Monthly Archives: December 2017

Last week, I was lucky enough to share a stage with a very auspicious group.  Dr of Psychology broadcaster, writer and columnist Maureen Gafney.  Doyenne Award winning Google manager  Cera Ward and  Emer Kennedy, Global HR Director at Google. The Women@google network, an initiative that was co- set up by  Sheryl Sandberg in her time at google, now COO at Facebook is an active employee group hosts summits, courses and mentorship to develop and support women and there was plenty talk of Leaning in during the day.
The Google Stride Event, Receive Achieve Believe focused on effective feedback for women in leadership giving and receiving Constructive but Negative Critical reviews. And in essence that is what we do at VERI with our digital platform for analytics of training outcomes.
Data to support a change
The day was started with a focus on emotional intelligence. Maureen Gaffney had some research from the 70 female leaders at the event and in her work with companies managing change and transitions. Dr Gaffney suggested that having data to support your position is critical. Women leaders  are perceived  as too whiney, or too emotional or too dominant. But if you separate the message from the messenger with clear facts these perceptions can be quashed.
Change to Support Improvement
Cera Ward has a motto for her team, which is do something which “scares the bejaysus out of you” every quarter. Fail to do so and you’re not pushing yourself, it is a fear of stepping outside one’s comfortzone. Change is not something that Ward is afraid of, we at VERI are all about changing mindsets to a collaborative, digital communication tool makes training companies very good at getting on with the job to hand.
Using Tools to make you more efficient
There were many other speakers on the day including Emer Ward, a global leader and for me one of the most empowering speakers, who spoke about it being impossible to do it all, and the need for support as well as the personal versus the professional balance. Using tools to make you more efficient whether that is a housekeeper, a restaurant or a digital platform !
The last word of the day came from a male perspective. Peter Ryan is an amazing young man that lost his sight at 20 and has returned to success at European and Par Olympic level.
“Everyone in life has a story. This is my story but it doesn’t make me special. I don’t think my problem is better or worse than someone else’s. A problem is a problem. It’s how you’re dealing with it is the antidote. My support network was my answer. That’s what made me who I am – not the condition.”
Creating the right environments, programs and policies can support people  in pursuing their dreams and building tools that change the world, according to women@google. At Veri we have built a tool that will change the way companies’  manage their training. Receiving feedback in realtime, that is digital and transparent, ensuring good governance. In order to achieve success for learners, improvement in delivery and increased return on investment in training. More information from VERI.IE

Thomas Edison said “We often miss opportunities because it’s dressed in overalls and looks like work”
Although it meant Friday night and Saturday work, the opportunities for Veri this weekend involved being dressed less in overalls and more in black tie, but were substantial for provoking possibilities for our product in data protection and internationalisation.
Tendering We kicked off our opportunities meeting the Minister of State with special responsibility for Data Protection on Friday, Pat Breen at a round table discussion on our business with Fiona Deegan and two other businesses that had received amazing support from Kilkenny Leo. We had great feedback on our product for data protection and digitisation in the training sector from the Minister.
All three business spoke about negative recent experiences in government tendering processes as rural SMEs. Brian Fives from EI suggested that VERI get involved with SBIR. Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Ireland is the national innovation pre-commercial procurement initiative administered by Enterprise Ireland. Also Minister Breen has said “SBIR is particularly suited to small and medium businesses. The SBIR initiative, which observes best-practice procurement processes, also supports and complements the Government’s research, innovation and enterprise agenda.”

Mentors: Sarita Johnson, Manager of Female Entrepreneurship
Enterprise Ireland has been a mentor and a huge support for us at VERI from the off. After a call last week, Sarita invited us to attend the 25th Annual Software Industry Awards in the mansion house Friday night. Fellow ex- northerner Barry Lowry, Government CIO gave an inspirational keynote speech. He studied via #fet at night while working and using Martin O’Neill and Irish soccer as an analogy stressed the importance of #mentoring #GenerationApprenticeship. “A Fixed mindset versus a growth mindset” was what he said the difference a mentor can make to a company or a career.

On Friday night I was seated at a table with 9 very auspicious men in tech, and enjoyed hearing the war stories of their journeys in scaling successful tech businesses. I promised to come back in 2018 with a few war stories of our own and a nomination for our upcoming product on predictive analytics for remediation and training. I also joined our google mentors table with James Allen and was delighted to be invited back to speak to 70 of their female staff for their Women@Google network next month to inspire future female Google Leaders.

On Saturday night , I was seated with the same number of very auspicious women in business. VERI was a finalists in two categories for the StateStreet Bank Chamber Awards in Kilkenny.

Breaking the glass Ceiling

With just six at the Veri table we joined the inigma that is Mags Kirwan of the Goatsbridge Trout Farm, who received the special award for inspirational business leader in Kilkenny.
I was also delighted to meet Sinead Fitzmaurice FCA from Transfer Mate who won three awards which included Kilkenny business of the year. Terry Clune was again really insightful and I was really appreciative with his advice that regulatory technology like VERI is new “Fintech” and the future for business.
To sum up, if you love what you do you never have to work a day in your life. Although I had a marathon weekend and was back in the office on Sunday afternoon working on a new Tender that we may or may not win. Politics, awards and networking are all part of the continuous professional development that is intrinsic to success and progress in our business. However it is secondary to the focus on our clients and our ability to serve them.