Day in the life: Lou Braddick

Vital stats

Job title –  Business Manager to the CFO, Darren Purkis

Function – Finance

Tenure – 21 years and 6 months

Tell us a little bit about yourself

My name is Louise but everyone knows me as Lou. I originate from Yorkshire but have been down south for just over 30 years. I live in Maidenhead with my very tall (6’3”) 16 year old son George, I also have 2 stepchildren, Imogen and Zara, 26 & 21.

My close friends and family are my life blood, I simply couldn’t exist without them.

I am extremely chatty, I love to laugh out loud (it totally embarrasses my son) and I am extremely sociable. I watch trash TV (think Selling Sunset) and go on a lot of holidays.  Life has taught me that you have no idea what is round corner, so live it to the full and have no regrets.

In a nutshell, describe your role and how you support our business objectives

As a Business Manager to a member of our Executive Leadership Team, you get to spread yourself holistically across all aspects of the business.  It’s a role that works closely with the Senior Leadership Team to ensure that as a function, we are smart, efficient and effective.

I work across the other functions in our business, ensuring that our CFO and the Finance directorate are accurately represented in programmes and decision making forums. It’s my job to read the room, facilitate outcomes, respectfully challenge and negotiate compromises.

It’s a broad and varied role, no week is the same and I love it.

What does a typical day look like in your role?

I don’t have a typical day, that’s the joy of being a Business Manager. I could be making CAPEX decisions, attending programme steercos, prepping reports and helping people negotiate their way through the business are also on my to-do list.

I work with our CFO to remove non-essential work from his diary and inbox, or just being a sounding board and confidant for people who need support.

If the finance department and the CFO are working efficiently and achieving the required outcomes,  then I am happy.

Tell us about your journey since starting at Three, and how you made the transition from CRM Set up manager to the Business Manager to the CFO ?

I have had the most incredible career journey at Three. From setting up the initial contact centre and  team in Glasgow, to launching 3Pay in Mumbai. Along the way, I have turned my hand to implementation and project management and had a couple of years in the Irish Business.

In Marketing I was the Customer Strategy Manager for our 4G launch, and from there, I moved to head up Product & Marketing in Wholesale, which led me to my current role as Business Manager.  I took chances on applying for roles where I didn’t necessarily have all the experience required, but displayed the right behaviours and attitude and it got me a long way.

How have you supported your personal wellbeing during the past couple of years?

The past couple of years have, outside of Covid and lock down, been the most challenging I have ever endured having nursed and lost my husband to a rare condition. I can only say that I have a positive outlook, be pragmatic, don’t try and fix or worry too much about things that are outside of your control. Rely on your friends and family, talk, talk about the things that are on your mind and always remember that the sun will shine again.

Give us a fun fact…

I trained as an actress and wanted to be on the West End stage (I did a couple of touring pantomimes and then gave up) oh, and I do a cracking impression of George from Rainbow (for those old enough to remember him!).