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Glenys Coughlan
Glenys Coughlan  Glenys Coughlan has extensive experience in corporate relations and business strategy, branding and marketing strategy and government relations. Glenys has overseen the development of some highly effective communications campaigns that have resulted in outcomes from regulatory reform to improved corporate reputation and gains in brand preference and sales growth. Prior to her roles with The Republic of Acumen, Glenys was chief executive of the Tourism Industry Association of New Zealand (TIA). Glenys began her career working in a number of senior management positions with Air New Zealand (including manager strategic planning and manager government and industry affairs). After seven years with the airline, Glenys joined Saatchi & Saatchi Wellington as group account director for Telecom New Zealand. Responsible for Telecom’s $35 million annual advertising account, Glenys was involved in the launch of new services such as Xtra (ISP), $5 weekends and consumer mobile. Glenys has a BA Hons from the University of Otago, an MA from the University of Hawaii and an MBA from the University of Auckland. Serving on several boards, Glenys is a director of Tourism New Zealand and chair of Positively Wellington Tourism. In 2008, Glenys finished nine years’ service on the board of Te Papa (the National Museum of New Zealand). During her years in tourism and aviation, Glenys was a member of the World Tourism Organisation’s Business Council of Advisors and chairman of the Pacific Asia Travel Association’s Advisory Council and member of the Board of Directors. During her time as CEO of TIA, Glenys spearheaded the development of a national tourism strategy and became a director of the New Zealand Tourism Strategy Group. She was also a member of the Minister of Communications’ e-commerce Action Team (ECAT) and a director of the ATTTO. In these roles, she has applied strong strategy development skills, coupled with effective marketing and communication skills and extensive government relations expertise. She is a keen yachtswoman and outdoor enthusiast with a passion for New Zealand culture and the arts. What was your first significant business experience and what did you learn from it? The importance of backing yourself. Know what it is that you can contribute to a business and show a self awareness about how you will contribute to a team, e.g., I may not be an expert in corporate finance but I know a lot about consumer trends in your area of business If you could start your corporate journey again, what key business skills would you make sure you had in hand to ensure your success? Negotiation skills. There were times when I was so over the moon about being given an opportunity that I didn’t feel it was ‘appropriate’ to ‘push my luck’ when negotiating terms and conditions. What were some of the challenges you had to overcome on the journey to achieving your personal and corporate goals? Balancing the fact that I am a genuinely passionate and committed person with the need for structure and balance. I’m a lot better at structuring business cases than I used to be (it took me a long time to understand that I’m a conceptual thinker and yet often the people you need to convince when promoting an idea are detail people) and if I said I was better at balancing my personal and professional life, I’d be lying. But, I’m more aware that I’m not good at it if that counts? What got you through the ‘tough’ times? Friends and family. I have a family that is incredibly real and earthed. We share a great sense of humour and a very real appreciation for the importance of simple but wonderful things. Friends who ‘rolled’ with me and listened. A group of ‘believers’ who helped me to believe in me. Who are the mentors/role models that have inspired you and what important lessons have you learnt from them? I have never had a formal ‘mentor’ but there are a number of people who have had a strong influence on my professional development. A very dear friend Richard Priest taught me about strategic thinking, Fran Wilde taught me about being single minded, other people taught me about being gracious and generous and some people taught me about what I didn’t want to be. What do you think are some of the essential characteristics of a successful director/CEO? An ability to cut through to the essentials. What are we trying to achieve, what are the risks, how will we know if we are on or off track? We live in a hugely complex world so being able to distil things to essential truths is really critical. Business ‘know how’ is important of course but so too is an understanding of human behaviour – knowing what drives, motivates and inspires people is key. I also really believe in backing people … allowing them space to grow and develop but being there for them when they need guidance and support. What challenges do you think women face when applying to join boards? The same question that men face – what can/will they bring to the role? You need to demonstrate that the skills and experience that you have developed in management roles can translate into governance positions. Then, there’s the communications style (and this is horribly generalised) but men tend to do sound bites whereas women are more inclined to contextualise things. Knowing how to present your point of view/insights in a direct and compelling way is important. How do you find the balance between your entrepreneurial spirit and having to be accountable in your corporate role? It’s all about packaging – how do I ‘package’ this in corporate language to support my passion/beliefs? And, it’s about risk management – in very simple terms, good governance is about contributing to strategy, managing risk and monitoring performance. Successful entrepreneurs have taken and managed risks – so, being accountable doesn’t contradict being entrepreneurial. What are some of the core values you have brought to the many roles you have and currently hold? Have these values been tested, when, where and why? The Republic of Acumen (in which I am a shareholder and director) has four core values – energy in our actions, creativity in our thinking, credibility in our teams and real warmth in our relationships. They are a great set of values to work to … and yes, they are tested often. I used to be really cynical about the real warmth thing … “clients want results not real warmth” I would say. Now I think you are able to get better results when you have a relationship based on real warmth. There’s no second guessing and no hiding behind being polite about things. There’s an honesty and transparency that you just can’t beat. Finally, my Dad taught me that there is the right way and the easy way. Now there’s a test. Just what about your current role keeps you turned on and what have you done to ensure your team is continually motivated? I work across a variety of roles at the moment. What keeps me turned on is seeing teams succeed and knowing that I have helped to create an environment within which they were both inspired and enabled to do that. What have you learnt about effective leadership and managing people? Be prepared to pitch in. Don’t ask people to do what you wouldn’t do yourself. Back and defend them when you need to. Don’t muck around with poor performance. What is your strategy when it comes to engaging and managing staff? What can businesses do to attract higher calibre employees? Understand what they find rewarding – what motivates and inspires them. Know that you’ll get recruitment decisions wrong more frequently than you’d care to admit. Deal to the good and bad decisions as quickly and proactively as possible. Has being a woman in the corporate environment been an advantage or a disadvantage? Both probably. You have to earn your stripes, but when I started out, there weren’t many women in management so maybe it was easier to get noticed? The thing is, you have to deliver the goods – man or woman, if you don’t deliver you won’t enjoy advantages. What do you say to people who think it is too late for them to get into a corporate career? I’m not sure that I have ever been asked that question. I’m not sure if it’s about too late. Isn’t it about ‘why and what do you think you’d bring to a corporate’? You have been instrumental in driving many very successful communications campaigns for a number of key companies. Just how do smaller organisations/businesses (with their limited budgets) achieve any brand recognition/sales growth in their respective markets? The same way big companies do ... it’s not simply a matter of how much money you can put behind something, it’s about the power of an idea. We talk about insights that inform, ideas that amplify and impact that’s measurable. Know your market, know your competitors, seek ideas that will have cut through and connectivity, know the impact you want to achieve and measure/manage that. How have you balanced your creativity with the business side of your work? I’m fortunate that I am usually able to do both … marketing and communications ideas, events, new initiatives at Positively Wellington Tourism or recruiting a new CEO for Tourism New Zealand – whatever I do requires a mix of both. What is the most unusual request you’ve had in your current role? Hmmm, I’m sure that there have been unusual requests but none spring to mind … apart from an ‘entrepreneur’ who approached us with what looked liked a plausible opportunity. I ended up not being able to attend the meeting and sent two colleagues. It wasn’t so bad that the client (who had a background in IT) thought he was on the cusp of contributing to a new kind of military surveillance system, it was when he shared his thinking about taking Fonterra out that my colleagues decided that I owed them big time. How do you manage a work-life balance? Not very well. I’m at my best when I am in a good routine at the gym (but that gets easily disrupted when I travel a lot). My brother and I are about to buy a yacht … I think that will help. What are some of your current personal and business goals? Make technology my friend, lose weight, be a better friend … just the usual. Do you have a motto or saying by which you live your life? I have quite a few … ‘if you don’t invent our future, someone else will’, ‘life isn’t a dress rehearsal’, etc etc … a metaphor that I use often is being on the high beam at Outward Bound and freezing half way across. I am not sure how long I was frozen there for but in the end I decided that to try and turn around and go back was higher risk than working purposefully forward. What’s your definition of financial freedom? Not having the bank call you. Are there any books/publications that have helped you in your career? I love reading … but it’s not the text books that make the difference. It’s novels that inspire, cause me to stop and marvel at the images or feelings that the written word can evoke. Or novels that allow absolute escape. One of my favourite treats is to spend a day reading a novel from cover to cover … sun streaming in, the two dogs curled up with me … good coffee, nice wine, fragrant candle. Life’s good. |