Leading-edge symposium to bring high-profile speakers to Dublin

This year’s Deloitte Best Managed Companies Symposium will bring an impressive line-up of international speakers to Dublin

Rob Wainwright

The year’sDeloitte Best Managed Companies Symposium, run by the programme's academic partner, the Irish Management Institute (IMI), will be held this coming Friday, March 1, at the Convention Centre Dublin ahead of the gala awards event taking place in the same venue later in the day.

Hosted exclusively for CEOs and management teams from the Deloitte Best Managed Companies network, the symposium will have a series of inspiring talks and interactive sessions, providing exclusive insights and practical, targeted advice.

This year’s speaker line-up will include business educators and thought leaders from Ireland and overseas.

The keynote speaker will beNancy Rademaker whose talk will be on the topic “Leaders the Day After Tomorrow”.

Rademaker has more than 20 years’ experience working for different IT companies with a focus on the transformative power of technology in society and how it influences people’s behaviour and helps them to share knowledge, create and innovate.

She travels the world taking business leaders to innovation hubs like Silicon Valley, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Berlin, using that first-hand inspiration as a continuous and valuable source.

In her Deloitte Best Managed Companies Symposium session, Rademaker will explore how to be inspired, to look beyond “just” the technology, zoom in on the needs of customers and put them first. The symposium will also featureDr. John Briffa who will speak on the topic: “Taking Care of Business: Strategies for Optimising Individual and Organisational Wellbeing, Performance and Productivity.”

A practising doctor, Briffa is an internationally-published author, journalist, speaker and trainer, He is director of Dr. Briffa Wellness, a specialised business consultancy dedicated to providing practical tools for personal and organisational productivity.

Briffa’s symposium session will focus on the link between wellbeing in the workplace and personal and organisational productivity.

He will offer attendees at the event a selection of lifestyle and thinking strategies for optimising individual and organisational wellbeing, performance and productivity.Sir Rob Wainwright, a Deloitte partner in Northwest Europe will lead a symposium session entitled “Cyber Security - Navigating the Cyber Terrain” Wainwright, who retired as executive director of Europol before joining Deloitte, will share his deep insights on cybersecurity with attendees at the event. During his time at Europol, Wainwright established the European Counter Terrorism Centre and the European Cybercrime Centre and led the transformation of Europol into a world-class security institution and the centre of innovation for cybersecurity, anti-terrorism and financial crime.

He was the pioneer of new global data-sharing and analytics platforms across governments and industries, and has led public-private cooperation initiatives on cyber at the World Economic Forum. He has had a 25-year career in intelligence, policing, government, EU and international affairs, was awarded a Knighthood by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth last year for his services to security and policing.

Deloitte partner David Carson will chair a panel discussion at the symposium entitled “Brexit: Beyond 29 March”, with participants:

- Dr Loretta O’Sullivan, Group Chief Economist at Bank of Ireland;

- John Cronin, Partner, McCann FitzGerald, and;

- Paul Tierney, Managing Director, Extraspace Solutions Ltd.

A corporate finance partner leading public policy, including Brexit, at Deloitte Ireland, Carson is a member of the IIEA Brexit Hub, a council member of the British Irish Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Brexit subcommittee.

He leads Deloitte’s “Brexit Lab” assisting client companies in their strategies to mitigate threats and take advantage of opportunities arising from Brexit.

The lab accelerates businesses beyond uncertainty by examining potential risks, scenario planning and exploring opportunities to drive strategy and decision making.

Valarie Daunt, human capital consulting partner at Deloitte will lead the the session at this year’s symposium entitled: “Is your organisation simply irresistible?”

Daunt leads Deloitte’s Human Capital practice in Ireland with responsibility for the provision of advisory services to a broad range of the firm’s national and international clients.

She has spent more than 15 years delivering human capital solutions to public and private sector clients, both as a practitioner in the role of Human Resource Development with an international bank and as a consultant.

Her symposium presentation will focus on how to create an organisation that people will clamour to work for and hate to leave.

Professor Michael Shiel will also speak at this year’s Deloitte Best Managed Companies symposium on the topic of “executing strategy”.

Shiel, a teacher and consultant in the field of strategic innovation and leadership, works with clients throughout the world, including Pfizer, L’Oréal, The World Bank, on the development and implementation of strategic change. He is adjunct professor of strategy at INSEAD, teaching on the INSEAD MBA programme, and leads tailor-made executive programmes for large client companies.

The proportion of business strategies, which achieve their goals and create value in the medium-to-long term, according to Shiel, is in a minority.

Many potential factors contribute to strategy and there are many critical factors, which must be aligned if the strategy is to work.

In his symposium session, he will outline a clear and practical set of action items, which can be implemented immediately within any organisation. Why do certain leaders have the ability to really engage, inspire and move people to act?

Executive and communications coach Paula Mullin will aim to answer this question during her symposium session entitled: “Leading with Executive Presence.”

Executive presence has long been acknowledged as a critical factor in leadership, according to Mullin.

However, its definition is often mysterious and people struggle to capture what it really means.

With 18 years’ experience in her field, Mullin is one of a small number of Irish coaches accredited to deliver the Bates Executive Presence Index (ExPI) assessment.

Bates ExPI is a 360-degree science-based model for measures executive presence. Mullins’ session will use Bates ExPI to explore the three dimensions of executive presence: character, substance and style.

The MC at this year’s Deloitte Best Managed Companies Symposium will beJulie Ryan, head of the Irish Management Institute’s Customised Executive Education business.

Founded by Ryan, the IMI’s Customised Executive Education business has been globally ranked by the Financial Times for the quality of its work.

Ryan is an executive coach and board member. A participant in industry working groups, she is a judge for IITD and GradIreland national awards.

She has extensive experience working with stakeholders and industry partners, including Enterprise Ireland, IDA, Irish Banking & Payment Federation, CIF and UCC to both expand the IMI’s footprint in industry and support leadership development in Ireland.

Ryan and a professional team at the IMI work with hundreds of organisations and their senior teams to enhance business performance through talent development programmes.