Leadership Discoveries #26: Building Businesses and Backing Futures: Rob Wood
What is Leadership Discoveries?
Leadership Discoveries™ explores how accomplished leaders exercise judgement, navigate complexity and create impact. Drawing on her experience as a senior executive, executive advisor and leadership scholar, I bring listeners inside candid conversations with CEOs, founders, board leaders and innovators. Together we explore the decisions, experiences and leadership thinking that shape organisations, careers and performance. Leadership Discoveries is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your favourite podcast platform.
Episode #26
In this episode, I speak with Rob Wood, Portfolio Investor and Founder of the Rob Wood Enterprising Futures Academy, about entrepreneurship, scale, reinvention and widening access to enterprise. Rob founded STEM Healthcare in 2007, scaling it internationally before its acquisition by UDG Healthcare. Today, he is an active portfolio investor, working with technology-enabled pharma services and AI-driven healthcare businesses, including AdvanceAI. Through the Rob Wood Enterprising Futures Academy, created in partnership with Newcastle University in the UK, he is also helping young people build the confidence, tools and support to succeed in life and business.
This episode dives into building businesses and backing futures. Here's a small sample of what you will hear in this episode:
Did Rob’s career shake out the way he planned?
How essential is a great team?
Is there such a thing as an entrepreneurial mindset?
Do people need to change organisations to progress in their careers?
What advice does Rob have for leaders today?
To learn more about Rob’s work, visit the Rob Wood Enterprising Futures Academy or connect with him on LinkedIn.
Check out the episode and show notes below.
Show Notes
Building Businesses and Backing Futures: Rob Wood
[0:27] Welcome back to Leadership Discoveries!
[0:41] Connect with Shirley at ShirleyKavanagh.com and on LinkedIn. To learn more about Rob’s work, visit the Rob Wood Enterprising Futures Academy or connect with him on LinkedIn
[1:56] Did Rob’s career shake out the way he planned?
[2:44] How did he decide to start his own business?
[5:05] How did he become successful?
[7:30] How essential is a great team?
[10:15] Is there such a thing as an entrepreneurial mindset?
[12:18] Why did Rob sell STEM Healthcare?
[13:45] Do people need to change organisations to progress in their careers?
[16:15] What was important to Rob in a buying company for STEM Healthcare?
[17:10] What advice does he have for an acquiring company?
[19:02] What businesses are in his investment portfolio?
[21:56] What concerns does he have about AI (Artificial Intelligence)?
[24:25] How did he start the Rob Wood Enterprising Futures Academy?
[26:32] What’s the dynamic in today’s multigenerational workforce?
[28:19] What advice does Rob have for leaders today?
Connect with Shirley at ShirleyKavanagh.com and on LinkedIn. To learn more about Rob’s work, visit the Rob Wood Enterprising Futures Academy or connect with him on LinkedIn