Broadly Speaking

Broadly Speaking, hosted by Margaret E. Ward, goes behind the scenes to find out what motivates, frustrates and intrigues the people who lead. Featuring in-depth interviews with founders, innovators and senior executives, this leadership and management podcast is for people who want to lead or are fascinated by those who do.

How to find your voice and give a TED talk with 1.3m view 08/01/2019

How to find your voice and give a TED talk with 1.3m view At 105 centimetres or 3' 5" tall, Sinéad Burke has become a booming voice in the global fashion world. Talking equality with US Vice Presidents and people such as Oprah, speaking not once, but twice, at Davos and being a contributing editor to British Vogue, Sinéad has the goal of designing a world that works for everyone. However, she wasn't always so clear about her purpose nor was she always so accepting of herself.She tells Margaret E Ward about the major turning point that led her to radical self acc /episode/index/show/broadlyspeaking/id/6036454

What makes a great CEO and how can they transform a culture? 06/19/2019

What makes a great CEO and how can they transform a culture? Ruth Curran knows the answer to both of those questions. Ruth travels the world to find the best CEOs, CFOs and CIOs for a whole range of high-level organisations. She’s managing partner at MERC, Ireland’s leading executive search firm – a role she balances with being a mother to four children all under the age of 12. In the latest Broadly Speaking podcast, Ruth talks us through the key attributes needed for leaders in today’s world, what organisations are looking for before they hire and the trends /episode/index/show/broadlyspeaking/id/10209863

How I manage 2,000 employees 04/26/2019

How I manage 2,000 employees Managing a team of 2,000 employees is a huge responsibility, but Anne O’Leary takes it all in her stride. As chief executive of Vodafone Ireland, she has worked hard to build an inclusive, flexible and empathetic culture.Anne does not believe in a one-size-fits-all approach to people management. Instead she is focused on understanding what works for individual employees and their lives outside the office. She not only talks the talk on work-life balance but this former triathlete, who still has a passion /episode/index/show/broadlyspeaking/id/9541094

Left a good job in the city and started a €6m business 03/29/2019

Left a good job in the city and started a €6m business When entrepreneur Nikki Evans quit her well-paid management consulting job in London to move home to Ireland during the recession and start a pre-paid gift card business, people thought she was bonkers. But last year, over a decade after launching her business and a few pivots later, she sold her company for €6 million. Now Nikki is chief executive of the fintech business she founded, Perfect Card, and is keen to keep growing it. She has built an “output-focused” work culture and considers her ability /episode/index/show/broadlyspeaking/id/9193205

"If we have to pay for this dinner we don't have it" 01/17/2019

"If we have to pay for this dinner we don't have it" It was an awkward dinner and a "make or break" moment. Louise Grubb, co-founder and CEO of TriviumVet was going to have to explain how her wonderful pharmaceutical business couldn't pay the dinner bill. She was in Copenhagen wining and dining a man who would become a major and game-changing distributor for her nutraceutical product. Thankfully he paid the bill and Louise lived to tell the glorious tale, which she does so here to Margaret E Ward. From the daughter of a shopkeeper to being a "lost" dietician, /episode/index/show/broadlyspeaking/id/8292704

The tricky business of funding for female founders 11/29/2018

The tricky business of funding for female founders Andreea Wade is famous on the start-up scene and she is also intimately acquainted with the boardroom tables of venture capital firms. That's because she's CEO of Opening, a fast-growing start-up that's using artificial intelligence in the recruitment industry. The serial entrepreneur tells Margaret E Ward about what it's like to get funding as a female founder, from being ignored in meetings as a CEO to proving she has a right to "knock on the door" in the first place. This tenacious entrepreneur from Tran /episode/index/show/broadlyspeaking/id/7730642

Where have all the women gone? 09/20/2018

Where have all the women gone? She'd just become partner at Accenture, and Vivienne Jupp assumed she'd be joined by lots more women in the partnership ranks. She wasn't. The veteran board member and businesswoman began to notice two things: people talked differently about women than they did about men and men talked about going home to "babysit" their children. Vivienne decided to look under the hood and change things, practically, from the inside out. After all, this is a woman who travelled to Mexico City at the age of 15, to swim for /episode/index/show/broadlyspeaking/id/7068723

From social housing to VP of Walt Disney 05/30/2018

From social housing to VP of Walt Disney Trish Long is the General Manager and Vice President of Disney in Ireland. She's also worked with Oprah. How did she do it? She shares her remarkable and unplanned path with Margaret E Ward, one that began with her bargaining with her father to stay in school at age of 14. If you've ever beaten yourself for lacking focus or commitment in your career, Trish's story is for you. From nightclub worker to pirate radio presenter, and from secondhand bookshop employee to director of a rape crisis centre - Trish's /episode/index/show/broadlyspeaking/id/6649141

Trish Long, general manager of Disney in Ireland and vice president of The Walt Disney Company 05/30/2018

Trish Long, general manager of Disney in Ireland and vice president of The Walt Disney Company Trish Long, general manager of Disney in Ireland and vice president of The Walt Disney Company Trish Long has worked for Disney for more than two decades. Growing up in a working class housing estate in Limerick, she was the first person in her family to finish her Leaving Certificate and her career has taken many unexpected turns in the decades since. Podcast Length: 32:15 /episode/index/show/broadlyspeaking/id/6649137

From food truck to a 40-job food business 04/20/2018

From food truck to a 40-job food business Newly married, a 10-day-old baby and newly redundant, 2008 was an interesting year for Sara Mitchell and Gavin McCarthy. But 2009 was an even more interesting year, when the pair, a former property developer and marketing professional with no food business experience whatsoever, decided to buy a food truck and set up Ireland's first chicken rotisserie business - Poulet Bonne Femme. First there were the markets and the freezing-cold conditions of 2010, where the couple survived two months of no income right /episode/index/show/broadlyspeaking/id/6494530

