Retina

It should be no surprise that a once-in-a-century global pandemic has tested the world’s strength and resolve like no other challenge in decades. Business models have transformed. Supply chains have stretched. Social and political discourse has radically intensified. Most obviously, the physical health of virtually every person and, as critically, our mental and emotional well being have been pushed to our limits.

Among the many learnings through the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, resilience has proven to be the difference maker for successful organizations and their leaders. Those who’ve had it have thrived; those who haven’t…haven’t. It’s a lesson well learned and realized by Ted Kohnen, the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner of Retina, a fast-rising global marketing and technology company that has increased the resilience and delivered record results for enterprises and SMBs alike. In the process, Kohnen has led Retina to exponential growth and industry acclaim.

In an exclusive interview with Industry Wired, Kohnen speaks about his success, inspirations, challenges, and responsibilities in the company.

Maintaining an upward trajectory in a downturn

Founded over a decade ago by Silicon Valley business leaders, engineers, and marketers, Retina is driven by a single minded-vision: the opportunities that businesses need to capture today and expect to capture tomorrow are realized through the seamless connection of strategy, creative, and technology.

Retina works with Fortune 500 and growth-stage innovators alike, including Facebook, Thermo Fisher Scientific, ING, Bank of Montreal, Audi, eXp World Holdings, Esquire Bank, The US Department of State and others. And the company operates from strategic locations around the globe in San Francisco, New York, Toronto, Glasgow, Vienna, Madrid, and Bucharest.

Kohnen became Retina’s CEO three months before the COVID-19 pandemic fully took hold. He recalls, “January 1, I assumed the role. Early February, the virus landed in the States. In March, we locked down. This was obviously a test of all CEOs, from all companies with all sorts of background, let alone for a new chief executive.”

As a 20-year marketing and advertising agency veteran with broad experience helping global enterprises, multi-nationals, and non-profits activate their brands, Kohnen, was well suited to meet the challenges head on.

“I’ve been shaped largely by a diversity of experiences. Growing up and starting my career in New York City, I was exposed to many different kinds of people and businesses, from many different vantage points,” Kohnen reflects. “Global and local. For-profit and non-profit. Technology and professional services. Agency and client side. I like to think I took the best from the teammates and leaders I’ve encountered along the way on how to manage people, how to prepare for growth, how to think multi-dimensionally.”

Kohnen adds, “I also think I learned tremendous lessons working for national non-profit organizations, where everything runs lean. It’s typically always ‘all hands on deck,’ and there’s so much competition for attention and donations. Working in such an environment really sharpens your skills to get right to what’s most essential to communicate – and teaches you how to maximize every resource at your disposal.”

Kohnen’s experience fueled his approach and priorities as he took the reins at Retina. He vigilantly pursued growth, yielding Retina’s most successful year in 2020, increasing year-over-year billings nearly 70%, growing profits 4x, and increasing headcount by 59% globally.Secondly, he focused on the culture of the agency, ensuring its people have professional development plans, a physical and mental health opportunities, and an environment to do their best work.

“You need to see businesses and people through different lenses,” Kohnen observes. “I also think CEOs need to be highly visible and transparent. Especially during COVID, I knew if I communicated, and did so frequently, with a calm and positive tone, our people had a little less anxiety. Along those lines, I think CEOs need to open up. For example, employees should see that CEOs are parents, too, that face similar challenges and resource constraints that everyone faces.”

Along with Retina's Founding Partner Silvian Centiu; Chief Operations Officer Simona Nan, and Chief Technology Officer Dragos Andrei, the company was transparent with their global staff and supported them through all means such as virtual town halls, real-time Q&As, and weekly support videos. Kohnen walked his talk through the pandemic, working closely with company leadership to be transparent with global staff and supporting them through virtual town halls, weekly support videos, and real-time Q&As.

As a result, Kohnen proudly states, “At Retina, we’ve had no furloughs, and we didn’t reduce salaries. We also provided resources for self-care and mental health, and we rolled out new agency values to guide our actions.”

What’s more, the company enjoyed its greatest industry recognitions, being named an ‘Agency of the Year’ three times in twelve months, including recognition as the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) 2020 Agency of the Year, The Drum's 2020 Martech Agency of the Year, and B2B Marketing magazine’s 2021 Agency of the Year in the United States.

Digital builds resilience…physical fitness, too

If organizations did not have a digital transformation strategy prior to the pandemic, they do now. The nature of remote, distributed and hybrid work has forced leaders to determine which digital platforms best fit their people and processes, and Kohnen sees his role and that of his Retina colleagues as critical to supporting others in their quests for building digital-first resilience for this pandemic and for future black swan-like events.

“At Retina, where expert teams specify, design, and deploy big data, AI, and robotics solutions on behalf of our clients, our roles as informed consultants are even more critical. We are relied upon to separate the buzzwords from the business imperatives. We are responsible for educating clients on how different disruptive technologies can dramatically improve productivity, efficiency, scalability, marketing, and business performance, and also to say when certain technology may not be a good investment.”

He adds, “We need to be able to not only recognize a challenge, but bring the strategic mindset to address it head on. Because we work across a diverse set of industries, innovation comes from identifying common blockers – to scale, to actionable data, to people – and finding actionable solutions, connecting the dots for clients in ways that ultimately connect their brands and businesses with their most important stakeholders.”

Kohnen also notes the need for building personal resilience for all leaders, citing the human toll of leadership for CEOs and senior executives. “It isn’t easy,” he says.“At the CEO level, I’ve come to realize that this job is as much physical as it is mental. It’s a real holistic life change that requires that you continually think about how you maintain your strength and energy, from how you sleep to what you eat and drink –and how you manage stress and decompress.”

“I believe every leader needs to possess high levels of empathy, transparency and grit.”

Leadership Advice for The Road Ahead

“I see a further break down of geographic borders“Kohnen predicts, when asked about his outlook on the future and the lasting impact of the past year. “When it comes to where people work and/or the customer they work with, geography is less and less of a barrier or even a topic of concern.”

That said, Kohnen doesn’t see less travel as a sign of leaders standing still. Much the opposite, Ted sees speed, agility and tenacity as more critical character traits of a leader than ever. He states, “CEO is a great title, but I think ‘Chief of Hustle’ is more apt. It’s always about hustling – which is where the energy and stamina comes in – whether you’re pitching new business, structuring financial growth models, recruiting top talent, or just making sure the office wireless bill got paid on time.”

The old adage of going fast alone but farther together rings true for Kohnen. “You can’t do it all yourself,” he stresses.“You need to surround yourself with quality people. Lots of leaders say it; but they say it because it’s true.” Along with Partners, Centiu, Nan and Andrei, Ted is joined by Partners Michael Ruby (Chief Creative Officer), Lynn Kozak (Managing Partner, Canada) and Fabian Moldoveanu (Director of Digital Transformation).

Lastly, Ted concludes by stating to remember the bad things that happen along the way. “Learn from your failures. It’s the hardest thing to do to relive a loss, but it’s the most important thing you can do. The losses are better learning opportunities than the wins”.