Never Build The Business You Tried To Escape (Chrissi McCarthy)

Dr Chrissi McCarthy is the Managing Director of the Centre of Behavioural Equality (COBE). Chrissi spent 10 years in the UK construction industry, first as a setting out engineer and then as a site manager. She loved the concrete and the cranes, but not the long hours, the presenteeism, or the discrimination she faced as a woman on site, and she found that the equality and diversity initiatives brought in to help her often made her working life harder. So she set out, as an engineer, to fix the problem herself, and 19 years later she still runs COBE, which helps universities, public bodies and commercial organisations understand how fair their people feel they are treated before they launch change. Along the way she completed a PhD, worked as a visiting researcher, grew her consultancy to around £300,000 in turnover within four years, spoke at the House of Lords, and then deliberately remodelled the business around research, work life balance and the freedom to turn clients down. In this conversation, Chrissi explains how research changes the way she consults, why she wants to be proven wrong, and what success means once turnover stops being the scoreboard. Expect to learn why diversity training built around the law can create backlash, why an initiative that works in one company can fail in another, what a PhD teaches you about truth that a quick Google never will, why good researchers expect to be wrong in 10 years, how a business of 15 people made her busier but not happier, what she learned from the hardest year of her career, why more money stops buying happiness past a certain point, and how to design a business that does not turn into the job you were trying to escape, and much more… - 0:00 Cold open 0:31 Welcome 1:09 From Construction Site To Consultancy 2:54 What A PhD Teaches You About Truth 5:23 The Biggest Misconception About Research 8:37 Redefining Success In Business 12:29 Her Hardest Stretch 16:29 Money Beyond The Happiness Threshold 18:51 The Journey Is The Goal 20:41 The Main Takeaway 22:12 Where To Find Chrissi McCarthy - 🔗 Guest & Resources Connect with Chrissi McCarthy:   / chrissi-mccarthy-phd-120a1111   Website: https://thecobe.co.uk - Get in touch in the comments below or head to... LinkedIn:   / mikulaszach   Apply to be a guest: https://consultingrainmakers.com/ Email: mikulas.zach@agenteedigital.com