Expertise

What are some traits you think great leaders possess?

For me, I admire a person that is decisive and works with great integrity, a leader that has humility. Someone that can inspire others to make a difference and has unwavering resilience.

Which woman has inspired you the most and why?

My Sister Patricia, older by 4 years. I always looked up to and adored my sister, she was my biggest supporter and my toughest critic, always there to guide and mentor me. She most certainly kept my feet on the ground and was brilliant at helping me tease out any difficult decision. She was in banking for most of her life and had such a unique way of connecting with people. Later in her life, she took a risk, which paid off, and swapped banking for a life in the music industry, unsurprisingly she excelled there too. She had a can-do attitude that was infectious and had the unique ability to make people feel that they were capable of everything, she passed away from Ovarian Cancer in June 2017 at the age of 45.

How have you developed your confidence as a leader?

My passion is people, supporting and ensuring people feel connected to purpose, that they are enabled to do their job successfully and bring their best every day.

I have always felt this and believed this is what makes a difference. From my first role as a team leader to my role now as a Director, these values remain for me and I am dedicated to enhancing my team so that they feel that connection.

Confidence grows over time and with experiencing disappointments and failures. I have these experiences on occasion and I have grown from them. It’s tough, and its stings but it’s key to your own development. 

What advice do you have for women aiming for leadership positions?

Do not feel you need to be everything to everyone, understand your strengths and play to them. If you are a natural ideas person, be that. Equally, if you are better at analysing the idea once presented, then do that. There is space for everyone at the table, once you have that realisation your confidence grows as does your contribution.

What are some of the traits that leader possesses?

I have been fortunate to work with strong leaders throughout my career. There are a few things that strong leaders seem to have in common: they know their strengths, they keep learning, they look to work with people who are different from them, and they work hard at honing their technical and soft skills.

What do women leaders bring that is unique?

I think women leaders bring different perspectives. Women are well represented in our societies, in our customer bases, and our workplaces. Building empathy as an organisation with the traits and needs of that group is valuable. Our perspective as women leaders equips us to formulate solutions that can benefit our teams and our communities more holistically.

In your work situation, it is often women leaders that become your biggest allies. They are often the first to recognise that you are putting in the effort and loving what you do. Determine who your allies might be and start working out how you can earn more of their trust.

Which woman has inspired you the most?

When I was very young, I had a friend whose mother was a small business owner. This lady loved her job! She worked long hard hours, sometimes late into the evening. She sourced meals from people that cooked better than she did. She devised ways to do mundane tasks faster. Watching her showed me that the boundaries we experience are often self-imposed. She taught me that it is okay, in fact it is great, to delegate tasks that you’re not good at to people who can do them well. She taught me that you can be successful in your career while still loving your family. She said you can have it all but takes hard work to achieve it. She also taught me that, in some ways, women have more choices than men do. I always try to remember these when I want to retain strong female colleagues! She made such an enormous impact on me as a little girl and has helped me become the leader I am today

What advice do you have for women aiming for leadership positions?

From my experience, leadership is a journey rather than a destination. You have to keep working at your technical and soft skills, stretching your abilities, and practicing your humility by doing new things and feeling uncomfortable every so often. Get used to making mistakes and apologising sincerely. Invest in relationships at all levels. Most of all, find joy in your job, it makes you an easier leader to follow.

It’s time for change and women in positions of power can give voices to those without.

In your opinion, what defines a great leader? What do you think is unique about female leaders?

For me, one of the fundamentals of being a great leader is being true to yourself. Don’t pretend to be someone you’re not, be you, and lead by your values. Build integrity and credibility by always striving to do the right thing. A great leader should be open and honest and have respect and understanding for others.

The ability to listen and learn is important. Work on the basis that you may not have all the answers but as a team, you will collectively find the answers together. Having a clear vision of what you want and following through is what sets leaders apart.

