August 18, 2021 / 28:18 min

Episode Description

This week, I had the pleasure of speaking with qualified Executive Coach, Chair for “Women in Wholesale” and the Chief Commercial Officer for the DCS Group – Clare Bocking.

From running the foodservice and wholesale divisions for Britvic to being a member of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council, Clare has had an extremely successful 25 years of commercial leadership experience in the Food & Drink industry.

Clare and I discuss her career journey to date, what motivates her daily and the traits she believes have helped along the way. Clare tells us about how her unique amount of energy and creativity coupled with her desire to always find solutions has consistently held her in good stead through the years. We also talk about the importance of mentoring and coaching which Clare believes can help tap into an individual’s full potential and set them on the right trajectory.

We talk about “Women in Wholesale” – an important movement that addresses gender imbalance in the wholesale sector and gives businesses and individuals the tools they need to ‘Inspire, support and progress’ more women in wholesale and to achieve much-needed gender diversity.

Lastly, we gain Clare’s insight into how the business has been affected through the pandemic, the measures they had to put in place and the obstacles they had to overcome. Join us as we discuss how Clare’s priorities have shifted over the past 18 months, her thoughts on good leadership, tips and career advice for those just starting out and the importance of new thinking and diversity in the workplace.

Here are some key topics we discussed through the episode:

2:50 Discussing Clare’s 25 Successful Years in the Industry

3:36 Career Reflection and The Traits That Have Contributed to Clare’s Success

5:20 The Importance of Mentoring and Coaching

6:47 “Women in Wholesale” and rectifying Gender Imbalance

12:00 Business during Covid: The Impact, Obstacles and Creative Solutions

17:50 The Principles That Underpin Good Leadership

19:38 Tips on Organising and Prioritising Work Load

25:46 Career Advice and The Importance of Being Happy

Enjoy!

As ever, if you’d like to get in touch you can reach me at Jonathan.ohagan@leaderexecutivesearch.com