Decisions That Made Me: Margaret Heffernan

The Bottom Line

BBC

Personal Journals, Business, Society & Culture

4.6 • 615 Ratings

🗓️ 25 December 2025

⏱️ 17 minutes

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Summary

Margaret Heffernan didn’t start out in business. Until her mid-30s, she was enjoying a successful career at the BBC, producing and directing TV dramas and documentaries. But she was always curious about a career in the corporate world. She decided to take the plunge and took on roles in the US. It was as CEO of a tech firm when Margaret discovered she was being paid 50% less than her male counterparts that she faced one of her biggest decisions. As she explains to Evan Davis, should she speak out and risk the consequences or put up and shut up?

(Image: Margaret Heffernan. Credit: mheffernan.com)

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:07.0	Hello, Greg Jenner here, host of You're Dead to Me, the comedy podcast that takes history seriously and then laughs at it.
0:13.4	This Christmas, forget about socks. We've got the best present of all.
0:17.2	Dead people!
0:18.2	All that sounds like zombies. Sorry, it's not zombies. Let me start again. In our new
0:22.3	family-friendly podcast series, Dead Funny History, historical figures come back to life, but just long
0:27.5	enough to argue with me, tell their life stories and sometimes get on my nerves. You're dead to me.
0:32.8	Dead Funny History. Listen on BBC Sounds. Hello, some of the most recognisable business leaders began their careers in an entirely
0:42.3	different field. Anita Rodick was a teacher, for example. Or maybe you start a career as a market
0:48.7	stall trader. Yes, Lord Sugar. Now, in these cases, what they don't have is a traditional business education. Instead,
0:56.9	some moment when they reinvent themselves, a decision to change course and pursue an alternative
1:02.7	career. I'm Evan Davis and welcome to the decisions that made me, the podcast from the bottom
1:07.7	line team that brings you interviews with top business figures
1:10.9	about the make or break moments in their careers. In this episode, I'm talking to Margaret
1:16.2	Heffernan, former chief executive entrepreneur, author, now professor. Until her mid-30s, in the 80s,
1:23.8	she was enjoying a successful career at the BBC BBC producing and directing TV dramas and documentaries.
1:29.7	But she always felt she could do more and was curious to see if she could make it in the corporate world.
1:35.7	She's been telling me about her early career.
1:38.5	My first job was as a dictation typist working for the world at one.
1:44.5	And it was a time the BBC was growing.
1:46.9	And so I got a lot of opportunity to stop being a dictation typist and move around and find work I really loved.
1:54.3	Yeah.
	...

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