Female leaders are strong, powerful, and driven. We address the elephant in the room and confidently challenge stereotypes. For us, it’s not about competition and tearing each other down but it’s about universally lifting us up so we can bring out the best in each other. 

As a female leader, I believe that my humility and tenderness bring out the best in people.  I also believe that my astuteness, drive, and passion can help develop others to become future leaders. I strongly believe there’s a place for everyone at the table and success is a group effort.

Why is it so important that women have leadership positions?

It is vital we leave a legacy for years to come, that women can achieve at least as much as our male counterparts. We need to continue creating a culture that normalises growth for women in business. Supporting each other on this journey is incredibly important. We need to praise each other for our individual expertise and what we bring to the table.

As a woman in a leadership role myself, I feel passionate about creating an equal playing field when it comes to career progression and equal opportunities. Women in leadership roles can use ‘their powers for good’ by driving fair and transparent practices and challenging the status quo.  It’s time for change and women in positions of power can give voices to those without.

Who has inspired you the most and why?

I’m proud to say it’s my mum! She came to England in 1979 not speaking a word of English.  She taught herself English and secured employment and started earning her own money. During this time, she experienced many forms of discrimination including the colour of her skin, ethnicity, and gender. However, she continued to strive to achieve. From an early age, my mum always instilled in me that if you wanted something, you had to go out and work for it.

What advice do you have for aspiring women aiming for leadership positions?

You are the key to your own success! The only person that can stop you from succeeding is yourself.  Forget any stereotypes or expectations the world has of you. If you want something strong enough, don’t let anything stop you, and make sure you go for it. Work hard, show your worth, and reap the results – the sky is the limit.

“Thinking about others, holding out your hand to help and not judge them is a duty we owe to everyone. Putting others first doesn’t put you second. It just means you care, and hopefully, someone will care for you in the same way if you ever need it.”

How did your experience in the military help you to build a strong career in the security sector?

A career in the security industry is a fairly natural and, I think, pretty common route for ex-forces personnel. You can look at the army as a corporation with a clear mission. To fulfil its mission, it needs the right people in the right place and for all of them to understand what is expected of them and make sure they are properly trained to do it.

I joined the army as a boy soldier at 16 and became a ‘junior leader’, basically training for potential non-commissioned officers – sergeants and the like. I enjoyed myyears in the army and ended my time there as a sergeant in 7th Parachute Regiment RHA. The skills you learn doing any kind of leadership in the army are the same as managing people in civilian life.

The real difference between the army and a civilian organisation is that you tell people what to do in the army, and they have to do it. That doesn’t happen in the civilian world in the same way, and you need to take people with you. But common to both is explaining the job or mission and making sure your people are equipped to be able to do it properly. 

We understand you are very active in sport. How has this helped you in your role?

I am a member of the 100 Marathon Club with 149 marathons or ultra-marathons under my belt, and I’m out cycling 100 to 200 plus kms most weekends.

Sport allows me to clear my head and think through issues away from constant messages. The time away lets me think about how to achieve our goals. Obviously, I’m a bit competitive, and I like to achieve challenging and difficult things. That’s an attitude I bring to my work, too. 

Many of your colleagues would call you creative. Is creativity important to you?

Thank you, that’s very flattering. One of the things I like about this work is solving what are often quite complicated problems that involve a fair few stakeholders who can often have different aims and opinions.

Being what you call creative is thinking about what we are trying to achieve and what our clients are also trying to accomplish and making sure they go hand in hand. If you can understand what your client or stakeholder wants to get out of something, you can then have a constructive chat about it. Sometimes clients need help to identify what they need most, so thinking creatively about it really helps.

You have recently completed a course in mental health. What prompted you to seek this qualification, and why do you value it?

We live in a world where admitting to weakness, particularly emotional weakness, can be very tough. The pandemic and the isolation and dislocation it has caused is making this even tougher for some people. Making sure our mental health, as well as our physical health, is properly looked after is so important.

