003: The Value of Establishing Your Personal Brand with Caroline Bedford

What is intrapreneurship, and how can it help you or your employees to promote innovation within your organisation?

What is the value of generalist skills and knowledge when considering executive positions?

Why is it so important to establish a personal brand and network prior to leaving the corporate environment to pursue your own industry ambitions?

In this episode, we’re thrilled to be speaking with Caroline Bedford, Chief Executive at EDII! With a background in the technology sector, Caroline undertook a career in insurance, working in various exciting roles before departing the corporate world to build her own business. In conversation with Sandra Lewin, she highlights the key values underpinning good leadership, emphasising the importance of promoting innovation at every level of a business in order to sustain growth and talent retention.

 

Quote of the Episode

“With the intrapreneurial roles, you know, it's in company's interest to be able to cultivate those kinds of passions and capabilities in their staff, and to really nurture that. I don't see any specific job applications from organisations seeking to employ an ‘intrapreneur’. However, I do now see that in terms of people's development programmes, creativity, authenticity, curiosity. Those types of mindset and behaviours are now being welcomed, and expected in many cases. Those are all attributes that people who work for organisations can also share with entrepreneurs who, who work for themselves and take the risks that are associated with that.”

Intrapreneurship refers to the application of entrepreneurial skills to promote growth within one’s organisation. Caroline asserts that developing these skills is a key way of building up your reputation within your organisation, thereby establishing valuable connections which you will retain if and when you move elsewhere. Furthermore, she argues that fostering these skills within one’s employees can facilitate talent retention. A key demographic of talented employees who leave the insurance sector every year is women in their 30s-40s. Caroline argues that this is fuelled by companies failing to allow these employees to creatively innovate in order to solve real problems. It is crucial to invest in your staff at all levels and ages, and give them an outlet with which to apply their unique skills, thereby achieving personal growth and developing the business simultaneously.

 

Key Takeaways

Caroline highlights the value of generalist knowledge at all levels of the insurance industry. Upon leaving school, she joined the technology sector, and ultimately chose insurance to practice that specialism. Consequently, she brought a wealth of external knowledge and skills to the industry that has fuelled her individual growth and that of the firms she has worked for. Additionally, she notes that having external skills and expertise provides an excellent foundation for entering executive positions. Today’s CEO requires an understanding of the broader business environment in which they are operating, with generalist capabilities ranging from business development, operations, strategy, deliverables, product development, and more.

For Caroline, as a business owner it is crucial to prioritise one’s staff above all else. A key tenet of leadership is the capacity to motivate and inspire people even when the chips are down; to work through challenges and frustrations whilst recognising that you are ultimately responsible for the livelihoods of your team.

Caroline recalls ‘Don’t wait till you need a network to build one’ as the best piece of advice she has ever received. You need connections, especially when transitioning from one role to another, or from a corporate environment to your own business, who can support you and verify your credibility. Before departing the comfort zone of the corporate world, it is crucial to establish your personal brand. Many of your industry connections will likely be a product of the brand with which you are affiliated. Once this recognisable credibility is gone, many of these connections could be severed. As such, you must invest in your individual brand in addition to that afforded by your corporate employment. It is ultimately the value others see in your personal name that will secure you future opportunities or investment.

LinkedIn can be a fantastic tool for building a community and demonstrating the unique value you can bring to a business, or the industry at large. However, it must be approached as a two-way street. You shouldn’t simply put information about your personal triumphs out there; you must also engage in what your connections are doing, and participate appropriately in conversations and debates. In using this platform in a consistent, engaged, and authentic manner, people will soon recognise your individual value, which will be instrumental in developing your personal brand.

 

Best Moments/Key Quotes

That's a great thing about insurance – there are lots and lots of opportunities. You don't just find yourself in an organisation and stuck in the role that you joined in. If you exhibit talent, passion, and skill, and capability, then there will be opportunities there for you. Throughout my career, I have worked for technology companies, I have worked for insurers. And I was part of the acquisition team when DXC was acquiring Xchanging a few years ago.”

 

“One of my specialist passions is the rise of the generalist. This is something that's really helped propel me through my career. Once I recognised the value that comes with having those generalist capabilities, it kind of freed me from some of the sort of anchors that held me back in the past where I felt that to be able to succeed, you needed to have deep specialisms in one specific area. Since I did research and have started to really take, ironically, a deep dive into the role of the generalist, that kind of led me to understand firstly, the type of capabilities that everybody in industry needs now is no longer just that vertical career path, but also the horizontal. It also stood me in good stead for the role of a CEO.”

 

“People will often engage you because of that big name, [but] if you wish to then go out on your own, you have lost that Golden Shield that is going to make people gravitate towards you. So even when you work for that big name, it's important that people see you as Caroline or Sandra, or whoever you may be.”

 

Resources

Caroline Bedford – Fifty Over Fifty: https://fiftyoverfifty.org.uk/list/caroline-bedford-edii/

The Rise of the Generalist: Caroline Bedford speaks at The Women In Tech Conference 2022: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftAmGzKmj3s&ab_channel=EDIIGroup

 

About the Guest

Caroline Bedford is the Chief Executive of EDII, home of Digital Minds, helping insurance and business professionals understand how innovation, design and entrepreneurship can help to futureproof their work.

Caroline’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caroline-bedford-a0225212/

 

About the Host

Sandra Lewin started her career in insurance as a broker and has since taken on many different roles. Alongside being a host of this podcast "100 Women in Insurance", she also specializes in helping insurance businesses and professionals establish a social media presence, delivers change programs, and provides one-on-one coaching for women looking to take control of their careers and lives.

Connect with Sandra on LinkedIn and find out more: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/sandralewin