Building Better Cultures

Throughout his career, Eric has worked in tech roles both in startups and in large multinationals. He has worked for brands including TomTom, Gilt Groupe and, most recently, Zalando, the German online fashion retailer. In Zalando, Eric, along with his 500-strong tech team, is responsible for tech infrastructure and systems across the business.

As someone who started his career with little respect for 'management', Eric is now an advocate of strong, human leadership.

Show Notes:

1.25 – Eric talking about Montana, the SIMMS, respect for management and GILT Group – 4.10 – Moving from being a specialist to being a leader – 4.33 – In tech start-ups, profitability and delivery is key but leadership's critical– 6.08 – Great leaders are human, great at simplifying and communicating – 9.18 – 'Junior leaders need to have basic comms skills – 10.14 – Zalando's Tech Constitution – rethinking how individuals, teams and the company should behave – 12.14 – Creating a culture where its OK to say 'you're wrong', Ford's Pinto and Intel's repositioning – 15.55 – Creating cultures and environments where you fail and learn – 16.40 - It's important to take the right risks in order to grow – 18.10 – when failure does happen they're asked to teach others how to ensure it doesn't happen again - 19.10 – being comfortable sharing stories of success and failure to make the company better – 20.25 – Leader's role is to help bring their people through their change curves - 22.30 – communicate, communicate, communicate during change – 23.15 – Finding early adopters who can support the team – 24.28 – successful change can bring people together – 25.20 – Eric's leadership role models, learning, humour and psychological safety – 29.05 – Respect leadership sooner but don't get into it sooner! Learn 'just in case' not 'just in time'.

Michael started his marketing career in the US working with brands like GE, Harley Davidson, American Airlines and FAO Schwarz. He founded Dialogue Group in 1990 and, 12 months ago, with a renewed focus on his customer experience roots, transitioned Dialogue into The CX Company. The CX Company runs an annual customer experience survey and works with Irish-based companies to improve their own levels of customer service.

For more - and to download their CX reports - go to www.thecxcompany.com.

Show Notes:

1.45 – Michael's career, GE, Harley-Davison and FAO Schwartz – 2.16 – Dialogue and the evolution into customer experience (CX) – 3.50 – 2017 results and what differentiates top from the bottom – 7.10 – The role of leaders in building CX culture (the CEO is key!) – 8.20 – 'The customer is #1' – a disconnect in organisations – 9.40 – Biggest blocker to excellent CX is politics – 12.40 - Geoff Bezos and the 'customer' chair in the boardroom – 13.30 – Richard Branson's 'staff first, not the customer' – 19.10 - Really great companies hire people who give a damn! – 20.14 – Zappos Culture School – 20.30 – The impact of poor customer experience – 22.55 – Customer experience vs customer service – 24.50 – Customer expectation dictates customer experience – 25.55 – High expectations of a consistent CX – 27.10 – Involving your people is central to CX culture – 29.57 – The impact of emotion – 32.30 – Leading with respect and being brave.

Feargal Quinn founded the Superquinn supermarket chain in Ireland and has spent his life championing customer service.

He was an Irish Senator, worked in television and has written a number of internationally published books. His 1992 book 'Crowning the Customer' has sold more than 50,000 copies and been translated into French, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Arabic, and a host of other languages.

Show Notes:

1.10 - Red Island and the start of a customer service journey – 3.37 - Keep them coming back, the Boomerang Principle - 4.30 - Self-service supermarkets and basket 'theft' – 7.00 – The Dundalk Cornflake War - 10.20 - People, service culture an having fun – 11.40 – An elephant in Sutton – 12.50 – hiring for attitude, not experience - 16.52 - The power of words, 'support office' and 'colleagues' - 18.15 - Leadership and visibility are key - 19.20 - Stand-up meetings - 21.20 - Building pride and connecting staff to the company - 23.15 - Going the extra mile - 24.20 - Leadership isn't just from above - 25.10 - Mentoring in Superquinn, not rules but ethos – 26.40 - Holding up a mirror to bad behaviour – 30.00 The tough job of telling family and colleagues about the sale of Superquinn - 33.34 - Feargal's role models - 36.14 - Feargal's advice for his 20-year-old self

Since 2005, Fionnuala has worked in Google's Dublin office. And as she says herself, at the beginning of Google's Irish journey, that meant her working 'wherever I needed to be' - in project management, telecoms and learning & development.

Today Fionnuala is VP EMEA in Google Marketing Solutions, helping SMEs and agencies to 'stay ahead of the curve in online'. She is also Site Lead in Dublin, tasked with creating a strategy to ensure that the staff feel connected to each other, to US colleagues and to the local community.

