Beth Webster Gets It Done
FREDERICTON–Beth Webster has always been ahead of the curve.
With over 25 years of senior management experience in business development and management, she’s a pro at helping startups and established companies grow.
Webster was involved in e-learning before anyone knew there was such a thing as learning online. Now she’s helping Fredericton based health-records management company Populus spread globally as vice president of administration.
Webster says that before following the path she did, she had often considered a career in health. Working for Populus allows her to combine her interests and years of expertise into a role uniquely suited to her.
“I’ve always been in that entrepreneurial world. I’ve always worked with small and growing organizations,” she says. “ Some of them had done really well, some of them were challenged but that’s what being in an entrepreneurial world is, and sometimes the best lessons you learn are when you’ve made a mistake. If it’s easy, you don’t learn the right lessons.”
After years of seeing startups succeed and fail, Webster knows what it takes to be prepared for the unique struggles entrepreneurs face.
“It is not for the faint of heart. There are many sleepless nights,” she says. “When you see successes along the path, it really gives you that level of energy that it’s been worth it … at Populus we have great stories of amazing outcomes that so many other companies can’t point to, and it makes a big difference.”
Along with appreciating and learning from every win and loss along the way, Webster credits the success of companies to strong teams. She explains that no company can do well without a bright and engaged team banded together for the same cause.
“There’s not one successful company out there that can say ‘I did it all myself.’ It takes a whole team,” she says. “You need to find people who are going to challenge. You don’t want everybody to just nod their head and say ‘yes, let’s do it.’ You need people that are as engaged, as committed, who want to see this be successful and you need people who understand the importance of the customer.”
“On our team it’s about adoption of our solution. It’s about our business working as a whole and I’m just one part of that team always.”
Webster says she has found exactly what she is good at and how she can contribute. She sees herself as the one to take visionary ideas into real world application. She is the practical mind of an operation.
“I would not consider myself visionary. There are people that are visionary and they can come up with great things,” she says. “What I do really well is hear the vision, understand it and then help deliver on it. I think you have to be comfortable with where your skill sets are.”