Five career lessons from the BBC’s Director of Transformation

It’s all change at the BBC, with new Director General Matt Brittin (former President, Google EMEA) recently taking the helm.

There to help the broadcaster navigate through the choppy media waters that lie ahead is Eddy Datubo FAPM, the BBC’s Director of Transformation (and 2026 APM Project Management Conference keynote speaker). Read Datubo’s Big Interview with Project journal in the spring 2026 issue, where he talks about dealing with change at the Beeb and gives his advice on getting ahead.

“Projects succeed when leaders add value through clarity, coherence and collaboration,” he says, “not noise, control or ego. Projects don’t succeed just because we manage tasks well; they succeed because we lead change well.”

Wise words indeed. Here’s some more of his top advice on leading projects well:

Lead with your head, heart and hands. The best leaders balance analytical skills (head), emotional intelligence (heart) and practical experience (hands). Projects succeed when leadership is multidimensional.
Stakeholders determine outcomes. Projects succeed or fail largely through people, not plans. Understand interests, listen deeply and engage continuously.
Guard scope relentlessly. Unprotected scope erodes and kills value. Clarity on what is out of scope is as powerful as clarity on what is within it. Projects succeed not by doing more, but by doing what is required well.
Surface risk early. Early visibility creates options; late visibility creates blame and consequences. Bad news received early is a gift. Create an environment where people are never afraid to speak up.
Build the right team. Excellence comes from trust, clarity and accountability. You are only as good as the team you have.

More career advice

Prior to joining the BBC, Datubo was Head of Strategy and Transformation for Neptune Energy (which was later acquired by Eni) and had also held senior leadership roles across Tullow Oil, BP, Lloyds Banking Group and Reuters. He straddles the worlds of project management, change and strategy.

“To the core, I’m a project manager, but I have built skills along the way that enhance me as a business professional,” he says.

Five years into his career, Datubo took a year out to study for an MBA.

“Project management is a discipline that can get you far up the ladder, but build other skills that take you into different areas. Don’t be afraid to take a sideways move that gives you broad exposure,” he advises

Simplicity and clarity

Datubo explains that he once worked under a CEO who was a fan of ‘radical simplification’.

“You make it so simple that it feels uncomfortable,” he says, because people start thinking that it’s all “too elementary”. Once you have simplicity, clarity emerges, which then builds success. “Clarity is key to everything I do,” he says.

Everyone in a team needs to be given the confidence to speak up, he says: “That’s critical for anyone leading project change and transformation.”

But how do you do this in real life? “As a leader, you have to listen, and you have to create environments that are inclusive, where people feel safe to speak up,” he explains.

One of the first things Datubo learned as a project manager was that projects go wrong. Giving bad news isn’t a problem in itself, he says, but it becomes an issue when it isn’t given early enough that it can be reacted to.

Advice on dealing with bad news

“The worst thing to happen on any project is to give people bad news when they are not able to do anything about it. Escalate early; don’t wait for the crisis to erupt or the issue to blow up. Projects are reported as either red, amber or green, and some people see red as this big flag, but it’s not a stick to hit people over the head with. Red is saying a project needs help. It says: can you give me some attention? It’s not about blame. The focus should be on what needs to be done to bring it back on track.”

He shares a truth he has learnt about successful professionals: “For project managers, one of the things we say is: let’s understand the real issues. Let’s find a way to communicate those. And you must always be able to share that with people.”