Garvan Callan, Founder and Principal at ONEZERO1
Through my advisory practice ONEZERO1, I work with business leaders to develop and execute ambitious transformations with a particular focus on commercial, customer and cultural strategies.
I've been doing that for 5 years, prior to which I spent 20 of 26 years in financial services driving change and growth at a senior level.
I work across a range of sectors including Banking, Insurance, Education, Logistics, Technology, Health, Medicine and Public Sector, and our raison d'etre is to leave every organisation and leader we work with in a better place than we found them.
Our engagements are typically persistent in that we do a little bit of work on strategy, but spend most of our time in the trenches with our clients finding a way to execute through transformation journeys - we act as quarterbacks helping to set and make the big change plays.
Certified in Company Direction through the Institute of Directors, I am also an active Non-executive Director, I lecture and as a learning junkie have completed numerous educational opportunities including executive programmes at IMI, IMD, MIT, Harvard Business School, Oxford Said Business School, Booth and Singularity Universities.
And I'm currently writing a book, which due to publish later in 2023 and titled The Digital Business Handbook, is a practical guide to designing, building and sustaining a digital business.
What do you like about your current role?
No two regions, sectors or clients we work in are the same, and nor are the strategies they employ or journeys they are on - everything we deliver is therefore bespoke. This variety is both rich and stimulating. The process of defining and delivering strategy is, however, quite consistent, and the methods we use to drive from diagnosis to delivery pull out the best in people and organisations.
Our logo, 101 with an underline, stands for what we do and how we do it - the underline signifies that every strategy needs to be built on solid foundations - getting the basics right is the platform we build from. The starting 1 refers to how we scan the horizon to define a vision that is 1º better, 1º different. By doing this, we connect our clients’ uniqueness with prevailing, emerging and as yet untapped opportunities.
The 0 in the middle means we take every facet and angle into account - we think and act 360º. Where we can’t fulfil the need, we find and work with the best partner that can - so we are an open business, but always close the loop and get the job done.
The final 1 points to our belief that executing 1% harder, 1% faster and 1% farther is a differentiator - marginal gain, when the boundaries are pushed 1% extra every day, creates exponential results.
That, our experience and some of our stories can be seen at www.onezero1.ie.
What are your favourite books?
As a strategist, I love Good Strategy, Bad Strategy from Richard Rumelt - it's almost like he has read the mind, and the strategies, of every business leader in the world and, in a simple and compelling way, pointed to the fallacies of many modern strategies being a jamboree of aspiration and nice words while setting the record straight on the art of strategic definition, development and planning. It really struck a chord with our beliefs in that the fundamental process of strategy is the easier part (hence the over-reliance on words) - it's the diagnosis and decisions that is the hard and unique part.
More broadly, I like to read about the past and the future, and there are just too many great books to mention, but the Sapiens-Homo Deus-Lessons for the 21st Century trilogy by Yuval Noah Harari is just so well researched and thought out - it brought me from the genesis of everything that we have known and seen down a path to open up the many tomorrows that could unfold and our role in writing the future.
In the savage pace of life in the 21st century, we should continually remind ourselves that our actions today define the possibilities of tomorrow, a strain also prevalent in the book I am reading right now by Stewart Brand called The Clock of The Long Now - written in the 1990's it is unsurprisingly just as relevant today in its message that we are losing the ability to think in millennia as opposed to moments, and therefore risk all that has been won.
Who do you most admire and why?
As I'm in the middle of writing a book and experiencing the resilience it takes, I admire authors and particularly those that take complex topics like Harari and make them consumable, educational and inspirational.
After reading The Ride of a Lifetime by Bob Igor and listening to interviews and podcasts, I have to say he is a business leader I have come to admire - the mix of vision, conviction, empathy and responsibility that he exudes is a good source of inspiration for anyone.
I also believe in symbolism and acts of bravery which characters like Nelson Mandela stand out for - we remember leaders such as JFK for the words, but I believe that actions speak louder.
What is the best advice you have ever received?
Several mentors and leaders I observed have taught me that the conviction to excel when driven by your inner beliefs and values is the success of compassion in life - putting fear aside and striving for what's personally important can never lead you astray.
What motivates or inspires you?
I've found that in life, my passions, when pursued singularly, have led me astray and that it's important to have and balance many passions in life.
Getting the balance right is what I'm both passionate about and inspired by, and that spans being everything I can be for my family, business, community, and myself.
What would you like to highlight and share with our audience?
Knowledge is gold - read, learn and observe as much as you can. It's always worth the investment, and while we should always spend time deciphering meaning, the brain has a funny way of mixing it up and giving you powers and insight you might never know you had.