Jump Back
Almost 10 years ago, Ed Heffernan, Elaine Brady & Jonathan Olden had an idea, and from that idea Barden was born. Here, Ed shares a little of his Barden Origin story and imagines what the next 10 years will all be about…
I always wanted to have my own business, and I remember someone, probably wrongly, saying to me when I came out of college:
“Ed, don’t go off starting something yourself now because you’ll probably **** it up, right? Why don’t you find your profession, get good at it, learn from the very best, travel the world with it if you can, make loads of mistakes on other people’s time and money, and when you’re in your 30s, when some of the naivety has been knocked off, then go do the thing you want to do. At least then, you’ll know how to do something.”
So, I did that, and my chosen profession happened to be recruitment. I got to do all those things, which was amazing, and I’ve always been very thankful for having those opportunities and to the people I worked with – one of whom was Elaine.
I started an MBA part-time when I was about 34, just so that I could stop myself from starting my own business. But I couldn’t shake the thoughts. After chatting with my wife Caroline, getting her support, and reconciling myself with the financial anguish that would be my future, I had to just do it. Elaine was also at a transition point in her career, so we talked about doing something together and decided to go for it.
We didn’t know the term for it at the time, but Elaine and I did a lot of design-based thinking before we created Barden; we spent a lot of time thinking about the small things. We knew we wanted a place where we could enjoy working, advise and help people, and maybe even do good by doing good. We wanted a place where, over time, people might actually aspire to work. So, we wrote down our ideas, had many conversations, and realised during that process that we couldn’t create something just for ourselves because we weren’t the ones who would benefit. We needed to create something that people in Dublin hadn’t seen before.
We were very lucky that a particular partner in Grant Thornton recommended us, and we got the opportunity to pitch for the startup project for Alexion Biopharma’s shared service centre. Sandra Quinn flew over from Italy for the meeting and we were very grateful to her for trusting us and helping us. We pitched by saying, “We are the team that will be working on your roles. We’ll be working on Sundays and worrying about you on Sunday nights. That’s why you should use us.” For whatever reason, Gráinne McAleese said, “I trust you; let’s give it a go.”
That was the big break, I guess. There were other wonderful projects with Darragh and Pat in Malin, and with Avolon that we were lucky enough to be part of in the early days. Maybe it was luck, but you create your own luck, I guess.
If it wasn’t for the three of us, myself, Elaine and Johnny, being who we are, none of us would be halfway successful. It’s unusual that the three of us managed to get together, stay together, and work through all the problems like COVID and financial crises. We actually love working together, and none of us would be as strong individually without the others.
From day one, we always had an empty seat in the office, so we never forgot that we should always be thinking about who’s going to sit there. We are only as good as the person who’s going to fill that seat someday. The biggest challenge has been ensuring that the people who come into Barden believe what we believe and that we live up to the expectations we set for them. People like Kate Flanagan and Sarah Murphy took a risk by joining us in the early days. They had other options, but they chose to join us because they knew us and trusted us. But as we grew, more people decided they wanted to be a part of what we were creating.
Now, when Elaine, Johnny and I meet up, what we talk about the most is creating opportunities for our people so that they can realise their ambitions through Barden. That can be hard. The quality of the person sitting next to us and our ability to create opportunities for them and stay together long term, that’s the real challenge. Filling a job is a battle won or lost, but the momentum we talk about now comes from the people coming into the team and helping to push us forward.
For me, new people joining the business has been, and still is, the most exciting thing because I get to spend a couple of days with them in induction, talk about recruitment, and set the tone and expectations for what’s to come. Barden will grow when we find the right people who want to work with us. We’re not aiming for arbitrary targets. Our growth is tied to our people’s ambitions and potential.
