so many areas in which to learn and grow. Seek them and try them!
With regards to leadership in different areas of the industry, I believe there are similarities.
There are certainly differences between the organisations I’ve led, but there are also strong commonalities in how you need to lead effectively.
For me, the common formula for a good leader across all businesses are: choose your team wisely – don’t surround yourself with people who only tell you “yes” – and create an environment where different opinions and skillsets can work constructively together.
Whether it’s been in a retail business, a national sales company, or a European operation, the ability to bring diverse mindsets together who can focus on the short term performance (a prerequisite – ‘you are only as good as last months results’, as I was advised early on) and make a long term plan for the business whilst creating an environment for a great team to flourish, is essential.
Whatever the business, you need to really understand what stakeholders – especially shareholders – are looking for, challenge them where appropriate, develop and communicate your plans clearly as the business evolves.
Leadership is also about really understanding your team – knowing what they need, what motivates them, and how they operate. Not everyone wants to grow, and not everyone thrives under the same management style. Some direct reports can be left to operate independently, while others require close attention and validation. You have to morph your approach person by person, rather than sector by sector.
My retail time, particularly, taught me the importance of immediacy and customer focus. Coming from a finance and retailer’s P&L background, I naturally understood the commercial impact of decisions at a granular level. That perspective has been invaluable across OEM and volume brand roles, where the customer-facing element is still central, even if the business model is more removed from day-to-day retail operations.
Ultimately, my experiences across different segments of the industry have shaped a leadership style that combines trust, coordination, and adaptability. I’ve learned to step back from the weeds while still understanding the detail and numbers, to facilitate and get the best out of my team, and to adjust my approach to the individual rather than trying to impose a one-size-fits-all model.
I would absolutely recommend future leaders gain experience across different areas of the automotive industry. It broadens your perspective, equips you with a deeper commercial understanding, and helps you develop the flexibility to lead effectively in any context. My finance background, in particular, has been a key enabler in navigating success across retail, luxury OEMs, and volume brands alike.
Lynda Ennis: When stepping into a CEO role those first few months are often the most critical. How did you prepare for the transition, and what advice would you give to leaders stepping into their first CEO role? What were some of your initial priorities?
Whether you’re promoted internally or joining externally, preparing for a CEO role requires a degree of detachment from what (and who) you already know and a readiness to re-evaluate the organisation from a fresh perspective. It can be quite isolated.
You have to be prepared not to take things at face value and to dig into the detail, often by working backward from the numbers. But also the team – ‘never compromise on your people’, was good mantra I adopted from one boss. Sounds harsh, but I don’t believe a CEO makes a difference in isolation. It’s the team they build that does.
One of the first priorities is identifying who your allies are – and who may not be – and harnessing collaboration with the right people.
Formulate a clear, evidence-based plan quickly. And act…
You can always iterate, but you need a plan and then you need to communicate it relentlessly – to shareholders, owners, banks if applicable, and most importantly, to your team.
Communication is critical, both formally and informally. Leadership is much about being present, being visible and engaged. This can stretch you as a leader, but you have to ensure you’re everywhere that matters without getting lost in the weeds. This needs empathy, organisational (political) awareness and planning. It can be quite personally demanding. But it’s essential.
In summary, the early months are about understanding, aligning, planning, selecting and communicating – and making sure you’re building the right foundation for sustainable leadership.
Lynda Ennis: Building on that, when you’ve had multiple opportunities to step into CEO roles, how have you gone about deciding which opportunity to pursue? Given that each organisation comes with its own unique challenges and stage of transformation, what factors do you consider before committing to lead a company?
I think it really comes back to my core principle of deliver and learn. The last retail business I ran was a family-owned company, and I’d never worked in a family business before.
While there are similarities across all businesses, this was a big personal challenge because there was a lot to address operationally and culturally.
As you progress in your career, your perspective evolves. Results are important, of course, but you become more conscious of the legacy you leave behind.
Being motivated by what I contribute and what endures beyond my tenure, taking on something which is personally challenging where you can apply your skillset to deliver meaningful change guides me towards the roles I choose.
Moving to Sweden was such a choice. That required adapting to a completely different culture, both in terms of business and everyday working practices.
