Mag O'Keeffe. Image: Connor McKenna/SiliconRepublic.com
Episode six of The Leaders’ Room’s season two features Mag O’Keeffe, VP, global additive technologies at Stryker. This series is created in partnership with IDA Ireland.
Season two of The Leaders’ Room podcast again sees host Ann O’Dea get up close and personal with the Irish-based leaders of some of the world’s most influential technology, health-tech, software and engineering companies with operations in Ireland.
As well as getting their insights on the nature of good leadership and the strategies that define success in some of the world’s most influential companies, the series also gets their expert views on the big trends that are shaping their sectors.
In this episode, O’Dea spoke to Mag O’Keeffe, VP of global additive technologies at Stryker about her work at the medical technology giant, and the importance of leadership in creating environments where innovation can thrive.
Stryker is a global medtech company that develops and manufactures innovative products to improve patient care and surgical efficiency. It makes medical and surgical equipment, from those in the ambulance though to the theatre all the way through to patient recovery. It’s also making major strides in robotics, developing developing robotic arm-assisted systems that can improve surgical accuracy and reduce recovery times for patients.
Stryker has been in Ireland for 26 years and today has some nine locations on the island of Ireland from Belfast to Cork, employing more than 5,500 people, some in state-of-the-art manufacturing, but many in areas like in engineering, product R&D, process and technology R&D, IT, quality and finance.
It is the kind of work that requires innovation, and lots of it, so it was great to speak to O’Keeffe, a mechanical engineer by training, about the different ways she supports her teams to come up with new ideas, and to find creative solutions to complex medical and surgical problems.
O’Keeffe has had a rather impressive rise through the ranks at Stryker in her 25 years there, starting out as a mechanical engineer, graduating to technical and business leadership roles, including global head of operations, to today where she serves as vice president of global additive technologies.
O’Keeffe certainly reflects Stryker’s founders’ motto of “if your tools don’t work, make them work”, and she has definite thoughts around a specific set of leadership attributes needed for a high-tech, innovation environment.
Yes, you need the grit and resilience that she so clearly demonstrated leading operations and ensuring that life-saving products were always on the shelf during the Covid-19 pandemic. But she also believes a risk-tolerant, psychologically safe environment is crucial to bring the best out of a creative group of people.
We’re extremely grateful to all our interviewees for taking the time to come into the studio and share their insights and their intelligence again for season two of the podcast. And big thanks as ever to our partners IDA Ireland who have made this series possible. Our final two episodes of season two will be published in January.
The Leaders’ Room podcast is released fortnightly and can be found by searching for ‘The Leaders’ Room’ wherever you get your podcasts. For those who prefer their audio with visuals, filmed versions of the podcast interviews are all available here on SiliconRepublic.com.
Check out The Leaders’ Room podcast for in-depth insights from some of Ireland’s top leaders. Listen now on Spotify, on Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.
