IWD 2021: Olivia Stodieck - Empowering Women in Innovation

Author
James Cortis
Content Producer | Business West
8th March 2021

As part of International Women’s Day, we interview Olivia Stodieck on her role at DaptaBlade, her views on women in business and what a more gender-balanced world-view means to her.

Tell us about your role. 

I’m the CEO and co-founder of DaptaBlade. We are a Bristol-based startup specialising in workflow automation software for multi-disciplinary engineering teams.

As the CEO, my main focus is on growing the company and making sure that our customers are happy with the products we are developing. When possible, I do very much enjoy doing some technical work too – I guess that at heart I am still very much an aerospace engineer! 

What do you enjoy most about your job?  

It is exciting to think what engineers will be able to do in the future. Less than 50 years ago, pencils and drawing boards were standard tools of the trade – now we can build and test virtual models of entire aircraft on a laptop.

What will engineers be able to do in 50 years from now? What I really enjoy about my job is being able to contribute a little bit to that future and knowing that the tools we develop will make the jobs of engineers just that little bit easier.         

And what are the most challenging aspects? 

There are many challenges working in a start-up: money, time, team, product, customers… Everything has uncertainty associated with it (engineers don’t like uncertainty) and there are many things that can go wrong. And yet, when things do go right, there are also big rewards.

As a team, we take the attitude that mistakes will happen, and that’s fine as long as we learn from them.   

What 3 things do you think you need to progress as a woman in business?

I would say: honesty, courage and perseverance. Be yourself and be proud of it – don’t let the fear of making a mistake or the fear of not being up to the job stop you. Be fair and be a good team player – people will appreciate you for it and help you progress. 

What are the biggest challenges the future generation of women in business face?

In my opinion, the world is too small to distinguish between challenges for women and men in business – we are all in it together.

Globalisation will continue, with its economic, cultural and political benefits and challenges (despite the best efforts of some politicians to stop it). Future generations will have to deal with an even more complex and inter-connected world. Making sense of mountains of data to extract useful information, and then using this information for fast and intelligent decision-making will become even more important in the future.

What can the next generation bring to business that previous generations may not have?

Vision, energy and trust? New ideas and creative solutions to difficult problems? I hope all of these will feature. 

What does a more gender-balanced world-view mean for you?

I feel privileged to live in a part of the world and at a time where I don’t really have to worry about gender-balance anymore. This doesn’t mean that there is gender-parity – this will take time and education, of entire societies, to eradicate some of the most persistent stereotypes. I would like to see more girls in engineering and computer sciences.  

How can we enable more women to take a place at the board-room table?

Four simple steps: education, progression opportunities, flexible working as a standard and mentorship for all. In the end, only merit should determine whether someone is promoted to the board or not. 

How can businesses evolve to be more gender-balanced?

In the days of COVID-19, companies have demonstrated that both flexible working hours and remote working are indeed possible, and trends seem to indicate that companies will stick to this after COVID – this can only be a good sign for women who may need to juggle family and work.  

What advice would you give to young women and men starting out in business today in context of promoting a more diverse world-view?

We can all contribute to making our world a bit more open and diverse. Sometimes it just means being open to new ideas, respecting differences and treating everyone the same, whatever their origin or gender.  

What women inspire you and why?

My mom, for her creativity and curiosity. 

Amelia Earhart, for her spirit of adventure. 

Ada Lovelace, for her vision of a programmable computer.  

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