Thinking about others, holding out your hand to help and not judge them is a duty we owe to everyone. Putting others first doesn’t put you second. It just means you care, and hopefully, someone will care for you in the same way if you ever need it.

You are very approachable and personable. Does this help you in your role?

Does that mean I talk too much sometimes? I like being with people and understanding more about them. I wouldn’t want to live in a world where everyone is the same. Listening, as well as talking, is a skill we all develop with experience.

Managers need to be approachable, reasonable and ready to listen. Otherwise, how will you find out what is going on and identify potential issues before they become a problem? It also lets you coach and help your staff. It also gives me great pleasure and pride in my work.

The retail sector has always been of great importance to our economies and our communities. The industry supplies essential products to our populations and provides a livelihood for hundreds of thousands of retail sector workers.

The Covid-19 pandemic sent shockwaves through the sector. Travel restrictions, Lockdowns, Supply Chain disruptions and the growing trend of online shopping is putting a heavy strain on ‘bricks and mortar’ retailers. Retail performance plummetted in 2020, with major declines in areas such as clothing, footwear and textiles. Performance in some of these areas has plunged by as much as 50%. Retailers across the sector scrambled to shore up their businesses and continue to serve customers. 

Big grocery retailers such as Tesco and SuperValu, which had existing e-commerce infrastructure, had success shifting their operations online. SuperValu reported that they experienced a 400% increase in online sales at certain times. Tesco achieved a record of £1 billion in online grocery sales during the 2020 Christmas period alone.

Some retailers have innovated to remain relevant and maintain their relationships with customers. Brands such as Burberry, Curries and Boots, used new technologies, such as video chat, to provide a virtual shopping experience online. However, many more in the sector did not have the resourcing or business model needed to take this leap. Others have made a strategic decision to not invest in e-commerce and are waiting for a return to normality.

In the world after Covid-19, does in-store retail have a future, and how can the sector attract people back to stores? We believe the in-store retail will make a strong return and that customer experience can be a game-changer in months and years to come.

Having supported a wide range of clients in the retail sector, we know the value of customer experience. We have spent years ensuring our teams contribute to exceptional customer experience because it is crucial to our clients’ success. Customers that have a great experience spend more, are more loyal and are more likely to refer others.

There are many ways in-store retailers can improve customer experience. We have identified five of the areas we believe offer significant opportunities for improvement:

1. People and Culture

Great people create great in-store experiences. From the car park attendant to the receptionist, every person in your team needs to adopt a customer-centric approach and know what it takes to create a great customer experience. Invest in customer experience training and build a strong customer experience culture.

2. Fast and frictionless experiences

The ability to immediately satisfy customer needs is one of in-store retail’s greatest advantages over online counterparts. Seize it! Don’t make customers wait for service. Ensure there are always enough assistants and cashiers ready to help.

Store layouts should allow customers to quickly and easily find what they are looking for. Reduce friction at every point. Once the customer has decided what they want to buy, their path-to-purchase should be as short and seamless as possible. 

3. Unique, exciting and enjoyable experiences

Shopping is a leisure activity. In-store retailers can create experiences that are far richer and more rewarding than their online counterparts. As we emerge from lockdown, customers will seek fun and exciting places to go. Make your store a destination by providing ‘retailtainment’. Host an event. Allow customers to interact with products in new ways, provide demos, perhaps create environments in which they can test the product. 

4. The right ambience

Sweat the details to create the right ambience. Changing the music played in a store can have a significant impact on the shopping experience. This is also true for colours, lighting and furnishings. Makes sure your teams understand your customers and create environments that make them want to keep coming back.

5. Bring new technologies into the store

Can new technologies help revitalise the shopping experience at your store? Well placed tablet computers may allow your customers to access more information and make decisions faster. Forward-looking retailers use Virtual Reality headsets to enable customers to visit virtual showrooms and experience products in a new way. Self-service checkouts have made a substantial impact in the grocery sector and are becoming more and more popular. Examine the technology you use and ask yourself how new technologies can help you take customer experience to the next level.