The organisation was undergoing significant change, and the Swedish National Sales Company needed transformation. Going into a new organisation in that way, it was essential to listen, absorb, and really understand the cultural nuances.
Looking back, I wish I’d had the opportunity to take an international role earlier in my career. It was enlightening and extremely valuable – if you get the chance to do that early on, it’s something I would strongly recommend.
Lynda Ennis: During your tenure with Volvo you led major markets across the UK and Western Europe, how did these business environments vary? What have you found to be the key differences in leadership approach, culture, and customer expectations between those markets?
There are nuances not only between cultures but between individuals, and you have to be careful not to stereotype. That said, there are distinct patterns: in parts of mid-Europe like Germany or the Netherlands, people are generally quite direct – you won’t get far by being vague.
In Southern Europe, there’s often more emotion in the dialogue.
That’s where diplomacy becomes essential. And listening…
You find yourself almost playing the role of the League of Nations – balancing perspectives, diffusing misunderstandings, and helping people see that everyone’s coming from a different place but with the same goals.
I always felt the British were quite good at that – able to rationalise and find middle ground. As a leader, the point isn’t to criticise the differences between working approaches across cultures, but to understand them and to navigate through them in a way that gets the best out of everyone.
Lynda Ennis: Looking back on your career, what advice would you give to leaders stepping into senior roles today? What skills would you say are most important for leaders to possess? Do you feel leadership is changing, and if so, how?
Things have changed. But I think some of the principles that have guided me are still relevant – curiosity, for one. Recognise where things are happening and go find out.
Keep talking to lots of people. Networking is important – and I do sometimes wonder whether putting a few things out on LinkedIn is now perceived as networking. It’s not. You still need to go and ask someone for advice.
I’ve met some amazing leaders in my career, and when senior people have been willing to let me pick their brains over a coffee, I’ve always taken that opportunity.
Not just because it’s a good way of being visible, but because it’s a brilliant way to have your thought processes and perspectives challenged.
Lynda Ennis: You’ve mentioned that you’ve networked and worked with some very influential mentors and individuals throughout your career. Who have they been? Who’s had the biggest impact on you?
I’ve been very fortunate to have had a lot of influential mentors throughout my career. If I think back, someone like Debbie from Lex stands out immediately. Her intellectual capacity and strategic ability were both outstanding, but what really made an impression on me was her courage. She was never shy about putting good ideas forward in the boardroom, even when others might have hesitated. You’d sometimes think, “Should you really say that?” – but she did, and she did it with conviction. That bravery, combined with her remarkable ability to connect with people from all walks of life, taught me a great deal.
Over the years, I’ve learned how important it is to adapt your approach – whether you’re delivering a polished presentation to a board or explaining difficult news to a group of technicians in the workshop. Debbie modelled that balance of intellect, empathy, and courage brilliantly.
Beyond individuals, I’ve taken lessons from every stage of my career. My time at Lex was incredibly formative. The culture there was one of determined professionalism, control, and discipline – values that have stayed with me ever since. I’ve seen, particularly in retail, how businesses without those processes and structures tend to struggle, so that early grounding was invaluable.
At Porsche, there was also a strong focus on selling a vision – anchoring people emotionally, not just through data and logic. The leadership team there were masters at inspiring others through intelligent communication, always delivered with warmth and positivity.
Later, at MB Retail, I was fortunate again to work with some truly great leaders. The business sometimes gets criticised, but during my time there, I saw first-hand how much good came out of it. They genuinely changed the retail landscape – just look at Brooklands and the innovations that followed. The leaders I worked for there, Ewan and David, were exceptional communicators. They were completely transparent with the frontline team, sharing everything, warts and all, and that created a real sense of connection and trust. I was still relatively young then, in my early thirties and finding my way, but that experience of open communication and genuine inclusivity made a lasting impact.
At Volvo, I learned something different again – the power of a consultative leadership style. The people there led through listening, engaging, and collaboration rather than command and control. It reinforced for me that leadership isn’t about having all the answers; it’s about creating the conditions for others to thrive. Looking back, I’ve been incredibly lucky to have had access to, and sought out, advice from so many great leaders. Each one of them, in their own way, has shaped how I think and how I lead today.
