Brisbane Chief Executives Share Their Lessons for Success
Announcement posted by The Executive Connection (TEC) Pty Ltd 20 Sep 2010
Local SME business leaders hear of the challenging personal and business lessons learnt by their peers at the Brisbane All TEC Day event.
Brisbane’s All TEC Day event signalled the finale for The Executive Connection’s (TEC) national road show. Brisbane-based TEC members heard from four of their fellow senior business leaders, all from a variety of industries, of the real-life challenges they faced personally and in their businesses and the practical ways in which they all successfully overcame these difficulties.
Successful fast-growing local businessman, Stephen Roche, executive director at Shine Lawyers, shared with the crowd of 180 chief executive TEC members how he went back to business basics and slowed down the growth of the law firm to allow staff to catch up and move forward as a team. Telling the story of how he established the Shine Centre of Learning, a retreat providing induction and training for all Shine employees, Stephen outlined his tips on how to drive a successful business with and through the staff and the culture. It is, after all, your people stupid!
Delivering her amazing story to a home crowd, Gillian Hurst, managing director of DTH Products, shared how she triumphed over adversity to take the Australian outback drilling consumables business on a new journey under her leadership. Through fundamentally changing how the business was run and by making the hard decisions, Gillian boosted the sales and profitability of DTH and successfully navigated the business through the GFC.
Local award-winning managing director of Centor Architectural, Nigel Spork led the audience on a journey of Centor’s history of ups and downs; from its humble beginnings in the early fifties, rapid growth in the sixties, a near-failure in the nineties, to being an internationally recognised manufacturer in the naughties. Nigel lauds the success of the business as being driven by continual innovation by his team at Centor. So much so that ‘Innovation Wednesday’ was introduced; half a day where staff work on personal projects fitting within flexible guidelines. Careful planning and the setting of action steps by all staff are the cornerstones of driving major outcomes at Centor.
Todd Coates, managing director of BridgeClimb, told of his life on top of Sydney’s treasured icon. Using lessons learnt along his way to the top, Todd shared how he developed a culture within BridgeClimb that balances the 'hard' and 'soft' sides of business. Fostering the passion and excitement in your team for what they do, to ensure your customers feel this when they make the journey to the top of the bridge was highlighted in his keys that have led to the enormous success at BridgeClimb.
The event was wrapped up with a look into life in The New Reality by leading economist Jonathan Pain. Through his perspectives of the submerging and emerging global economies, Jonathan painted a picture of what business would look and be like in the future. Welcoming in ‘a new era of frugality’, the audience were left feeling somewhat positive about their children’s future.
The All TEC Day attendees are among 14,500 business leaders worldwide who have become members of The Executive Connection (TEC) to enable them to become better leaders, make better decisions and drive better results for their organisations. TEC membership provides access to new ideas and fresh thinking through monthly peer think-tanks, one-to-one business coaching and expert speaker presentations.
Successful fast-growing local businessman, Stephen Roche, executive director at Shine Lawyers, shared with the crowd of 180 chief executive TEC members how he went back to business basics and slowed down the growth of the law firm to allow staff to catch up and move forward as a team. Telling the story of how he established the Shine Centre of Learning, a retreat providing induction and training for all Shine employees, Stephen outlined his tips on how to drive a successful business with and through the staff and the culture. It is, after all, your people stupid!
Delivering her amazing story to a home crowd, Gillian Hurst, managing director of DTH Products, shared how she triumphed over adversity to take the Australian outback drilling consumables business on a new journey under her leadership. Through fundamentally changing how the business was run and by making the hard decisions, Gillian boosted the sales and profitability of DTH and successfully navigated the business through the GFC.
Local award-winning managing director of Centor Architectural, Nigel Spork led the audience on a journey of Centor’s history of ups and downs; from its humble beginnings in the early fifties, rapid growth in the sixties, a near-failure in the nineties, to being an internationally recognised manufacturer in the naughties. Nigel lauds the success of the business as being driven by continual innovation by his team at Centor. So much so that ‘Innovation Wednesday’ was introduced; half a day where staff work on personal projects fitting within flexible guidelines. Careful planning and the setting of action steps by all staff are the cornerstones of driving major outcomes at Centor.
Todd Coates, managing director of BridgeClimb, told of his life on top of Sydney’s treasured icon. Using lessons learnt along his way to the top, Todd shared how he developed a culture within BridgeClimb that balances the 'hard' and 'soft' sides of business. Fostering the passion and excitement in your team for what they do, to ensure your customers feel this when they make the journey to the top of the bridge was highlighted in his keys that have led to the enormous success at BridgeClimb.
The event was wrapped up with a look into life in The New Reality by leading economist Jonathan Pain. Through his perspectives of the submerging and emerging global economies, Jonathan painted a picture of what business would look and be like in the future. Welcoming in ‘a new era of frugality’, the audience were left feeling somewhat positive about their children’s future.
The All TEC Day attendees are among 14,500 business leaders worldwide who have become members of The Executive Connection (TEC) to enable them to become better leaders, make better decisions and drive better results for their organisations. TEC membership provides access to new ideas and fresh thinking through monthly peer think-tanks, one-to-one business coaching and expert speaker presentations.