John Boyle under influence and it ain’t booze. Trying to understand influence is hard.

John Boyle by Don Berkeley.

This section on our blog might assist?
https://dialogueireland.wordpress.com/about/cultism/

GD = Georgina Dolan
We are trying to get a handle on what it is that gives Georgina so much power over John Boyle and consequently the company.
She is not charismatic, or a profound thinker. She does not seem to have any academic or professional training that give her such a influence?

I received an email last week from a Boylesport employee,

I know you done a series of posts on Boylesports 2 years ago. Just to let you know the company is as bad as ever with Georgina Dolan completely controlling and influencing John Boyle which has made him completely paranoid and unworkable. The situation at the moment is he has no head of IT, Marketing, or CTO among others and can’t get any people to work for him as a lot of recruitment agencies won’t touch the place and people have been warned off. All he does is put family members in these peoples places and unfortunately they are neither qualified or experienced enough. Also they are just being controlled by GD and JB. Morale in the company is rock bottom. JB is full of paranoia, he is constantly checking up on people and the hours they work etc, and a lot of us fear the worst. There are a lot of good people in the company people with families and being situated in the North East the company is an important recruiter in Dundalk. Not every person can get a job in Pay Pal or Ebay. Your blog highlighted the problems with the Quinn/Dolan influence and it made them check their behaviour, they changed the way they behaved towards the staff, (for a while,) and stopped the “Academy of Success,” (distress as it was known.) Maybe you might think about having a look into this again. The management were very conscious of what was going on the blog. It kept them in check for a while now it looks like we have gone full circle again.

Something to consider I have no understanding of cultism and have to be honest I am not a regular reader or contributor to your blog, just so you know were I stand .

Thanks

Boyle Employee

My source when asked a number of questions replied as follows?

 

Can you see a direct involvement with GD in regard to the issues you raise and how? Did she make statements about issues she had no competence in ?

A, It is true that the company has done well but this is in spite of John and not because of him. The company could have been in this position a number of years ago. John wanted to concentrate on turnover not profit. GD made him believe that all his decisions were correct and attacked any one who opposed him accusing them of negativity. He gave people the keys to the castle and only when others proved that this policy was not working did he retreat. He attracted unprofitable business into the company and concentrated on silly gimmicks and give aways. GD was controlling marketing policy with nonsense ideas like Flash dances at Croke park, sending the PR team out to shops to sell quick picks and football assist coupons telling him that it was going to be the next big thing in betting. Others on his management team were also involved with these harebrained policies and millions have been wasted on screens and WiFi in shops. It is still going on. He opened up an office London with high rents and wages to have a marketing presence in the UK. Why is it being closed now. GD and JB arrived in one day on a surprise visit and a few people were out working. The two of them believed that the staff were not doing their jobs because they weren’t in the office .

 

Q. In the Indo article John was asked about succession, “I was always looking for someone to come along and take my role, always looking for a good CEO.  “But to get someone who would have that passion and care, not just do the job, that’s the challenge,” he said. If a candidate can be identified he would step back into a chairman’s role, Mr Boyle added.  “Another option is to sell. I have had good offers in the past – I was getting offered scary numbers. But that was never part of my plan,” he added. Rather than sell, however, his preferred option is to now tap a chief executive to take operational control of the business and continue its growth path.

A, This is impossible to believe. Is passion and care getting mixed up with paranoia and obsession? Will John expect the CEO to check if the lowest ranked worker in the company is 5 mins over his lunch break or why he is on the rota but had to take a day off, he would actually ring up that employee. Is this the passion and care he wants? Years ago John although passionate had great respect and a relationship with his employees. People were let do their jobs and rightly he got the rewards. Employees were respected and there would be no issue getting a day off if it was needed.

Q. How does she push his buttons? Replied as follows,

A. I wish I knew how GD Pushes his buttons, no one knows how, she has no communication with us ordinary plebs, they go off to Blackrock together for hours and watch the sea as they meditate.

Q, The businessman, who founded the company in 1982, said he will step back to chairman of the company if he can find a chief executive to take over the management of Boylesports according to the Indo?

A. The question is who does John expect to get a new CEO when he can’t get the head of IT Marketing or a replacement for Keith O Loughlin (CTO?) They have all left over a number of months ago and have yet to be replaced. Will the new CEO have to answer to and be interfered with by GD as other department heads have?

Q, Can you see a direct involvement with GD in regard to these actions, if so how? Does she make statements about issues she had no competence in regard to?

A, GD does not make statements, she is on the senior management team but has no job title. She is JB’s closest confident so she has to influence his decisions. What is she qualified in? She was running the Marketing and PR at one stage, getting staff to concentrate on selling quick picks. She wasted advertising money on new football coupons that would never take off. She tried to advertise on church leaflets. She was behind the marketing office in London being set up. Then JB and GD paid a surprise visit and found a couple working there out of the office. They assumed they were dossing. People there were just not trusted. It suited GD to put the idea into JB’s head that they were not competent in their work. The office will be closed next year. The people in it were highly qualified and were driven out. Was this decision in the company’s best interest or hers?

 

Q, Again what is the connection between his developing paranoia  and obsession and GD? In other words is there clear evidence she is the one ruling the company or is he just losing it because he can’t delegate? Try and look back to the early JB. You likely do not have the history as you are relatively recent, but some of your friends who were there for the courses might. See where you see this coming from?

A, She is in JB’s office, all department heads come to see her especially when he is not in. JB would have meetings without her but it is like he is distant, distracted and lacking in attention. He does not want to hear what people have to say, he already has his mind made up. JB filled his company with qualified people now all he has is yes men GD and family members. He tries to micro manage but is not qualified to do so.

 

Q, Does he believe the Brendan Hughes guy is going to deliver on the on line presence? Is he going to succeed or has he got the people to deliver this? I assume unlike people like Ivan Yates JB has a massive cash supply so is not that beholden to banks. He would have been very frugal in ways and living the expensive life á la Quinn is not natural for him?

 

A, Yes there have been people before that John believed were the messiah and he ended up chasing them out of the company. He normally will have one or two people who are not in the programme and focus all his energy on them. Normally employees he picks are people that don’t argue with him about his ideas and he does not argue with them for a while, but he could succeed if would let people do their jobs without micro managing them and if he were to puts the right people in the right positions, e.g. professionally trained rather than GB filtered.

 

Q, It is clear that like a lot of self made men he does not trust anyone and so in order to preserve his power he has put in family members into running the company. The last time we published some material we had a number of staff members making personal attacks on them. Likely, because they did not see them as being competent, but only in the job as Daddy’s girl or boy. Hopefully this time we will not have these attacks here, but also it is because the staff do not understand influence and how it works. They think John and Georgina are nuts, rather than seeing them under influence. When you see someone in a pub after having had a few too many you don’t say they are crazy but that they are pissed. Here it is exactly the same. So factually in the absence of trained professionals who either leave because they can’t stick it are not allowed to stay by GD, what roles are the family taking?

A, Currently his son in law is the head of customer services, Fon a Bet and CTO among others. Daughter Jenna is head of shop operations. Orla Boyle head of the Data Team. Claire Boyle is not on the management team. Grace Boyle is effectively the head of HR with GD. The HR manager is just waiting for time to retire.

Q, Can you still see residual Catholicism there or is JB into the Educo jazz? Do you know any staff who might be involved with the TQ store and office in Dundalk or the Educo gym?

A, Can’t help you there. No staff I know apart from family have any interest in Educo. John’s daughter Grace was on the leaflets years ago for losing weight.