We were glad to be joined at the Keltie offices on the 30th of September by the Lawyers’ Business Development Club, for an early morning talk from Ronan Dunne, CEO of Telefónica UK Limited.
Before attending the event, Ronan tweeted a question to be posed to the audience, which also acted as a theme for his talk on his personal career journey: Lawyers – Game Changers or Lion Tamers?
Ronan began by providing a brief description of his early career path, and highlighted that the defining elements were his curiosity to learn, aspiration to discover and hard-working attitude.
He then focused on important factors when working with, and being in charge of a team. Posing further questions to the audience, such as ‘what skills do you bring to the table?’, and ‘what will be different because of you?’, he explained that it is important to understand your strengths and those of the people around you, in order to build strong teams and get the best out of others.
Ronan also provided the audience with some pieces of advice that had helped him throughout his career, for example, to spend your time influencing the things you can change rather than focusing on things outside your control. And perhaps especially relevant to IP, that rather than debating the facts, you should spend your time determining the facts and debating the outcome.
Ronan concluded that although different personalities and roles should be celebrated within companies, if you wanted to strive ahead in your career then you should play by your own rules and be a Game Changer.
The talk was ended by a question and answer session, expertly chaired by Colin Carroll, founder of the Lawyers’ Business Development Club.
It was certainly an inspiring talk, and no doubt many found themselves motivated for the rest of the day (if not helped by the coffee and bacon sandwiches!).
If you would like to find out more about the Lawyers’ Business Development Club and their upcoming events, please visit; http://lawyersbdc.com/
Madeleine Finlay 12 October 2015