Mike Hale: How did you first come to work in optics?
Jill Mclellan: Following a hugely valuable stint in premium retail, I entered into the world of optics via a lucky introduction to Roger Pope and the late Peter Wood. I was immediately immersed into the industry, where my passions and career have been rooted ever since. It’s sometimes hard to believe that was almost 25 years ago now!
MH: What has been your career pathway since joining Nikon in 2004?
JM: My welcome into the Nikon family was as an account manager for the London area. At the time it was the leading territory for Nikon and I remember being wholly captivated by how forward-thinking the opticians were – they were willing to try new things and were creating innovative best practices in optical retail.
I quickly realised there were opportunities for Nikon across the rest of the UK, and at this point my role was extended to national business development manager, thanks to the support of Antoine Amiel (then managing director of Nikon Optical UK). From here the community of Nikon partners and the team began to grow, and I enjoyed supporting and protecting the vision of practices to strengthen their position on the high street.
Over the past 15 years, I have held the positions of sales director and commercial director, with a career that has developed alongside an ambitiously persevering independent market.
It brings me great pride when I step back and realise that the new era of entrepreneurs and business owners are the same individuals who once worked for those businesses.
It’s this level of evolution that inspires me to work even harder and drives me to continue leading change in innovation and service beyond expectation and possibility.
MH: What does it mean to you to be the first woman to achieve the managing director post at Nikon Optical
UK?
JM: First, I would like to talk about what it means to be the managing director of Nikon Optical UK – a company which is long-term thinking and encourages a freedom for each individual to bring their own ideas to life. The opportunity to grow to this position from within the UK organisation reflects just how progressive thinking Nikon is.
Although I will choose not to wear a badge of honour as the first female managing director to take the post in 2021, I only hope that I can act as a role model for other women. Since taking the position I have had many people reach out from the industry, highlighting how this represents a significant shift in leadership culture. It is my ambition to see women in senior leadership roles normalised and I’d feel a great sense of pride if my position can contribute to that change.
We are extremely fortunate that our Nikon presidents, past and present, are great listeners and believe in nurturing the potential of both men and women. In the UK optics industry overall, the retail side of our industry sees so many professional women holding key strategic positions, but the supplier side of optics has been much more male-led for a long time – something which has often intrigued me and that I still believe needs to change.
The ongoing fight for equality cannot be about empowering women only though, but should also be about inspiring men to work in close union with women, while addressing the unconscious bias from both sides.
MH: What have been your priorities for the first nine months in the role?
JM: I have always been a strong believer that we are only as successful as the team we serve, therefore it was important for me to firstly develop and build a strong and diverse executive team.
Clinton Fraser joined us as operations director at the beginning of this year. His experience is invaluable in maintaining our best-in-class service while developing innovation and expertise that will only elevate our UK manufacturing service further. Since Clinton joined, we have launched our 24-hour service.
A few months into the role I wholeheartedly welcomed Isabelle Abrieux back to the UK, as our commercial director. Isabelle shares our passion for the UK market and has returned to us from an overseas assignment within the Middle-East, India and Turkey – an emerging business region for Nikon. With her strategic approach and global experience she will continue to build a truly differentiated and premium market.
I am committed to human growth and inclusion, and this has and will continue to remain one of my highest priorities for the business throughout my appointment. It is with a learning spirit that I believe we can diversify our opinions and perspectives to foster new thinking, and I will continually invite those around me to challenge their own input too, by continuing to engage in the opportunities.
At Nikon, we invest in our people as much as we invest in our market and industry. For this reason we never take it for granted that a high number of our employees have now been with the company for over 10 years.
As much as we are always igniting the true Nikon spirit in our teams, we are now ready to lead this light into our loyal independent partners too.
MH: How do you see Nikon’s partnership with independent practices evolving under your directorship?
JM: The growth of independent practices and the evolution of premium eye care has always been our highest focus. We are working hard to deliver the product, support and service that make it easier for our customers to concentrate on vision care and their patients.
We are customer-centric at Nikon, believing that we are simply an extension of our partner’s teams. Many of our team members have backgrounds in retail optics themselves and they are passionate about delivering excellence at every touchpoint of the customer journey.
We believe in sharing our innovations, whether that is our products and their cutting-edge technologies, our unique development portal MyLearning, or opening support from our trusted experts and professionals. The sustained development of employees within independent practices through a growth of skills and a boost in confidence is helping independents to retain the talent they need to deliver the expert experiences that they so naturally provide.
Communication is the vital ingredient for success and therefore we provide our partners with relevant and extensive marketing support, allowing them to be visible and differentiated within their market.
For us, the premium independents sector truly shines and deserves to thrive, which is why we are proud to
be launching our partner programme next year as a testament to our shared commitment.
MH: Do Nikon have plans for any more in-person events after a recent autumn business conference?
JM: The feedback from our business conference was humbling. Our customers never fail to inspire me and it is always an honour to bring them together and introduce them to the support we can offer beyond that of a typical lens supplier. We will be back in the second half of next year with another conference. We will look forward to sharing details on this much nearer to the time, however, you can be sure it will be a completely different experience as at Nikon we are constantly reinventing the wheel.
We listen to our partners’ needs and look outside the industry to ensure our events lead the roadmap into the months and years ahead. We are always trying to challenge best practices and redefine existing business models, which is why we are now working with proven experts to host a series of mini-events in 2022.
We are also exhibiting at 100% Optical next year, where we are looking forward to welcoming everyone to our stand. We will be unveiling just some of the details that drive us from the ordinary to the extraordinary, and in true Nikon style we are particularly excited to host our partners in an aspirational space while extending warmth to new faces.
At Nikon we have built a reputation for hosting fantastic and exclusive events during 100% Optical and next year we will not disappoint.
MH: How does Nikon UK function within the wider company?
JM: Japan is very much our home and it is where we honour a close relationship with our R&D team who are leading the global markets in cutting-edge innovations. Our UK lab works closely with R&D and holds claim to manufacturing the world’s first lenses for Ultimate, SeeCoat Drive, and recently our eLife Pro series.
Nikon Optical UK benefits from the experience and eye care excellence practised across the globe. We work closely together with other subsidiaries in a very collaborative way and a respectful Japanese culture shines through.
MH: Is there anything you can share as to Nikon’s plans product-wise?
JM: I can share our excitement of our new Sports Optics product category which will be launching next year – so keep your eyes peeled for more about this over the next few months.
We do have other exciting plans across the year, but these will be revealed later. True breakthrough innovations are developed over time and our global Nikon R&D team are continually breaking new glass ceilings while supporting us to lead and remain at the forefront of the market. While I cannot share any more details with you at this time, what
I will say is Nikon will be continuing to be the pioneers in optics for years to come.