#BWSMAGAZINE
SCOTTISH SLIMMERS
Success in this ever-changing landscape is about many things. Not least
what you hold dear and true to yourself.
Amanda Boyle’s career has been an adventure,
both challenging and frustrating, but never dull.
When she graduated from The University of
Dundee 20 years ago Amanda immersed herself
in business soaking up as much experience and
information as she could, from colleagues and
bosses, on what works well and what doesn’t
work quite so well. She learned as much from
the poorest managers as she did from the most
successful leaders.
It’s that flip side of the coin that has helped
her stay ahead of the curve and ensures she
explores every opportunity from a number
of angles. If it has never been done before,
that should not be a barrier to success, and
is usually what interests her most! Those who
know Amanda will confirm that her default
setting is contrary. Amanda’s initial reaction is
to fight against the status quo and look beyond
the horizon to see what she could do to add
value, challenge herself and succeed by doing
things differently.
She is a diligent reader and researcher, who
wants to seek out information for herself,
which includes identifying new opportunities
and reshaping the business model to make it a
better fit for the long-term future.
Nor does she want to be fed generic or
superficial information, instead, she looks for
data, trends and traits that make success,
usually in fields unrelated to what she’s working
on at the time.
Amanda’s very first role model was a maverick
boss who recognised the way her thought
process worked and encouraged her to
embrace the challenges that lay ahead and
to take calculated risks, sometimes, getting it
wrong, but avoiding catastrophic results and
getting back on track.
It is no surprise that her career path has been
dominated by innovation and change. It has
also been firmly rooted in working as part of a
team. Having benefitted from the support and
insight of a business mentors, Amanda now
supports a number of ambitious, smart women
in mentoring their careers.
Creating a virtuous circle of support and
guidance is something that’s increasingly
important to her decision-making; successful
people have a responsibility to encourage and
contribute to developing the next generation.
In her role as Entrepreneur in Residence at
Aberdeen Business School, she is privileged to
work with the next generation of leaders and
innovators.
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