Former professional footballer David Duke co-founded Relo with Richard Knowles. He spent more than a decade in digital marketing, specialising in e-commerce, before his interest in fitness and nutrition led to the creation of Relo, which specialises in nutritious convenience food.
What was your first job (and how much did it pay)? My first job was as a first year pro at Sunderland in 1997. £250/week felt like a lot back then while still living at home.
What is the best advice or support you’ve been given in business? The best people manager I had the good fortune of working under was Roy Evans. He had the gift of managing each member of the team on a personable level with kindness and respect. The appearance of a flat structure which provided autonomy and confidence to challenge.
Then later in my career, working as a Google Premier partner, we were taught a coaching management style. Google defines a great coach as providing timely and necessary feedback, and delivering feedback in a motivational and thoughtful way. Tailoring approaches to meet individual communication styles in regular one-on-one meetings, and displaying that you genuinely care and want to support.
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What are the main changes you’ve seen in your business/sector, and what are the challenges you’re facing? The challenge is a very competitive market and an ever-evolving market landscape. For example the diluted impact of paid digital marketing in favour of a newly-formed and influential influencer marketing landscape has impacted the landscape significantly.
What would your dream job be? I have a great passion for winter sports, so I've frequently thought about the idea of being a ski instructor. Although I haven't quite made it outside of the thinking stage as yet.
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What advice would you give to someone starting out a career in your sector? Spend the early informative years getting your "hands dirty" in as many of the key areas that deliver impact. Media content creation, digital marketing and so on ensuring you build a breadth of business awareness and skills.
What makes the North East a good place to do business? The North East can feel like a village, and the benefit of that is that it makes it possible to create a great network of very useful people and resources. Of course the North East people are great to work with too and that makes a huge difference.
How important is it for business to play a role in society? Business provide services to the community and help create healthy competition, which helps elevate the standard of product or service delivered by the businesses. There is also its scope for providing great career opportunities and routes for young people into industry and professions.
Outside of work, what are you really good at? Not so much good at… but my passions outside work are definitely CrossFit and skiing. With skiing being the activity/holiday that really gets the juices flowing and contributes to a healthy work life balance.
Who would play you in a film about your life? Any grey haired low budget Scottish actor!
Which three people would you invite to a dinner party, and why? Eddie Howe: to pick his brains about people management and club culture. Frankie Boyle: to bring the laughs. And Ross Edgley: for him to download the stories of his challenges first hand.