Karren Brady - Strong Woman - The Truth About Getting to the Top

First published in 2012 by Collins

an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

Karren Brady asserts her moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

HB ISBN 978-0-00-739592-7

TPB ISBN 978-0-00-746675-7

STRONG WOMAN. Copyright © Karren Brady 2012. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Ebook Edition © MARCH 2012 ISBN: 9780007413478

Version 2016-11-25

For Sophia and Paolo.

Remember work turns dreams into reality.

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Ch.1 My Mission

Ch.2 My Road to Independence: Childhood and Beyond

Ch.3 My Mind-Set

Ch.4 Entering a Man’s World

Ch.5 My Lifestyle: Money, Fame … Hard Work

Ch.6 My Home Life: Having It All?

Ch.7 Learning to Lead

Ch.8 My Children

Ch.9 My Brush with Death

Ch.10 Time for My Close-Up: My TV Career

Ch.11 Did Someone Say the F-Word?

Ch.12 No Time to Slow Down: My Career Today

Ch.13 My Rules for Success

A Final Thought

Acknowledgements

Picture Section

About the Author

Credits

About the Publisher

Canapés at Number 10 might not spark a eureka moment for every visitor, but they did for me. It was at a reception to mark International Women’s Day at Downing Street that I realised I had to write this book. As a British businesswoman with a public profile, I am invited to many networking events and it must have been about the tenth year that I had gone along to this one. But what struck me this time – alarmed me, even – was that it was all the same faces yet again, year in, year out. Where was the new generation of women leaders, snapping at our heels? The new inventors? The new charity workers? The new scientists and lawyers? Where were the young women who were going to change the world? I was left with the distinct feeling that someone needed to inspire this generation of women, to get them going and help them through – hand on the baton, if you like.

My own career has seen me become, at the age of 23, the youngest managing director of a PLC in the UK, run two Premier League football clubs, sit on the boards of companies including Channel 4, Mothercare and Arcadia, and join the BBC show The Apprentice. Meanwhile I’ve got married, had two children and undergone brain surgery. Writing a book about my own experiences, I decided, telling things as they really have been for me, without glossing over any of the difficulties or pretending that it was easy, might help other women to think about developing their own road maps to success.

I want women to know they should never feel guilty about championing their own career while being a mother and should never – ever – be afraid to be ambitious. For women, that means considering the core values you need to succeed; visualising the place you want to work and the type of company and people you want to work for, or the type of business leader you want to be; then setting out to achieve this.

Ultimately, I want to change – fundamentally – the way people perceive working women. Even now, you know that if someone talks about an ambitious man, you immediately conjure up the image of a dynamic go-getter, someone you want to know, someone whose company you’d relish. Someone in control; a man going places; someone to admire. Yet exactly the opposite happens if you mention an ambitious woman. If they’re honest, a lot of people immediately think, ‘I bet she’s a right hard-nosed bitch!’

I shouldn’t have to spell this out, but I will: being an ambitious woman certainly doesn’t mean you’re a bitch. We have to change that thinking. In the same way, we have to change the perception of feminism. ‘Feminism’ has become a dirty word, so much so that, through stereotyping and media spin, few people like to be associated with anything to do with it. But a feminist is not someone who burns her bras and hates men. A feminist is simply someone who actively promotes the belief that women are equal to men. I hope, by the end of this book, you will embrace that belief and all that it means, too.

So, why am I so keen to see other women climb the ladder? It’s simple. I love my career. I’ve combined it with being a mother, and I think I’ve been a success at both. That’s why the description I think suits me best, more than chairperson, vice-chairperson or CEO, is working mother. That is what I am – a mother who works. My work and my children are the most important things in my life.

But there have been times when it has been very tough. I hope this book contains experiences and advice that will make the path easier for other women, and that it can offer some kind of inspiration when it’s needed. It also signals my commitment to try to encourage, help and champion women from all different walks of life to achieve their potential. That’s a promise.

I feel a personal responsibility in this, too. I have a teenage daughter, Sophia, who will soon take her first steps into a career. There have been a lot of changes for women at work in the 25 years since I was in Sophia’s shoes – not all of them good – but changes still need to be made to support her and all young women.

Here’s one of my pet hates. Companies will pay a lot of lip service to wanting more women to soar through the ranks, but they don’t do anything about it. They’ll say they’re flexible when it comes to helping women combine work and home life, but when push comes to shove, it’s a different story. A lot of businesses are only flexible when it suits them. But the best companies are those that are diverse. If you want different types of women, with different types of experiences and backgrounds, you just have to accept that they might have a family. You’ve got to provide the flexibility and support to allow them to succeed and, most importantly, understand that, although they may try, they can’t be in two places at once.

Another niggle. When policymakers and the media talk about women in the workplace, we hear a lot about the ‘glass ceiling’. Many people seem to think that every working woman wants to run a huge banking conglomerate and that if they don’t they’ve somehow failed. But, actually, I’ve discovered that that isn’t what most women in business want. They want a job they enjoy that pays enough for them to afford high-quality childcare and in which they are respected. Many women have a common aim: to fit a career around a family. Yes, we have to juggle and, yes, sometimes we have to leave work early because our family needs us, but that should not, and does not, affect our commitment and loyalty to our employers and our careers.