Who we are...

Over the last 20 years, I’ve developed deep capability in helping large complex organisations come to grips with what is getting in their way and what their opportunities for growth might be. I have helped them articulate their strategy, leadership and organisational outcomes and then helped them deliver those outcomes to realise their growth.

I have successfully worked with complex clients across many organisational levels (simultaneously with Boards, C-suite, senior executive teams through to operational, site -based management teams). While I have specialised in energy and mining & metals industries, I have considerable experience in banking and finance and professional services. I have experience working over multiple jurisdictions and cultures (Australia, North America and Europe) and over a range of business types from blue-chip private organisations to government agencies.

Enough of the routine stuff… Who am I really…?

I am a strong strategic thinker. I enjoy finding patterns and connections in complex fields of facts, opinions and relationships. I get excited when I notice different groups across an organisation talking about the same problem in different ways, and can then bring those groups together to recognise the opportunity, create a goal and mobilise their excitement into action. It gets even better when this has resulted in substantial (and until then, unimagined) commercial and strategic benefit.

In addition, I use my love of patterns when I am designing with clients their strategy formation and implementation. I really enjoy creating bespoke strategy processes with clients that uniquely fit their needs and situation. Clients get a perfectly fitting solution and I stay interested and energised.

One of my referees mentioned that what he valued most about working with me was the ‘no bull’ character of our interaction, especially when something was uncomfortable for me to say or for him to hear. While having these challenging, honest conversations is not always easy for me, it is something that I am good at doing and believe is at the heart of the value I bring to my clients; I discuss with them the things that other people generally avoid.

So this is the place where I get to tell you how credible I am and what wonderful outcomes I’ve created and basically tell you through a 3rd person editorial a list of my outstanding achievements. Well I am not going to do that exactly. What I am going to do is tell you about who I am and what I see as my strengths so that you get a real sense of what I can do for you.

I have extensive experience in strategic organisational consulting, enabling leaders to envisage and achieve unprecedented levels of growth and success. My experience has involved mentoring and partnering with the senior executive teams within large corporate organisations to transform their business and bottom line results.

I am a powerful consultant who knows how to build value in your organisation by maximising your intangible assets. I help people and systems to become unstuck. I help them to get more of what they want. This is really valuable. Most change efforts fail because people don’t attend to the intangible aspects of change, powerful beliefs and values that create motivation and result in action... the messy bits that I love to work with and that am really good at getting to operate effectively.

I understand complexity well...I think strategically and systemically which means I can see things from meta view; I can see what is getting in the way of people functioning effectively together. And I know what to do about it. I am very good at supporting people to move beyond their fears and imagine what’s possible. I love doing that.

I am a trusted executive mentor and love supporting people and organisations to be courageous, authentic and to make robust decisions in the face of uncertainty. My approach is a judicious mix of support and challenge, ‘glue and solvent’, and has resulted from my experience of what works and what does not. My clients get better performance and achieve their business outcomes faster, saving them time and money.

I am deeply committed to creating a legacy of supporting people, organisations and systems to become sustain-agile, enabling the next generation to thrive in our rapidly evolving world.

During my initial career, I spent 20 years based in Europe taking an iconic Australian brand and establishing distribution for the product range in Europe and the USA. As Managing Director I ran companies in the UK, Germany and the US. My activities centered on product development, sourcing manufacture in Asia, marketing and sales to all levels of retail and wholesale in Europe and the US, including Walmart. I grew the northern hemisphere business from zero to multi million dollars, established and sold businesses in the UK, Germany and the US, and managed the team of people involved.

The particular challenges I faced included financing growth, dealing with trademark infringements and hostile shareholder maneuvers.

During this time, my own journey of self-enquiry led me to gain qualifications in the facilitation of individual and group psychotherapeutic processes with the Hoffman Institute in the UK. I learned how to help people change in a fundamental and lasting way leading to a more authentic and satisfying life.

More recently I have been designing and delivering longitudinal strategic consulting in large organizations. I am particularly interested in how people and teams function, how they help or hinder the strategic outcomes of the organization and ensure their sustainability into the future.

My support can benefit clients in the following ways:

• Provide a practical, pragmatic understanding of business management at various stages of its life cycle from an entrepreneurial idea through to its sale;
• Offer an awareness and empathy of what it is like to be the one at the top – at times the loneliness, weight of responsibility for a team of people, and knowing the buck stops with the CEO for success or failure;
• Provide an insightful mind that can perceive what’s unsaid or going on under the surface leading to more robust decisions, greater creativity, authenticity and ultimately a more powerful strategic direction for the organization;
• Offer an intuitive, grounded sense of what drives and motivates people, helping them elicit their own wisdom and make empowering, uplifting choices moving forward;
• Bring a fearlessness in dealing with difficult and challenging individuals and teams in an organization;
• Give insights drawn from personal experience of what it’s like to run a business while facing considerable challenges;
• Bring a calm, grounded presence along with a spaciousness that allows for introspection and depth in an otherwise frenetic world.

My professional qualifications include a Bachelor of Arts, Hoffman Process Teacher Certification and 17 years experience running businesses internationally.

My background includes an early interest in political and economic research which occupied the first three years of my professional life after graduating.

The lack of sufficient interpersonal engagement and a strong interest in the psychology of human behavior led to further studies and culminated in gestalt training in the mid eighties.

My most recent work has been with a family owned and run company in the building sector which has been rapidly expanding. The issues that arise in this company involve both the dynamics of the family and the strategic needs of the business and these at times appear to be unintentionally overlapping. I have noticed over the years working in other larger organizations and companies that there are similar unintended dynamics and outcomes. These can be hard to pin down and are best understood in terms of depth psychology and field theory. Looking through this lens can make strategy and systems thinking go from being just two dimensional.

I leave the nuts and bolts of formulating of how we will tailor specific offerings to an organization to my experienced colleagues and put my focus on the emerging patterns and dynamics that unfold as the work progresses so we remain flexible and incisive.

Over the last 24 years my mentoring work with CEO’s and others at the upper management levels has a holistic and in depth psychological component where these insights can lead to the removal of blocks to performance, increased clarity and better relationships with peers and subordinates.

Having been a major player in developing what is now the largest gestalt therapy post graduate training program in Australia over the last 11 years I understand the interplay between good management systems and strategy and good communication.

I have considerable experience in team building through experiential learning and working with groups to unlock their full capacity. I am continually energized and delighted to be involved in this work and especially when the road ahead seems impossibly rocky and the task next to impossible.