The latest in our series of 60 Second Interviews is with Mairi Farley, Partner at OC&C Strategy Consultants.
Born: Taplow, UK
Home: London
School: The Abbey
University: Brasenose College, Oxford
First job: Waitress @ Pizza Hut
Favourite book: currently Each Peach, Pear, Plum
Gadget: Thermomix
Last holiday: Beach house on Lake Michigan
Charity: Trustee at Blue Ventures
What does a typical working day for you look like?
As soon as I get up I head for my cross trainer, if I don’t exercise first thing it just won’t happen. I then handover to our Nanny at 7am, grab a coffee and head into the office. My day then typically has back to back meetings covering project work, prospective work, great discussion with people and everything in between. At 5pm I head off in order to be home to get a handover from our Nanny before doing bath and bedtime with our girls, having some dinner and then often picking up a couple of hours of emails to catch up on what has come in throughout the day. I only work 4 days a week
What do you do in your downtime?
Most of my downtime is spent with my two year old girls – reading books, painting, baking, dancing, trips to the farm, etc. Outside of that I’m mostly likely to be found cooking or our enjoying good food with friends.
How do you know The Barton Partnership?
OC&C have worked with TBP for a number of years, and in addition I had a few meetings while I was in house as Strategy & International Director at Hobbs
How have you seen the world of strategy evolve over your career?
As most of the strategy I do is retail, our work has had to evolve alongside the rapidly evolving retail landscape with more channels, more fragmented missions, more data, more analytics and bigger challenges than ever before. It is even more critical to make sure we’re asking the right questions and supporting businesses through that complexity.
What is the most challenging aspect of your role as a strategist?
Balancing the needs of all the different teams and people involved so that we get to the right answer.
What is your favourite interview question?
What is the size of the global Christmas Pudding market?
Who inspires you? Why?
I am lucky enough to have a number of very inspiring friends pursuing interesting careers alongside raising fabulous families.