Karren Brady, Birmingham Football Club - Building Gender Balanced Business

INTERVIEW BY ANNIE BURNS

“When a woman walks into an interview what do the men see? They see problems. I see potential,” says Karren Brady, the woman who made it to the top of testosterone fuelled premier league football as Managing Director of Birmingham City Football Club.

“And that means they’re missing out on some of the best talent around. When I see a woman I don’t see boundaries. I see potential and I want to know how I can help them realise that potential, find ways to make it happen.”

Karren’s unblinkered vision means she’s put women in charge at the Blues – women executives sign the players, do the hiring and firing, grapple with the press, and cut multi million retail and ticketing deals. They’ve made it in the macho world.

“Often men just see the problems when a woman walks in for a job – is she going to get pregnant, will she want school holidays off, what happens when the kids are sick? It’s all negative.” She explains further. “If a woman has the right skills for a job I find a way to make it work. I want to find ways to nurture women’s talent and provide a working environment that brings out the best of that talent– often that talent is missed or simply rejected at interview stage, assuming they can get that far.”

At the age of 23 Karren persuaded David Sullivan, owner of Britain’s biggest licensed sex shop group and a property portfolio (his personal worth was calculated to be £500 million according to the Sunday Times Rich List 2008) to buy and let her run the Midlands team, then languishing in the doldrums. She drove northwards on the M6 knowing she’d need “balls of steel” to survive let alone thrive in the macho world of soccer.

Over the years Karren built a strong and energetic team of senior women executives, spotting potential, raw passion and integrity. “I didn’t see boundaries. I wanted to harness that passion and promise and give their talents the room to grow and flourish”, she says.

In Julia Shelton she saw integrity and due diligence shining through. Julia is now Football Secretary, one of the most senior and powerful executives at the Blues, in charge of signing players, overseeing fixtures, negotiations with UEFA, and all rules and regulations.

“She’s in a league of her own and I could see that. She has due diligence and dedication written all over her. Her brain is hard wired with integrity and loyalty,” says Karen.

As the head of retail she installed “Rottweiler” Debbie Silver, a women who “just gets on with it and is a real doer. “I need someone like that to compliment my nurturing nature,” smiles Karren. Silver has recently left the club.

“The engine room of the business is ticketing and getting people through the turnstile,” says Karren. To run that important function she has Rachel Biddles, a woman with a “superb ability to understand systems and the need to make them run well which she does with great calm.” Women also run the conference centre, as well as the press and marketing department, the biggest in the club.

“Working women want two things – high quality childcare and an interesting career,” says Karren. The old macho office culture is not for her. “It’s the culture of long office hours and a clock watching mentality that makes it difficult for women. It’s the culture that is the problem and that is the hardest thing to change.

“Flexible working is the key for women to be able to have a successful career – new technology makes it easier than ever. But you must change the culture otherwise it won’t work.

“I don’t give a hoot about how many hours people are in the office so long as the job gets done. It’s not about being seen in the office and being the last person to go home. Getting the job done is what it’s about and women are very good at ensuring flexible working actually works.”

As MD Karren sees the big picture but also realises that making it work is often in the detail and helping with the practicalities of life.

“If for example somebody is looking for a nanny and doesn’t have the time to go through a long list of potential candidates I’ll ask the HR director to whittle it down to the best three or four candidates if that is helpful. I’ll do that for anyone at the club – staff top to bottom.”

And it works because everyone knows and trusts the woman running the HR department”, says Karren, who spotted the talents of Joanne Allsopp when she came to the club as a junior administrator at just sixteen. She’s now one of the youngest HR directors in business.

Annie Burns is a journalist with an extensive background in news and current affairs. In the 1980s and 1990s she worked at Thames Television as a producer and director of the then ground breaking current affairs programme, This Week. Later she became the senior producer responsible for original news slots of 5-6 minutes on ITN’s News at Ten, the major news broadcast for the nation. Moving to the BBC she edited the edgy right-to-reply programme, Biteback with fellow journalist, Sue Lawley. She also edited Law in Action on BBC radio and produced documentaries for BBC Radio 4 and 5. Burns grew up in Walsall near Birmingham and naturally supported her local side, Walsall FC.