As promised in the audio, here's the view from Fionnuala's window! :-)

Show Notes:

1.01 - Tell me a bit about you and about Google – 01.43 – Eventually settled into Google Marketing Solutions - 02.15 – working with SMEs to help them stay ahead of the curve in online – 03.15 – Took on the site lead role a year ago, how do we stay connected as a site – 04.01 – Adwords – what's it all about? - 05.30 – What makes Google such an aspirational brand to work for? – 06.20 – a relentless focus on Google's mission – 07.30 – A huge amount of data drives what its like to work in Google - 08.40 – A good manager in Google is based on very specific traits – 09.13 – Psychological safety – 10.30 – Leaders as communicators – 11.15 – Cascading works! – 13.17 – Leaders need to own the cascade and listen – 14.40 – 'Millenials' are a 'thing' - there are similarities to other generations – 16.20 - …but leaders have to work harder and be more emotional – 17.25 – Managing millennials is harder in older organisations – 18.40 – Managing multi-generational teams – 19.28 – Leadership here is a privileged role – 20.30 – Advice for organisations with multi-generational workforces, consistency is key – 22.10 – Involve millennials in problem-solving and listen to them – 23.56 – Employee Engagement – we still have to work at it - 25.00 – Consistency in messaging is important – 26.40 – I don't role model people, but values – 29.00 What are Fionnuala's values? – 30.15 – What Leadership advice would Fionnuala give her 20-year-old self.

"It's OK for you to tell your team how you're feeling as you're going through change" ​

Lisa has worked in HR for nearly 25 years during which time she has spent time in the telecoms, financial services and food sectors.

She has worked with Nortel, the Canadian telecoms company and went through the good and the bad times with AIB. 18 months ago, Lisa joined Ornua, the Irish food and ingredients company as Head of Talent Acquisition & Development, as it goes on an ambitious journey to become a €3bn company by 2021.

Getting the right people in the right roles doing the right things is a key deliverable on that journey.

Show Notes:

00.39 - Tell me a bit about Ornua - 01.36 ...and a bit about you Lisa - 02.30 - Irish food industry is an interesting place to be at the moment - 03.12 - What makes a great leader? - 04.10 - Leaders who lead from behind - 05.00- What can a good leader do to promote entrepreneurialism? - 05.50 - Trust is key - but commitment is expected, and the bar is high - 06.35 - Our customer dynamic is a bit strange - competitors could also be customers or suppliers - 08.30 - What do leaders need to do to create an engaging place to work? Clarity direction and stretch - 09.30 - Leadership and engagement is a journey (without an end!) - 11.00 - David Duffy - I don't have all the answers but I have people who do - 12.50 - Role of the leader as a communicator, particularly during change - 14.10 - Storytelling - it's a skill - not many leaders do it naturally - 15.15 - Change must be a combination of big picture strategic comms AND local leader interpretation to bring relevance - 17.00 - Challenges of dispersed staff groups and how you communicate with them - 19.06 - Building pride among your staff - 19.50 - 'With heart' - The power of culture and corporate values - 22.15 - How do you bring Values to life in Ornua? - 24.38 - Who are your leadership role models? - 25.30 - CEO is critical in shaping the culture in an organisation - 27.10 - Advice for your 20-year-old self - it's not just about you, it's worth thinking before jumping and you can always learn from others

Declan is a 20-year finance sector veteran who has worked in many roles in the UK, Japan and, most recently, in Ireland where he's the MD of IG Ireland, Founded in 1974 and now, with offices in 14 countries and over 1000 staff, IG is a global leader in online trading.​

The 11 years he spent living and working in Japan as MD of Nichiai KK - a consultancy with extensive experience in helpdesk and graphic design/marketing operations - gave him a unique insight into Japanese culture and business.

In this edition of Inspiring Change Podcast, among other themes Declan Bourke, MD of IG Ireland touches on:

Company values, how IG Ireland created its values and how leaders are bringing them to life for teams around the world.

The importance of communication and how, that can (and should) be both top-down and bottom-up The critical role of leaders during times of change - and that's not just hierarchical leaders - "you don't need a title to be a leader", says Declan.

Leadership has the ability to make positive and rippling changes through an organisation. At an organisation like Special Olympics, this is particularly important. We strive to lead with purpose and positivity.

Mary is an Irish social entrepreneur and long-term campaigner for the rights and inclusion of children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Today she is the Chief Executive Officer of Special Olympics International having previously held the role of MD and Regional President of Special Olympics Europe/Eurasia (SOEE). She is probably best known in Ireland for her role as CEO of the 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games held in Dublin, the first time the event was staged outside of the US since the movement was founded in 1968.

Mary was awarded a Person of the Year Award in 2003 and more recently received the 'Outstanding Contribution to Women's Sport' Award at The Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman of the Year awards.

ABOUT MARY DAVIS:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-davis-a6460029/ Work: https://www.specialolympics.org/

ABOUT SCOTT:

Learn more about Scott McInnes, your host and the Founder and Director of Inspiring Change, by clicking here.