Beyond Curious with LCP: Recognising the skills you take for granted with Helen Dickinson

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Helen Dickinson has been the Chief Executive of the British Retail Consortium, a trade association for UK retail businesses. In this episode, Victoria Snowden and Gordon Watchorn talk to Helen about how the role found her, and she shares her insights on the retail sector and on being a Chief Executive, particularly when it comes to the common habit of underestimating your skills and experience.

The BRC works with over 200 major retailers, plus thousands of smaller, independent retailers through its membership to make a positive difference to the retail industry in a transformative time for the sector. Helen is an active promoter of diversity and inclusion across the retail industry and also sits on the advisory board for Pennies, a charity which offers digital charity boxes to businesses.

In this episode, Helen discusses:

• Managing stakeholders, and getting a different perspective
• The resilience of the retail sector and working in a sector ‘everyone knows’
• Reframing risk to see the opportunities
• The need for agility and to shift business models, especially since 2020
• How Covid accelerated the digital transformation in the sector
• The importance of embracing experiences throughout your career – because you never know when those skills will be useful
• Finding common ground.

Relevant links:

• The BRC’s D&I charter

Thanks for listening.