IWD 2025 - an interview with: Molly Davis

Tell us a little about your career journey leading to where you are now.

I have always worked in roles that revolved around relationships, in marketing, sales and customer experience. When we had our children, I wanted to spend time with them, but never wanted to stop working, but working part-time 20 years ago, meant my career was on hold for over a decade. As they got older, and needed me in different ways, I used my free time to really dig into what was next for me, trying a few options on for size whilst I had the opportunity. One experiment was some weekend work, selling gin for Silent Pool in local markets and festivals. It was exhausting, but everyone was so happy – no “need” to buy it, just fun and great to be with people socialising and planning events with friends and family. When the opportunity came up at the BII a month or so later, it felt like hospitality was my fate! It is incredibly busy and at times stressful, but also incredibly rewarding – especially working for a charity that supports pubs. 8 years on, I don’t think I could work in another industry now.

What does the International Women’s Day slogan “accelerate action” mean for you?

It feels like 20 years ago was a long time, and lots of things have changed, but the balance of a senior role around family is still incredibly tough to achieve. I truly believe nobody can have it all. Shonda Rhimes, creator of Grey’s Anatomy and countless other successful tv shows, gave a brilliant speech to students on their graduation day, saying just that. Where she succeeds in one area of her life, she fails in another – but the importance is in showing her children that she is human, a woman, doing something she loves, to inspire them to follow their dreams. Seeing how fulfilling that can be is vital, but so is the message that you won’t be able to do it without some sacrifices. Accelerate action to me means we need to give everyone access to have the best balance in their lives they can, but that means we have to encourage men to be caregivers more too and make it OK that they are taking time away from work to look after them, to see their Sports Days, and that means more flexibility in the workplace, full stop.

How important is it for women to lift each other up and what does that mean to you?

When I was a teenager, I spent a lot of time with boys, as I preferred their company and the lack of dramas that unfolded – now I have the most fantastic relationships with women that I couldn’t do without, both personally and professionally. We need to see more well balanced teams with diversity of thinking across the board. That means embracing different approaches, different experiences and different backgrounds, not just more women. Qualities like empathy and kindness are just as vital in leadership as strong opinions and decisive action, but all too often, they are seen as weaknesses – they most definitely are not. Encouraging, mentoring and supporting each other is something we should do for everyone, not just other women, but it is often the case that we support those we relate to most, meaning the power is with those already in a position to lift others – mostly men. I have been lucky enough to know and be championed by brilliant women in my life, but also brilliant men. I have also known some terrible female leaders, who have felt the need to shout loudly about themselves and keep others down.  

How important is diversity across senior leadership teams? 

Incredibly important – but that means different things to different people. The leadership team at the BII is not the norm – of the five people in our SLT, four are women. That doesn’t mean however that we are all the same – far from it. Natalie, our Head of Operations, and I are incredibly different to each other – I make decisions based on emotion and feelings and opportunities, whereas she is driven by process and structure - but that’s one of the things that makes us so strong as a team. We all see things differently, we have healthy debates about our strategies and are all the better for it. Diversity should be about more than your gender, race or background. Steve, our CEO, bought me the book, Rebel Ideas, not long after he took over as CEO, and it highlights the power of having diversity of thinking in your teams. There are countless examples of how it makes a business more profitable and successful, so we need to embrace that more.

Senior leadership: 26%, C-suite: 19%, 1 in 4: Chief-level. These are the percentages and numbers of female leaders in our industry. What do these numbers represent to you? 

They represent movement, in the right direction, but not far enough. It’s what is behind the numbers that interests me. Maybe women are choosing not to battle their way into existing workplaces where the culture is not what they want to be part of? Seeing Lucie Macleod, Founder of Hair Syrup on Dragon’s Den was a brilliant reminder of that. She is doing things her way, and on her terms, and from what I could see, building a brilliant and successful business alongside her team – not trying to break corporate glass ceilings!

As a successful leader, how do you think (business) leaders can accelerate action toward closing the gender gap and ensuring equal opportunities in the workplace? 

People have to want those opportunities in the first place. I have no desire to be in an incredibly demanding role that takes me away from my husband, family and friends all week – if that is the choice we have to make, maybe it is time to think about closing the gender gap on wanting something different from life, and valuing things differently? More equality for the way we look at people’s lives, with shared parental leave models like those in Sweden, Finland and Denmark. Putting the emphasis back on success being about more than running a company and never seeing your family. People are choosing more and more a different path for work – something the pandemic accelerated with working from home. Like Shonda says, you can’t have it all – but maybe we could structure our businesses in a way that gives us more of a chance!

Can you share your top tips for entrepreneurial/managerial/leadership success?

I can only share the way I do things, but I think open and honest communication gets you a long way – I am often too open and honest, as most of my colleagues and team will tell you! But I truly think sharing who you are and being vulnerable as a leader is the best way to be. We are all human, with our own problems outside of work, and whilst not everyone might not be as comfortable as I am talking about mental health issues, menopause and more, I think it is a responsibility you have as a leader to give your teams the best chance to be honest with you. Some people might see it as unprofessional, but not knowing what is going on with your teams means you can’t understand them and support them as well.

What’s the most important piece of advice you’d give to a woman thinking of starting a career at leadership level? 

Decide what YOU want and be true to that. If you want to battle your way there, then do it, but if you want a different place, then keep looking until you find it. I can honestly say that working at the BII has been my best career move – not only in terms of my role, but also in terms of my personal happiness. I’m not saying it is all sunshine and roses, but I arrived there from feeling trapped in a company that only let me work part-time when I came back from maternity leave if I took a 10% pay cut for the “lesser” role I would be doing. I spent 13 years there, to leave on my original FTE salary before maternity leave. What it did allow me to do though, was to leave work at 5.30 and forget about it until the next working day – in a senior role, you can’t do that. So, you have to be prepared for the sacrifices you will have to make – just make sure some of them are sacrificing your work for your family, and not always the other way around. 

Have there been any role models through your life (work or professional) who have helped shape you as a leader?

So many, but they all have one thing in common. Kindness, empathy and a sense of humour, as well as the understanding that we are all human, and most jobs are not life and death. At the BII, I am in awe of the whole SLT, Steve, Natalie, Hannah and Shila, all for different reasons, and mainly because they have skills I don’t! I feel the same with my team. They are all educated to a higher standard than I am, (which gives me imposter syndrome on a daily basis!) they do incredible things that I am not capable of, but I know I provide that for them too, especially when it comes to the experience, I have in relationship building and dealing with potentially difficult situations and confrontation.

I also look up to my friends – they are all resilient and brilliant and I would be much poorer in my life without them.