A company born in the pandemic, Lisa-Nicole Dunne had a wide and varied career in change management in financial services, the automotive industry, mobile phone market and the Not For Profit sector as both a board member and in the senior leadership of many companies in the market. It wasn’t until the pandemic hit that Lisa-Nicole realised she could open her own consultancy firm and focus on what she does best. Since Mantra Strategy was created Lisa-Nicole now consults with a range of companies and has a team of 5 employees and a number of contractors and freelancers. Here is how it all happened:

1. What was your origin story before you began Mantra Strategy?

I really didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do after school when I finished Mount Temple at 17, but landed into an English and History degree, got a bank job, and then travelled to Australia. It wasn’t until I came back in 2000 when I did a Masters in Business Administration, where I found my love of change management, CRM, Marketing and organisational development and this really did help shape the next years of my career.

I worked in Irish Life and Permanent until 2003, I then worked for BMW for over 4 years in CRM and Corporate Sales and Marketing. By then I was volunteering a lot for charities, particularly Nurture Africa and also lecturing at DCU. I moved jobs internally and externally a lot. I had no idea that I might be neurodiverse.

After a year in Carphone Warehouse as Director of Customer Management at a time of major change for the company, I moved to the nonprofit sector, and worked for UNICEF (2009-2012), then Focus Ireland (2012-2016), then CMRF Crumlin which is now Children’s Health Foundation, where I was CEO leading to a merger (2016-2019). It was a whirlwind with a mix of leadership, brand development, funding, strategy, governance, growth, and creativity. 

Over the years I have worked in many challenging structures and hierarchies where as a female leader you were just more dismissed. I was treated differently, excluded, not part of the golf set, not part of the macho trading talk, and often looked to as the one to make the coffee for the visitors for our meetings, looked through in favour of a colleague, even if I was the CEO! 

Working with global companies though I had a strong sense of the benefit of having broad and respected teams of all nationalities, backgrounds, religions and abilities. I really thank BMW and UNICEF for that early career lesson working internationally. Every engagement between colleagues and peers provided such amazement, total respect, and the massive difference obvious. 

I was also on the board of Charities Institute Ireland and subsequently became chair. I knew I wanted to keep making a difference and working with great impact organisations but also wanted more freedom to do the bits I was best at, and balance being more around for my two children (who had come along during my years in nonprofit roles). In fact I had taken up the CEO role at Crumlin when my newest baby was just 9 months old and I never believed in women taking pay cuts by going part time post babies, and still having to do the same job, so I had remained full time – but the time was now to refocus, have greater flexibility, and do work that I loved, every day.

2. What made you start Mantra Strategy? What services did you offer at the start and how has those services evolved since?

A mix of necessity, frustration, and opportunity – where all good ideas and solutions come from – Mantra started in early Covid.

I finished up a role due to covid, and had an idea for Mantra, a strategy consulting and training firm anchored in purpose and belief, how to orient around it, how to articulate it, make it simple, use it strategically for your vision and direction, to unify teams and to demonstrate, set and live the culture and values.

I wrote a 2-page business plan in May 2020, and our services plan then has very much guided what we do now. Strategy development, deep delve into belief and purpose, culture mapping workshops, leadership development (this only came onboard this year with the launch of our leadership institute but was always part of the strategy). Other services we offer include strategic search for leaders, trustees, or board directors, interim leadership services and change management. These additions were very much natural evolution based on our client needs- after we develop a strategy, they often need support delivering change, leading change, and putting in the right resources either to drive or oversee that change. But at our core it is still all about purpose led or belief led strategy.

3. What are some of the most common mistakes your clients make before they come to you for guidance? What are some of the solutions that you have created for them?

Clients come to us for a few reasons:

• They may have a requirement to have a written strategy from a governance perspective and want help exploring the environment, their strengths, opportunities etc, or putting together board and executive strategy workshops. 
• Sometimes they come to us because they have lost sight of their core, their offerings, products or services have changed, expanded and they need to revisit how they communicate this, internally and externally 

4. How do you go about gaining clients? What have been some of your favourite case studies so far?

So far our clients have been coming to us in a few ways, mainly through word of mouth or client referrals. We have all been around a while and hopefully have worked very hard to gain a positive reputation for our work, ethics and quality. We have also worked with Rethink Ireland from the outset with some of their awardees, and we have secured some clients via tender. 