Gillian Robb is an Account Director at Bidvest Noonan. Gillian supports the world’s largest furniture retailer. Nick O’Connor is Integrated Accounts Retail Lead at Bidvest Noonan. Nick has over 20 years experience supporting retailers and shopping centres. 

“I am a firm believer in being a life-long learner and will never stop educating myself practically and theoretically. Education is the key to opening your mind. Both practice and theory combined are a powerful tool and will allow you to see business through a different lens.”

You have had a lot of success at an early age. Tell us about your journey to becoming a Director of Operations

I have a passion for working with people and a hunger for management and leadership. I attribute this to being naturally competitive. I come from a household with 6 boys and 1 girl so I got a taste for competition very early.

My background is in highly regulated environments. I stumbled upon facilities management back in 2004 while working as an engineering maintenance planner at a pharmaceutical Biotech facility. This role didn’t provide me with enough room for growth. During an annual review meeting with my then manager, he directed me toward the FM department. I began my career as a Soft Service FM team leader with a team of eleven people.

My 6 months in my new role were difficult. Not all strong individuals make great people managers. I was a young supervisor and I didn’t have the skills or experience in people management that I needed. My career has been a learning journey, and you will not always have the tools available immediately. However, it is important to have the will to learn. This can be through further education, training, personal development, and peer support. I advanced to the position of Soft Services FM after two years and my team grew to almost thirty. Following this, I was promoted to a contract manager and held responsibility for the hard and soft services teams. This was my first exposure to commercial responsibilities and budget forecasting.

I joined Bidvest Noonan in 2011. I held a meeting with the Managing Director of the business who sold me on the culture and values of the company and convinced me to join the business. He highlighted the opportunities he saw for me within the company. Further promotion to Strategic Account Lead and Life Sciences Lead roles followed from 2012 to 2019. Late in 2019, I applied for the position of Director of Operations for the strategic accounts of Integrated Solutions. With a strong business strategy and a path for success, I set about putting my leadership team together in line with the direction that the business was heading.

What characteristics or abilities have helped you most to be successful?

I believe my willingness to work hard and to do whatever it takes to ensure the client is happy, as the reason for my growth within Bidvest Noonan. I am a firm believer in being a life-long learner and will never stop educating myself practically and theoretically. Education is the key to opening your mind. Both practice and theory combined are a powerful tool and will allow you to see business through a different lens.

I find my ability to both think and act like an owner as another reason for my success. I go to work every day with the mindset of “If this was my business I would…”. My father always said to me: “David, dress for the job you want and not the job you have”. My interpretation of his knowledgeable words was to always strive to be successful in the role you have and always make yourself available to support your boss, and their boss too.

You have very strong relationships with clients. How have you built these?

I have 21 years of service in this industry as a service provider. This has enabled me to work closely with some strong and challenging clients. Taking my father’s advice and changing it slightly, I openly engage my clients and try to understand what success looks like for them. When you truly understand your clients’ goals and objectives, both personal and professional, you will be able to design a solution that is built for success.

I believe that all people, irrespective of status or position, should be treated with respect and spoken to with honesty. Relationships are formed and based around trust, and to earn the trust, you must always deliver on your commitment to support your client. I focus on effective service delivery and identify opportunities by challenging the status quo of the service delivery on my client’s behalf.

What was your proudest moment at Bidvest Noonan?

I have had many proud moments working at Bidvest Noonan but among the greatest is seeing the growth and development of my colleagues, many of whom are now leaders within our organisation. If I was to retire tomorrow, I would be happy in the knowledge that I helped develop, mentor, support, and grow some of the future leaders of our organisation.

I am also immensely proud to have overseen contracts that have become winners at our company’s best-managed contracts awards.