Pioneer stories
Pioneer stories is a podcast series in which we interview business founders and leaders who are pioneering new management practices and ways of working to create inspiring organisational cultures. It’s a podcast for business founders and people leaders who are striving to make their own workplaces deliver for their people and who want their culture to be a source of strength that drives the future growth of their company. We interview business founders and leaders who we think we can all learn something from. We get past the conceptual ideas to bring you the day to day habits and practices these businesses use to create and sustain their cultures. We’ll bring you one pioneer each episode so tune in for 30 minutes of wisdom and practical ideas for you to test in your own organisation each week.
Episodes
Laura generously shares her story, including: her lessons learned through scaling and downsizing, the challenges of startup V corporate life, the importance of internal comms and of being commercially minded, why growing your business means changing your culture, her top tip if you’re thinking of refreshing your company values and how to get everyone’s voice heard when you’re spread across locations and time zones.
Daniel shares his experience of what it’s like to join a company with a truly exceptional culture and then be responsible for not messing it up as they grow! His story is one of trying to balance the need for consistency, efficiency and fairness in people processes, with a desire for personalisation, flexibility and consensus-driven decisions that’s kept the company culture so strong.
Nic has created a company culture where people truly live the values. In this episode, he shares his secrets on how to: develop an internal recognition system centred around company values; bring teams together from different functions and locations in a remote world; support your people during a time of challenging market conditions and a cost of living crisis.
JooBee is a trained Systems Engineer with a PhD in Organisational Psychology. Her expertise is in decoding relationships between people, processes, structures, systems and ways of working to implement strategies and tangible actions that help start-ups grow.
Sophie is widely recognised in Europe for her innovative influence on how Human Resources works in technology companies and startups, earning her a spot in UK's Top 20 Women in Software. Sophie’s previous roles include Group Chief People Officer at Revolut, and Global Head of HR at 11:FS. She has a wealth of experience to share with those of us who are determined to build great company cultures from the outset.
Sophie has perfected the art of treading the tightrope between day to day firefighting and building for the future. Find out how she does it and how this has helped build a resilient company culture.
In this episode Bee interviews Simon Hill, Founder and CEO of Wazoku. Wazoku builds idea management software and as you might expect – ideas are central to the way things work at the company. Listen to hear how enabling people to share and act on their ideas has driven the evolution of Wazoku’s culture through it’s early growth and now a major acquisition.
In this episode Bee interviews Helen Killingley, Head of People and Values at the National Emergencies Trust. Helen shares how NET essentially created a culture from scratch as they grew from 3 to 80 people in a matter of weeks during the coronavirus pandemic.
In this episode Bee interviews Tamara Littleton, founder and CEO of The Social Element. Tamara saw an opportunity to help brands create online communities before social media was a thing. And unlike the swanky offices of the social media giants nowadays, remote working was the only viable option for her bootstrapped business. As the business grew, Tamara focused on giving people choice in how they work – seeing this as a key elemen...
An interview with Nicola Murphy, founder and CEO of The River Group – a content marketing agency. Nicola knows what it’s like to create a business from scratch, sell it and buy it back again. In this interview she graciously shares the lessons she’s learnt about leadership, people and culture along her journey.
An interview with Jerome Ternynck, founder and CEO of Smart Recruiters. Jerome is on a mission to eradicate unemployment and it’s this sense of purpose that drives the caring actions of the people at Smart Recruiters. Jerome shares how he's kept the company true to its purpose through rapid growth.
An interview with Dub Lee, Learning Architect at Honest Burgers. From the day they opened their first doors in Brixton Market, Honest Burgers has been famous for their food and customer experience and recently they've been working hard to bring their employee experience up to the same level. Discover how their People Team have handled the Covid-19 pandemic and why it's been the test that's earned the team the respect...
An interview with Nick Matthews, VP and General Manager of Culture Amp EMEA. Culture Amp was founded, and remains headquartered, in Melbourne, Australia. Nick was brought in to launch Culture Amp in Europe. Learn how he's grown Culture Amp in a new geography without losing the core identity and values of the business.
An interview with Sophie Costello, founder and CEO of Costello Medical. Before they’d even hired their first employee, Sophie was determined to create a company where people could find their niche and fulfil their potential. By listening to what people want at every stage of the company’s growth, she’s built a culture in which people flourish.
An interview with Liane Katz, Founder of MAMA.codes, a company that’s transforming the way children (and their parents and teachers) learn to code. Liane's thrown out the notion of a 9 to 5 job and has given a community of people opportunities to work in ways that fit their lifestyle. This podcast gives you an insight into the practical ways one company uses technology and transparency to make both remote and flexible working ...
In this episode Bee interviews Ted Jones, Founder and CEO of Northcott Global Solutions. NGS applies military principles not only to the services they offer their clients, but also to the way they run their teams – starting with having an ex Drill Sergeant of the Grenadier Guards as their Head of HR. Listen in to discover what this means in practice... they have a culture that's much more caring than you might think!
An interview with Stewart Bromley, Chief Operating Office of Atom Bank, a company that prides itself on being entirely values led in everything they do. Atom Bank have built a culture based on the values of their customers in the firm belief that this will support them in creating digital banking products that profoundly change the relationship people have with their banks. Hear from a challenger bank on why they're on a missi...
An interview with Roland Harwood, founder of 100%Open and We Are Liminal, on aspiring to practice what you preach when it comes to leadership and open collaboration. Discover how important early working habits, leadership behaviours and values can be in shaping a company culture over the longer term.
An interview with Debbie Martin, Chief of Talent Experience at AND.Digital, on how they set out to build a people first company from day one and put the structures in place to support a robust and collaborative culture. Learn how she's structured the business around Clubs and Tribes to create a sense of belonging and the ability for an individual to feel significant no matter how big the company gets.
An interview with Kevin McDonagh, founder and CEO of Novoda, on his instinctive and unconventional approach to developing company culture at Novoda. Learn how he's introduced habitual 'ceremonies' and a few key items of technology to support his people to collaborate and work together as the company has grown both in employee numbers and geographic locations.
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