Margaret Heffernan – Why business leaders need to deal with ambiguity and the importance of cultivating diversity when scaling a business

Dr. Margaret Heffernan produced programmes for the BBC for 13 years. She then moved to the US where she spearheaded multimedia productions for Intuit, The Learning Company and Standard & Poors. She was Chief Executive of InfoMation Corporation, ZineZone Corporation and then iCast Corporation, was named one of the "Top 25" by Streaming Media magazine and one of the "Top 100 Media Executives" by The Hollywood Reporter.

The author of six books, Margaret’s third book, Wilful Blindness: Why We Ignore the Obvious at our Peril was named one of the most important business books of the decade by the Financial Times. In 2015, she was awarded the Transmission Prize for A Bigger Prize: Why Competition isn’t Everything and How We Do Better, described as "meticulously researched... engagingly written... universally relevant and hard to fault." Her TED talks have been seen by over twelve million people and in 2015 TED published Beyond Measure: The Big Impact of Small Changes. Her most recent book, Uncharted: How to map the future was published in 2020.

She is a Professor of Practice at the University of Bath, Lead Faculty for the Forward Institute’s Responsible Leadership Programme and, through Merryck & Co., mentors CEOs and senior executives of major global organizations. She holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Bath and continues to write for the Financial Times and the Huffington Post.

In today's conversation we will explore:

The importance of creating social capital to foster a strong scaling culture How to spot emerging leaders creating a foundation for scaling How we should give people hard problems to solve The need for leaders to be able to deal with ambiguity Why we should lean into experimentation Why we should cultivate diversity in our organisations and in all aspects of life

Quote

“Having a coach means you schedule thinking time. Thinking is pretty much what you are paid to do but it generally seems to be the one thing nobody ever has time for. Coaching simply brings a discipline to your thinking that I think is really important. It's very difficult to think alone and most people can't do it for more than a few minutes. Therefore, thinking with a coach helps solve some challenges and provides prompts which creates a deeper, richer experience which most people can’t create in isolation”.

Contact Margaret

Website: https://www.mheffernan.com/

Buy Margaret’s Books

Uncharted - How to Map the Future Together - mybook.to/Howtomapthefuture

The Naked Truth - A Working Woman's Manifesto on Business and What Really Matters - mybook.to/Nakedtruth

Wilful Blindness - Why We Ignore the Obvious at our Peril - mybook.to/Wilfulblindness

A Bigger Prize - Why Competition Isn't Everything and How We Do Better - mybook.to/Abiggerprize

Beyond Measure - The Big Impact of Small Changes - mybook.to/Beyondmeasure

Simple Scaling Book

Check out our book, an Amazon Best-Seller: Simple Scaling: 10 Proven Principles to 10X Your Business

About the Host

Director and Founder of Simple Scaling, Brendan brings 25 years’ experience of scaling businesses. Previously, Brendan spent 16 years as a global business leader with CDE, 12 of those as Group MD, steering the company through the global financial crisis to considerable strategic growth success with offices now in 6 continents employing almost 700 people across the world (from 15) and 25X revenue growth.  

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendan-mcgurgan-11854a13/

https://simplescaling.com/meet-the-team 

Contact Simple Scaling:

www.simplescaling.com