For the first time EBEN Ireland’s 2014 Conference was held outside Dublin at the Lismullin Conference Centre near Navan in Co Meath in conjunction with our good friends at the Lismullin Leadership Forum.
It consisted of two related events on the subject of TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP. The first on Friday 21st November was for business executives while the similar event on Saturday 22nd was for those at an earlier stage of their career or students, generally under 25 years of age.
Becoming a transformational leader
Prof Dermot Duff, a specialist in Operations Management & Strategy from Trinity College Dublin Business School discussed how leaders can become ‘transformational’.
People will follow a person who inspires them. By their actions and attitudes, transformational leaders show others how to behave. They motivate, enthuse, rally, listen and energise those who work with them to keep the right focus on the shared vision. Is this the kind of leader you strive to be?
Data Protection — ‘Mere’ compliance or an opportunity for ethical leadership?
Hugh Jones, Cofounder and Managing Partner, Sytorus, spent the latter half of the afternoon session discussing how data protection offers an opportunity for ethical leadership.
Data protection is about the fundamental right to privacy. Anyone can access and correct data about themselves. Those who keep data have to comply with recent legislation. Companies advertising for jobs often reject applications on the basis of a quick search of social networking sites. What should business leaders do?
Dermot Duff is noted for his practical application of management “theory” and the resolution of complex business issues. He can draw on an unusual depth of experience across service industries and he has successfully helped develop an array of enterprises, large and small, in Ireland and abroad.
An Adjunct Professor (Teaching Fellow) at Trinity College Business School, managing the MBA Strategic Company Projects, he lectures in Operations Management and Strategy. He is also an Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham.
An electronics engineer by training, he held senior management positions in ITT Alcatel in Holland and was European Transformation Manager for Digital Equipment Corporation prior to its acquisition by HP. His early career was in oil exploration in Africa and the Middle East, followed by circuit design and international business development. His success in managing significant change in these large corporations led to his appointment as Senior Specialist and eventually Executive Learning Director with the Irish Management Institute. He currently leads IMI / UCC Diplomas in Management, Strategy & Innovation.
He is a member of the boards of Irish companies in financial services, heavy machinery, security and IT services, and is a business advisor and coach for Enterprise Ireland. His participation in a wide variety of management programmes has allowed him to absorb the teachings of many of the world’s leading business people and academics, particularly in the areas of Strategy, Lean, Innovation and Enterprise Development. He has published the following books: Project Management: A Practical Guide (2010), Strategic Cost Reduction (2011), and Managing Professionals and Other Smart People, published in 2014 by Chartered Accountants Ireland.
Hugh Jones is a co-founder and managing partner of Sytorus Ltd (http://www.sytorus.com/), one of Ireland’s leading providers of a range of services aimed at supporting organisations who wish to achieve and maintain a level of compliance with European Data Protection legislation. An experienced data protection specialist, he is a frequent speaker at Privacy and Data Management events in Ireland and overseas. Through Sytorus, he offers both public and bespoke training to organisations in the areas of data management and regulatory compliance.
As a certified practitioner, he supports organisations striving to achieve and maintain compliance with Irish and European Data Protection legislation. He facilitates projects to design and deploy appropriate policies and procedures in relation to data privacy, data quality and records retention, and conducts regular site audits and process evaluations on behalf of clients. He is an experienced project manager and works with a number of membership and not-for-profit organisations to support them in their operational and regulatory challenges.
EBEN Ireland 