What Logan Roy Taught Me in HBO’s Succession

For my first blog of 2022, I thought it would be fitting to relate it to the trending American T.V series that I’ve been binge-watching over the holiday season, that is, HBO’s ‘Succession’. The season was recommended to me by our very own Chief Innovation Officer at Embryo, who, knowing my obsession with programmes similar to this (such as the Netflix hit series, Suits, where I admired the brilliant COO Donna Paulson) thought I would also take some inspiration from a variety of characters within the Waystar RoyCo organisation.

If you aren’t familiar with the 3 season series, it stars the tenacious Logan Roy, founder of the Waystar RoyCo family business. He is a father of four and an incredibly driven businessman, that I think we could all learn from.

I am currently nearly at the end of season two with one more season to go (so no spoilers), and here is what Logan Roy has taught me throughout the series so far…

Go After What You Want 

If there is one thing that’s clear, it’s that Logan Roy always goes after what he wants and stops at nothing until he gets it. If you don’t have any personal or professional goals set for 2022 yet, write them down and plan how to get there. Identify what is stopping you from achieving them and put all your distractions aside. Don’t just write them down and then leave them until the end of the year, make sure you’re reviewing them every month to ensure you’re on track. Think about what you could be doing in order to help you achieve what you want. Do you need to invest in any training courses, purchase any new books, or listen to any podcasts? If it’s a fitness goal, what are you doing about changing your lifestyle? You might need to be more organised with your week by prepping your meals every Sunday and being more active by taking a walk outside on your lunch break.

If you are aiming for your business to double in size, consider what measures you are putting in place to help you achieve that level of growth, you might consider focusing on your workforce planning strategy to ensure that your goals are aligned with the current skillset you have within the business. Alternatively, you may also want to invest in some additional digital marketing assistance in order to help you reach new customers. Our talented team members have written a variety of blogs providing an overview of their own specialties that we offer our clients at Embryo. You can also find an overview of these services here: PPC, Content marketing, Social Media Advertising, Digital PR,

Don’t Let Other People’s Opinion’s Get In Your Head 

I think this lesson is an important one, especially in a generation where we are growing up surrounded by the increasing presence of influencers on social media, it can become very easy to compare ourselves to others. But, not Logan Roy, he knows who he is and he doesn’t care about what anyone else thinks or says. This is something that I think everyone could be better at this year (to some extent). Ignore any negativity, and focus on the positives, don’t dwell on the things you cannot change/are out of your control, instead, think about the things you CAN do and simply be you and be it boldly. Logan Roy commands the room in every scene that he’s in, never being afraid to speak up (remember that next time you are in your board meeting).

Be Strategic 

Whether it is Logan or one of his equally competitive children fighting for a seat at the table, every member of the Roy family is always strategic with their decision-making. Before they have made any form of a move, they know exactly how, when, and why they’ve done it in order to get the result that they want. Having a strategy in place is important for every business, whether that’s your internal workplace planning strategy or the strategy you are creating for your clients within the service that you’re providing. We have recently welcomed an entirely new strategy team in order to ensure that our departments are collaborating effectively when delivering campaigns. This will ultimately help our clients achieve their desired results from their marketing campaigns in order to help them achieve their overall business goals.

Be Assertive, Relentless & Passionate 

In order to be successful within business, you have to be prepared for a lot of ups and downs in the journey so you cannot let the fear of failure prevent you from progressing (easier said than done I know). This takes resilience, which is defined as having the ability to recover quickly after experiencing something unpleasant. Combine this with being assertive and passionate about what you do and I think you will learn a great deal throughout the journey whether you reach your ideal level of success or not. It is important to think about anything we do in life as a learning experience, this way you aren’t placing too much worry or concern on the outcome, you are simply grateful for the things you have learnt along the way and can .therefore, reflect and do things differently each time. In every episode of Succession, Logan Roy demonstrates incredible resilience after the many take over attempts by his children on top of multiple health scares he experiences, and despite all of this he continues to move forward with the passion for his company stronger than ever.

I recently asked our SEO team to look into the search volume for the keyword ‘Succession’ and interestingly we can see that the term has been searched 165,000 times since the series launch in 2018.

So, whether you’re a Succession fan aspiring to be the next Logan Roy or would like to hear more about the services that we offer, then contact our team today and we will be happy to help support your business growth with our digital marketing expertise.