We are working with an energy company, providing team leader development programmes, and that has been great to watch these emerging leaders grow, in confidence, competence and their own connections and culture with each other.

Another absolute favourite has been working with the Irish Deaf Society in developing their organisation strategy, which pushed us to think creatively about how we delivered extensive stakeholder engagement interviews and surveys, which we had to leverage to train the trainer facilitation and working through VideoAsk with ISL interpreters. This was both educational and truly inspiring, as we realised how significantly the Deaf community can be inadvertently excluded from so much in Irish society. There is such a need for more access to news, communications, ISL education and even emergency and health services provided with ISL for the Deaf community.

5. As the company grew, how did you go about building out your team?

Mantra started with just me, but Suzanne was involved from very early on, and each new hire started first as an associate and often part time, working up. I worked with Suzanne in Crumlin, and knew with her people, culture and HR skills she would be the perfect addition as we work hugely in the area of culture, psych-safety and change management. I have worked with Roisin in Focus Ireland, and after working in social inclusion, mental health and disability organisations since then, I knew she would be a great fit for our work.

We ensured we were busy enough in that way consistently for more than 6 months before offering employment contracts. We currently have a core team of five and about 10 additional consultants who work on key projects in specialist areas such as brand strategy, research and advocacy, specific diversity and inclusion, inclusive intelligence projects, community development, health, and other areas. 

6. You also have extensive experience on boards and the not for profit area. What are some of the best campaigns or events you have been involved with in recent years?

I have been on a few nonprofit boards and even chaired Charities Institute Ireland for a few years. I enjoy working as a Board Director, like the governance, commercial oversight and diversity of thought from different minds. I love how data and board work allows you to review, question and challenge the data and support their growth and change.

I worked with Focus Ireland and launched Shine a Light night for them, an award-winning campaign that sees CEOs and businesses swap the executive chair for a sleeping bag in solidarity with those who are experiencing homelessness. I also worked to bring about the IFTA-winning High Hopes Choir project with Annabel O’Keeffe at Focus Ireland, working in partnership with Tyrone Productions and other charities in the area. It was a brilliant experience and a great way to see how inclusion in action offers major benefits for everyone involved. 

One of Mantra’s client’s recent campaigns we loved working on is the Tackle your feelings campaign by Rugby Players Ireland with Zurich Ireland and Z Foundation. This programme focuses on under 21s through school programmes predominantly tackles the need to get young people comfortable with expressing emotion to promote positive mental health.

7. You do a lot of work with WorkEqual. How do you support the company and what impact has this made?

I run a think tank for charities and social enterprises and that is where I first engaged with the charity, then Dress for Success Dublin and now WorkEqual. Since then, Mantra has worked with them as part of the Mná na Eireann fund from Rethink Ireland, supporting their plans for corporate engagement in their mentoring and partnership opportunities, helping them develop a sustainable funding stream, and then helping them with their rebrand and transition to WorkEqual. As part of our own CSR then, we have continued working with WorkEqual on a pro-bono basis to develop their International Women’s Day campaign in partnership with One4all and Business and Finance Media Group, and this year we ran a fundraising Disco Lunch event for them in the Market Bar which was a great success.

8. How did the pandemic affect the company? Are there any positives you have taken from this time?

Mantra wouldn’t exist except for the pandemic! We are digital first, all working remotely and can work in our clients or online, and get skills from a wide variety of locations, and support people to work in this way, so definitely some positives. We also maintained a focus on whole life and allowed people to be there for children’s appointments, or caring for their parents, where needed, but still delivering in ways that suit them. This was an important lesson for us all from Covid.

9. Have you won any awards or accolades in recent years? What were some of the highlights?

We were shortlisted for two awards last year, with Image Businesswoman of the Year awards for start up category, and also the Women Mean Business awards for Entrepreneur category. It was lovely to be in the mix for these.

10. Apart from your clients, are there any other organisations in Ireland in the D&I sector that you are big fans of?

We like the work that Gearoid Kearney is doing in the MyAccessHub space, and organisations like Open Doors Initiative and Inclusio, or Irish Wheelchair association in the sports space.