Why are businesses spending more time flexing their social governance and responsibility muscles? John Mulgrew speaks to Chris Conway, group chief executive of Translink and chairman of Business in the Community and its deputy managing director Lisa McIlvenna about the organisation's upcoming Responsible Business Awards, why organisations here need multi-year budgets, the work firms are doing to ensure they benefit their communities and why there's cautious optimism among companies here.

The latest Ulster Business Top 100 Northern Ireland Companies edition, with A&L Goodbody, showed seriously strong performances from many of our biggest best firms, with pre-tax profits up 46%. John Mulgrew speaks to head of A&L Goodbody's Belfast office, Michael Neill, about a "difficult" year ahead, the success and resilience of our private sector, a lag which could see an increase in insolvencies in 2023 but why he doesn't believe we're in for anything like the same deluge which happened following the 2008 recession.

We could be in for a difficult year ahead

John Mulgrew speaks to Jackie Reid, co-founder of food on the go firm Deli Lites about moving from 30 sandwiches a day to becoming a multi-million pound business selling right across Europe. He's also joined by Harbinson Mulholland's Darren McDowell to discuss the importance of family business and the year ahead for the sector.

In this episode John Mulgrew speaks to Jack Hamilton of Mash Direct and Harbinson Mulholland's Darren McDowell about how the agri-food firm has grown into a £24m business employing 240 people, why Comber will always be home, expanding during a pandemic and why the NI Protocol is the best option on the table.

In this episode of the Ulster Business podcast John Mulgrew speaks to Darren McDowell of Harbinson Mulholland, Joseph Doherty, Regen Waste, and Dr Ian Smyth of Ulster University about all things SME, our challenges ahead, and best homegrown businesses, a lack of an Executive and why it needs to get back up-and-running.

Mark Sterritt is UK network director for Northern Ireland with the British Business Bank. The government-owned economic development bank has been assisting firms of all shapes and sizes here since 2014, but it was also the forefront of administering many government assistance schemes amid Covid-19. He tells John Mulgrew while there is a mixture of challenges and opportunities ahead, there remains strong resilience among firms here, and he says NI firms have a global appeal and ambition. This episode was recorded just at the end of last year, as NI emerged from the majority of Covid-19 related restrictions.

Maeve Monaghan, chief executive of NOW Group, said it was “painful and shocking” to think back on the impact Covid-19 had on the organisation. It works with around 1,400 people with learning difficulties and autism. But Maeve says the social enterprise group pivoted to online engagement, and has plans to expand further, including across Ireland. She speaks to John Mulgrew about the work the organisation is doing, how the team pulled through during the pandemic, and what's next.

John Mulgrew speaks to Nuala Murphy of Diversity Mark NI about our top female company leaders, why diversity in the workplace is good for business, the huge gaps which still remain and how Covid-19 highlighted yet more challenges for women here.

This week’s guest in John Healy. John is managing of Allstate in Northern Ireland, the technology arm of a US insurance giant. He speaks to John Mulgrew about hiring more than 300 staff amid lockdown, the pluses and minuses of the NI Protocol, and that some firms are seeing a boon from it, why political stability remains key and front and centre when attracting foreign investment, the firm’s decision not to open a new office in Derry’s Ebrington Square, but why the office is far from dead.

After more than 20 years in the corporate world, Sinead Sharkey-Steenson left to go it alone and found her own business five years ago, Generation Women. In this episode, we look at why there remains a significant disparity in female representation among big firms here, and what can be done to address the issues. Sinead tells editor John Mulgrew that many of the problems start early in a career cycle, and she says often ‘the first rung is broken’. Sinead says in the current set up and climate, gender pay parity won’t be achieved for around 100 years, and that much work is still to be done in education and within our traditional industries.