"If something isn’t working, you can learn from failure and move on. That’s what start-ups do so well.”

In our latest Meet the Chair interview, trailblazing former Lloyd’s of London CEO Dame Inga Beale shared her thoughts on “bashing down stereotypes”, “hiring boldly” and why not to panic in a crisis.

Dame Inga sits on a range of listed and growth boards including global law firm, Crawford & Co. and private hospital group, Mediclinic International, which she also Chairs. After training as an underwriter, she spent her career in global insurance, becoming Global Chief Underwriting Officer for Zurich Insurance Group in 2009, Group CEO of Canopius in 2012 and was appointed CEO of Lloyd’s of London in 2014, the first woman to do so in 330 years, which she led until 2018. She is a passionate advocate for workplace equality and inclusion, and was awarded a DBE in 2017 for services to the UK economy.

What do you enjoy most about Chairing a business?

I enjoy chairing Mediclinic, it’s an entirely new sector for me which means I’m able to learn something new, which I also enjoy. Being in a new space means you have to think differently about things.

What do you look for before you sign up to a board?

I think it’s important for the company - and for yourself - to be clear on their purpose. For me the purpose should be driven out of needing to disrupt a fragmented experience. I’d always look for a CEO who is driven by that - to make something better and have that as their core purpose, rather than to be driven just by making money. If you’re looking at an established company, I’d say they need to have a transformation agenda and to mean it is critical - the CEO needs to have fully bought into that or I wouldn’t join.

What do you advise a Founder or CEO to look for in their Chair?

If you haven't had a Chair before, I’d advise that you need to get under their skin and find out their inner values and behaviour. Can you scour the internet to find videos where they’ve spoken from the heart? Ask other people that you trust for a view. Someone can say all the right things and look the part, but deep down they may be an old-fashioned thinker. You want them to be a modern thinker with the ability to take chances, so check them out as much as you can.

How have you worked differently with your CEOs during the crisis and will it change how you do things from now on?

At Mediclinic we’ve had people on the front line, nurses and doctors, and with Crawford, dealing with people’s medical claims. Our priorities have had to be supporting people to keep strong and healthy on the front line, so some longer-term strategic goals will have been put aside which is not uncommon.

Reporting has also changed dramatically, for example more rapid data insights and stats - which has been valuable. We’ve also had a lot more contact because of the crisis and that’s been much less formal - informal chats or WhatsApp discussions for example. That’s all helped cement relationships in many ways. Will things become more formal when we’re meeting less frequently, in person? Perhaps, but I am sure we’ll want to hold on to some of that informality.

I think we’ll want to keep the pace, we’ll continue to want quick decision making which start-ups are good at, but could be much more drawn-out in larger corporates, before Covid.

I think we’ll also be a bit bolder in hiring and looking for new talent, which is a great thing in my view: bashing down stereotypes. Also thinking more creatively about who and what we are going to invest in.

What advice are you giving to your CEOs/ founders about managing the crisis and coming out the other side?

It’s a marathon not a sprint. I’ve been through quite a few business cycles and the lesson I learned was: don't panic. It’s longer-term than you think. As a Chair it’s been important to keep abreast of activity so companies have been great at putting together a daily dashboard for the board. It’s been important to see things under control and not put undue pressure on CEOs. Longer-term, CEOs and senior teams will need downtime to ensure their wellbeing.

What have you learned from the growth space that's helped inform your listed boards - and vice versa?

In the listed world, it's allowing failure. You’ve got to have open, transparent communication: there’s no need for people to get defensive if you don’t know something. It’s fine to say you don’t know. We’ve got to make sure in the listed world that transparency is there, senior executives can be so well rehearsed. If something isn’t working, you can learn from failure and move on. That’s what start-ups do so well.

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