What We've Learnt: Learning from great minds in the world of business & marketing and beyond What We've Learnt

What better way to wrap up this series of WWL than going back to where it started? We pick some of our favourite rules from Wine Bar Theory - the brilliant book written by episode 1 guest, David Gilbertson.

We talk about what those rules mean to us, what we heard from other guests during the series and how their thoughts weave into David's rules.

Finally we also try and build the perfect leader by considering the characteristics that they think make up today's best examples, again reflecting on what our brilliant guests have shared and demonstrated in their own careers.

A chance to hear from the brilliant Richard Fitzmaurice this week.
Richard shares his experiences on leading a high-performing team and how surrounding yourself with talent is so key to success.
We start with his university years and being brave about the path he ultimately took and along the way to the presence day, where he is not only leading the team at Intertrust Group, after a successful rebrand and positioning programme, he makes time to talk about the world- greatest living explorer, Sir Ranulph Fiennes (or "Ran" as he is to Richard!) and how they ended up having a successful side hustle together in the world of Rum.
An engaging and inspiring person, Richard is very open and honest about what he has learnt from others and how that has served him so well in his career to-date.

We chat with the brilliant Gemma Davies. She now resides in California, working at ServiceNow as Senior Director, Head of Global ABM & CXO Engagement.
Gemma is a well known and respected figure in the B2B Marketing community. She shares her journey thus far – starting with a passion for consumer behaviour, that she pursued at university. The thread of that learning runs through her fast-paced rise through agencies and then on to a range of client-side marketing roles. During that time she has found herself pioneering ABM (before ABM was a thing!) and championing women in marketing as well as the continued improvement of the wider state of marketing.
She made the move to the US from the UK last year (after clocking up far too many air miles beforehand) and shares her take on not just that stellar career, but the now and the future.

Emma is the Development Director at Eastbourne College.

She describes her career as ‘squiggly’ but wouldn’t have had it any other way, and believes that her varied experiences as a mother, entrepreneur, business owner, volunteer, charity fundraiser and Deputy Lieutenant in the county of Bedfordshire have all been invaluable, pieces of the jigsaw that create the picture of who she is today.

Emma is a do-er, her glass is always half full and she never takes no for an answer.  Indeed if the answer is no, she just phrases the question in a different way.  Her forward thinking, tenacity and perseverance were crucial when she decided to renovate disused buildings in Bedford and convert them into thriving award-winning cafés and community hubs.

Emma studied English and Theatre Studies at University and worked in television before starting a family.  She took some time off from work but it is hard to keep a good woman down, and if she wasn’t running the school PTA, she was putting on events for charity. She lived abroad for many years before settling in Bedford with her husband and 5 children.

Emma ran a social media business alongside her park Cafés providing training and social media management for SMEs and charities.  She was also President of the Bedfordshire BusinessWomen's Networking Group and Pavilion at the Park, one of her cafés was mentioned in the Good Food Guide as well as being chosen as one of 100 SMEs recognised in the 2018 Small Business Saturday Campaign.  She was also recognised by f:entrepreneur as one of 100 female entrepreneurs in the #ialso Campaign in 2019.

She is a Vice Patron for Autism Bedfordshire and an Ambassador and on the Senior Management Team for the Schoolreaders Charity.  She is the founder of the SoupFest Fundraiser in Bedford and sits on the Bedford Homeless Partnership Executive committee.

A fascinating chat with the great Iain Lovatt this week. Iain shares his journey. Starting with a redundancy and a need to pay bills and how that ultimately gave birth to the biggest chapter of his career and world-leading data business Blue Venn, where he was founder and chair until their recent acquisition. A passionate educator, he talks about his roles in academia as well as how he sees leadership - a refreshing view on empowering those from within and how to surround yourself with the right talent and people to succeed. Lots of great insight and wisdom shared, another excellent listen.

Quite simply, Ruth is a tour-de-force. A true pioneer as well as an inspiring leader.

A wheelchair user from the age of seven, Ruth is a passionate advocate of disabled people’s rights, and acknowledged for her delivery of innovation in the disability sector. She was awarded an OBE in 2012, in recognition of her services to disabled children and young people.

Ruth joined Leonard Cheshire from Whizz-Kidz, where she was CEO. Under her leadership, Whizz-Kidz has become the biggest provider of powered and light weight manual wheelchairs for disabled children outside of the NHS, and a leading campaigning organisation in the sector.

Prior to Whizz-Kidz, Ruth had a successful career in the private sector, in technologies, eventually setting up and running her own IT company for ten years. For several years, Ruth was a Trustee of children’s charity Barnardo’s.

In 2018 she was appointed as a non-Executive Director of Motability Operations Group Plc, and in 2019 was selected as a member of The Mayor of London’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Group. We will run out of space to list all of what Ruth has achieved and, as you will hear, she isn't done yet!