"Making everyone in the organisation you work in feels as though they can be the very best version of them at work as happy, engaged people are always more willing to go the extra mile, think the creative solution and engage more positively with customers."

"Being a purposeful company is all about corporate character, not corporate add-ons. A purposeful company will have a very clear sense of its long-term social mission and will be guided by that in its decision-making."

"I don’t really pay attention to my own publicity - that’s not why I do the job. What I need to concentrate on is doing the best possible job for my customers, my investors, and our communities. If I have any power, it’s to do the absolute best for everyone and maybe to try to inspire the next generation to be the best that they can."

"You have to decide whether you always want to be Thierry Henry or Arsene Wenger. When I was younger, I thought I was always going to be Henry but someone opened my eyes to realise that overseeing the whole team, thinking about the strategy and getting the best out of others was much more satisfying."

"I’m a football fan (Everton) and I say to my staff you are only as good as your last match. I’ve never looked back and said that I should have done something differently, but some days are harder than others."

"I've also learned to leverage tough times to build followership. In times of crisis, the role of the CEO isn't to be a spokesperson; it's to lean in and help with the critical tasks that need to be done. You can absolutely come out of this period stronger."

"I've learned through difficult periods as a CEO that resilience is everything. I believe the ability to quickly recover from setbacks, rally for longer, and remain positive is a key differentiator for many top CEOs."

"Empathy is absolutely critical for CEOs. In a politically uncertain world—with increasing divergence between the “haves” and “have nots,” you have to think carefully about how you show up as a leader and ensure you’re in touch with your customers, employees, and wider stakeholders."

"CEOs have always had to focus on running their company well, but, unquestionably, a CEO needs to increasingly focus on purpose, investing time and resources in making a wider contribution to the environment and to the communities where their company operates. They need to focus more on culture, as culture is the enabler of any upside, and it should guide you as a leader."

"I think you need a little bit of everything. I think you have to kind of play it safe to begin with a little bit, you have to listen to people and work as a team, but towards the end you kind of use your own initiative and be a bit more outspoken."

"Business owners shouldn’t be afraid to ask for help from the people who have the answers."

"You don’t need massive amounts of money behind you when you start, but finding the right products for your business can really help."

"“Am I going to feel passionate about my business every day for the rest of my life?”"

"The rise of social media made it easier to make and sell my own clothes and get into the fashion world."

"As long as you’ve got a solid idea and a strategy to get to where you want to be - just give it a go."

"You’ve got to have that entrepreneurial flair where you will find the answer to the problem."

"I ended up working pretty much every hour I possibly could and reined in my spending as well so that I could invest in my business."

"You have to work hard for money and save for a rainy day."

"In business sometimes, that’s how people are and that’s what works for them, but that’s not how I would want to manage my own. So I tried to keep out of confrontation, focus on the prize and keep people on board. But by the end, I wanted to show myself a bit more. I think everything I did worked really well and, obviously I’ve won so... I can't even believe I’m saying that."

"Usually, you’d have to remind yourself what happened but this part was just selling myself and my business, and that’s my passion. That’s what I know everything about. So by that point, it was great to be able to just talk abut the business and to sell it."

"One of the key things for me going in was to just be myself. I tried to stay calm. I did not want the aggressive label. In business sometimes, that’s how people are and that’s what works for them, but that’s not how I would want to manage my own."

"“Actually, if I put my head down and do the right things, I could bloody win this.” I felt I grew a lot more in confidence during the process and eventually won it. So yeah, I did something right."

"I’m very confident in myself as a person, and I know I work well in business, but you just never know with the tasks. The first couple of weeks were really hard."

"But I think backgammon is even more beneficial because it revolves around managing probability, risk and reward"

"It’s just like anything, until you have someone to show you how to play it you won’t pick it up"

"You see it in all sports and particularly in those like snooker for example, when you’re about to win and all those thoughts start going through your head you actually play worse"

"The women’s tournament was much smaller than the main competition and I got lucky to get through the draw"

"It looks very glamorous from the outside, but you’re just in some big room in a hotel with lots of boards so it really just feels like a school hall"

"My biggest learning around mentorship is that all of the drive and determination needs to come from the mentee. If you go to a mentor or coach expecting them to wave a magic wand and fix your life for you, it’s not going to happen."

"If you can’t see someone who looks like you doing the job, then you don’t think it’s for you."

"I would love to live in a world where everyone, including the women themselves, expects exactly the same drive and ability from both female and male employees."

"Once you get into management, it’s challenges all the way up!"

"I have a fledgling career as an actor and trying to fit both in means I work pretty much all the time, including evenings and weekends. I try not to send emails into the night"

"I discovered Todoist through a 'lunch and learn' we did at Softwire where people explained their methods of tracking tasks. It's a fabulous app because it just works."

"I'm too busy to check email or social media before work, which is great as I find that checking for updates does not set me up well for the day at all"

"I get up at 7:30 am. I do 'morning pages' - three written pages of journaling (a concept from The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron). Then ten minutes of meditation and a half-hour walk into the office."

""If you work for me it doesn’t mean I don’t drive quite hard for things, but there are times in business when you just have to sit back and let things take their course — maybe let the decision brew a bit before you jump in.”"

"‘Haraka, haraka haina Baraka’ which means in Swahili ‘Hurry, hurry brings no blessing’."

"All I have ever done with my career is just try and maximise the opportunity and challenge for whatever role I have been in, and that has led to me to this seat.”"

""There are plenty of adults who still choose to smoke despite decades of reasons not to. That needs to be respected at some point.”"

"“I do carry quite a lot of data in my head, but a lot of it is song lyrics.”"

"Fixing demand isn’t the answer, and that is all quotas do. It does nothing for fixing supply and also, if I’m being straightforward, it does nothing about the quality of supply. It is going to take a while and hard yards to fix some of this"

"There is an adult choice piece here and there are plenty of adults who still choose to smoke despite decades of reasons not to. That needs to be respected at some point"

"The only thing we have ever seen make a difference is bans on smoking in public places, because they reduce the occasions to smoke."

"The down-trading dynamic has been in place in Western Europe for a very, very long time"

"You walk away from a childhood like mine with various scars. I have physical scars but I also have emotional scars."

"And I am normal in some way, but I am also an outsider."

"Children are humans. They have a right to an education and a right to a social life. There is a UN mandate for children that was clearly breached in multiple ways by my parents."