Joanna Swash is now the Managing Director of Moneypenny, and talked about her new role.
Amonline interviewed Swash about her career move and asked why she had decided to join Moneypenny. Swash said: “I was running my own small company (remanufacturing cartridges for laser printers). It wasn’t going too well so I applied for a vacancy in sales. That was 12 years ago when there were just 20 people. I had a particular empathy with what the company was doing. I totally ‘got it’ because I knew what could be lost through just one unanswered call.”
Swash said that she didn’t think there was a glass ceiling for women in industry and commerce, that “success really is down to the individual”, and believes that “if you are passionate about something, work hard and have a can do attitude then opportunities will arise”, adding that most of the employees at Moneypenny were women.
Her views on executive pay and whether it should be capped were that “every business is different and has different needs”, and that attracting the right person for the job is important but “each situation is unique”. Swash said that she had learnt a lot in her management career, and commented that it was important to “instil in both clients and employees a sense of trust and wellbeing.
“That’s the ethos of Ed and Rachel (Ed Reeves and Rachel Clacher, the company’s founders). Look after people and the rest will follow. Show what ‘good’ looks like. Also, to keep abreast of innovation so that we are able to offer our clients the very best solutions for their business. As a business, we learnt early on to recruit from within where possible.
“It’s a false economy to rush things, to employ people simply to fill a position. Far better to wait for the right person to come along. Creating the right environment and giving staff opportunities is key to their wellbeing and asking every member of staff for their input on how to improve the business. You’ll always get the best out of people by doing this”.