BACK in a Yellow Submarine with Richard Branson

Today’s guest on Women Torque BACK learnt how to lead from her former boss and mentor - Richard Branson. This involved the frivolity of being inside - literally - the yellow submarine in Liverpool and in more serious situations that involved tragedy and death on the railways when her employer - Virgin Trains - owned the West Coast Mainline. 

Paul McCartney said of “Yellow Submarine’ - it’s a happy song that’s all”. The song was released as a double A-side with Eleanor Rigby - a Lennon and McCartney collaboration that deployed empathy to reach beyond their traditional rock audience of the time by commenting upon the neglected concerns and fates of the elderly. 

This contrast perhaps offers an insight into the leadership approach of Jane Cole -the Managing Director of Blackpool Transport - who asserts that kindness is not weakness. Yellow submarine characterised experimentation by the Beatles in the recording studio and Jane has been experimenting with new approaches to leadership by injecting empathy into neglected areas of business and people on the Fylde coast. 

If Jane is to be characterised by a Beatles song it must be ‘ ticket to ride ‘ because she started her career at British rail and worked her way up through the ranks. After a career break undertaking charity work in Rwanda ; Jane swapped public transport on rail tracks for buses but with a side order of trams on tracks just to be sure. 

John Lennon said that he and Paul McCartney collaborated by writing songs  ‘eyeball to eyeball’ and by close communication they had a common purpose. 

Jane and her colleague Karen Cooper have created a common purpose for Blackpool Transport and in a first for Women Torque BACK we have two guests being interviewed by two members of the Backhouse Jones team - Laura Hadzik and Jo Dawson-Gerrard. If you like this format be sure to GET BACK to us either by liking this podcast or subscribing. 

The Beatles started exploring new songs at Abbey Road. Here at Backhouse Jones our sound production takes place down under in Australia where Mandy Turner expertly makes it all ‘come together’. One day all podcasts will be made this way and it will be mandatory to have an Aussie introducing the broadcast but until then you can choose to contact Mandy at www.mandyturner.au.com