director profile
“I’d like to think I’m better as a CEO than I was a
CFO. I always felt I was passing through when I was the finance director in that it felt at the time like a very good preparation for doing something else at Greencore or elsewhere.” He has gained a number of insights since becoming
CEO, he believes. “One is the more senior you become, the more you need to focus on the quality rather than the quantity of decisions. It’s more important to get things right than it is to make a lot of decisions. That is actually quite different, because you spend your entire career up to this trying to do more and more as a meas- ure of how effective you’re being. “And getting the right teamis nevermore important as
when you are CEO. That is perhaps the most important part of the job. At times of stress, the organisation will appropriately look to the CEO for resolution of any issues. In order to do this, you need first of all a very strong team around you where people have genuine respect and feel comfortable giving their point of view. So you’re trying to be non-hierarchical and encouraging people to really say what they think. “And you need to have some independent, external per-
spectives. I’ve found it very important to not rely entirely for my information or perspective on making decisions on people who work for Greencore. You just need to make sure you surround yourself with an appropriate mix of internal and external input.” To this end he has actively tried to collect an informal
group of people he can call on for advice or input. “And our board I find to be a very, very helpful sounding board for me on a whole variety of matters in the business. That’s been a great resource,” he says. Coveney also stresses the importance of the CEO or
senior leader setting the tone for the culture of the organ- isation. “If I am not projecting a sense of optimism and a sense of calm, a sense of ambition and a sense of pride in the organisation, things aren’t going to work.”
A fine balance He believes balance is also a vital element of being an effective leader. “I have a very supportive and wonderful family. My family’s very supportive of the job I have and the pressures that puts on me in terms of travel. But I’m
similarly quite good at carving out real space and balance in terms ofmy lifestyle and the balance between work and family life. “While I’m not obsessive about this, I do think it mat-
ters to stay reasonably fit and healthy as well so you have the energy and resilience to deal with stuff as it comes up. Most of the people who I consider to be effective leaders are not only effective at work but have a very good balance to their life.” That said, Coveney’s idea of work-life balance is to work
about 60 hours a week and travel about three days. “The truth is you don’t get to have significant leadership posi- tions without working hard. The trick is trying to find a way to do that in a sustainable way.”
Politics-free zone Despite his family background – his late father Hugh was a Fine Gael TD and a Minister for Defence and Minister for Marine, while his brother Simon is the current Minister for Agriculture – Coveney has no plans to enter the political arena himself. But he does believe in corporate social responsibility
and individual responsibility to society, and is set to take over as president of Dublin Chamber of Commerce next year. “I think it’s very important for business leaders to actually take responsibility for the actions of business within the community, but also to try to connect business to the community in a broader way,” he says. “And I think it’s actually helpful for me as a CEO of
Greencore to have some external business involvement because it gives you a different perspective on your own organisation’s issues.” As regards his own future, he says he has no firm
plans and that, indeed, there was never any great mas- ter plan to arrive at a particular place. “In the 18 years or so since I finished my undergraduate course, I’ve kind of got on with doing something and at a certain point moved on. “I’m very content doing what I do, and I’d like to keep
doing it for a while,” he concludes. “I suspect it’s unlikely I’m going to be retiring from here in 20 years time at 60, but certainly there’smore than enough to be done here at Greencore to satisfy any personal ambitions I have at the moment.”
Summer 2011 Irish Director 29
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