"People just don't trust women with money" 03/07/2018

"People just don't trust women with money" Especially in Hollywood, but actress and filmmaker Naomi McDougall Jones is proving them wrong. She reveals to Margaret E Ward how she not only crowdfunded but created an an engaged and loyal audience for her very first film. It's a 'how to' that can be translated to any industry. Naomi also shares her New York backstory, auditioning relentlessly for two years, while not letting the rejection get her down. But most importantly, Naomi reveals the mental gearshift that took her from struggling actress to empo /episode/index/show/broadlyspeaking/id/6339127

A groundbreaking scientist on adjusting to motherhood 01/24/2018

A groundbreaking scientist on adjusting to motherhood Professor Aoife McLysaght discovered a totally new human gene. Her day job is as a genetic scientist, but there was a time when she was going to give it all up. After an unfriendly encounter with a colleague who queried her holiday leave, she sent a frank email to her boss. "Guess what," she wrote, "I read books that aren't all science books, I have friends, I like to do other things, and if it's all or nothing, I'll take nothing, thank you very much." The email was well received and served as a turning poi /episode/index/show/broadlyspeaking/id/6184313

15 November 2017: Elva, Aine and Pamela - GirlCrew 11/15/2017

15 November 2017: Elva, Aine and Pamela - GirlCrew Beating Mark Zuckerberg /episode/index/show/broadlyspeaking/id/5947221

From call centre agent to Google's head honcho in Ireland 10/13/2017

From call centre agent to Google's head honcho in Ireland Fionnuala Meehan had "no clear career path" after her arts degree. So she took a job in a call centre where she was regularly pranked by German teenagers. She had her first child while still working in the call centre, then later moving on to work for internet giant AOL. Next stop was Google, where she now manages 650 staff as head of Irish operations, while also raising three children.How does she do it? She's on the 5.30pm train home, she gets 8 hours sleep a night and she coaches, instead of "manages", h /episode/index/show/broadlyspeaking/id/5837655

An accidental entrepreneur on the importance of "why" 09/08/2017

An accidental entrepreneur on the importance of "why" Dr Ciara Clancy, accidental entrepreneur, physiotherapist, and 20- something CEO, has just been named on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. She plasters her office not with accolades and press clippings, but with her "why." In her office you'll find thank you cards and letters all over the walls, from the thousands of people her technology has helped.Ciara is CEO of Beats Medical, an app that helps people with Parkinson's manage their pain at home. Whether you're an employee, unemployed, or self-employed, listen /episode/index/show/broadlyspeaking/id/5720792

The secret to selling from the man who built an empire 07/12/2017

The secret to selling from the man who built an empire Businessman Feargal Quinn's first book Crowning the Consumer sold more than 100,000 copies and was translated into 14 languages. It came after building a national chain of grocery stores, Superquinn, which he started at the age of 23.How did he do it? By always having the advantage over his competitor. And how did he do that? By making the customer front and centre of his every move. He held meetings in the grocery aisles, ran 'win your weight in groceries' competitions, and was the first person to play mus /episode/index/show/broadlyspeaking/id/5529851

Leading in a crisis when you've just lost £24.3bn 06/09/2017

Leading in a crisis when you've just lost £24.3bn Ellvena Graham, OBE, is currently chairman of ESB, Ireland's electricity supply board, but in 2008 she was a director in the Royal Bank of Scotland when it lost £24.3bn - the biggest corporate loss in British history. How did the daughter of a mechanic from a rural town survive? She tells Margaret E Ward, through deep exhales, how she navigated those unimaginable days of the financial crash, what they taught her and how anyone can lean into crisis. There is a way out, she says, but solutions take time. Ell /episode/index/show/broadlyspeaking/id/5432983

"We did something during the recession which saved us" 03/20/2017

"We did something during the recession which saved us" When the recession hit in 2008, Bobby Kerr's national chain of more than 100 coffee shops, Insomnia, was on the frontline. "We were a luxury item," he tells Margaret E Ward. How do you survive that? By 2008, Bobby was a well-seasoned businessman used to risk. He had, after all, left a very comfortable job at 36, five days after the birth of his fourth child, to start what would become Insomnia. Between then and now, he had also weathered a fire and high high-street rents. So how did he navigate the recessio /episode/index/show/broadlyspeaking/id/4523627

Women can have it all and how introverts can succeed at work 01/13/2017

Women can have it all and how introverts can succeed at work Ireland's first female private investigator (PI) Sandra Mara, cracked her first case at 9. She found not only her passion but also fulfilment and decided to follow her father into the family business of private investigations. "That's no job for a woman," he said as he tried desperately to throw her off course. Sandra, however, went on to have a lengthy and successful career as Ireland's first ever professional female PI, working all around the world, writing three books, while navigating death threats and /episode/index/show/broadlyspeaking/id/4391072

How the serial entrepreneur of global start-ups silences her self doubt 01/12/2017

How the serial entrepreneur of global start-ups silences her self doubt "I need help" - the 3 most powerful words any manager or entrepreneur can say. Aine Kerr is a serial risk taker. She left her permanent pensionable teaching job at 20, to retrain as a journalist. She left her high-profile political correspondent role in the Irish Independent to join international media start-up, Storyful, during the recession. She then moved to New York to become Facebook's manager of Journalism Partnerships. And now, Aine is back in business start-up phase, co-founding Kinzen, an app that /episode/index/show/broadlyspeaking/id/4205255

Broadly Speaking

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