If you didn’t make it to last week’s National Conference of the Family Business Association (AU), no worries, I’ve got you.
And why should you care? It turns out growing strong businesses, having positive family relationships, empowering younger generations to lead and successfully transferring wealth doesn’t happen by accident..
..who knew? I did, that’s why I’m an Advisor with FBA, though to be serious, I promise I won’t write the rest of this so flippantly – join me for a quick tour of the speakers, some insights from presentations I found, helpful and two of the most simple yet powerful tools I’ve been using this month to support clients creating change;
- The 4 Sights
- Ruinous Empathy vs Radical Candour
It Begins (at Scenic World)
First stop was Scenic World Blue Mountains, a family-owned experience business, with a legacy that began in 1945 when Harry Hammon transformed a disused coal mine into a visitor destination. Today, it features the world’s steepest passenger railway, Australia’s first cable car, the steepest cable car in the Southern Hemisphere, and a stunning cliffside boardwalk.
You can compare the above to the below, it’s a terrific engineering endeavour.
Now in the hands of the next generation, Anthea Hammon leads the business as Managing Director while her brother David Hammon heads Hammons Holdings, which has the contract for BridgeClimb Sydney and is involved with the Sydney Zoo.
In one of the most inventive way’s I’ve seen to engage an audience and tell a story, Anthea put 100 or so of us to a quiz where we had to write scores down as to how we rated each segment of the Scenic World story out of 10, before she told us about it, from innovation across the decades to the successful transfer of leadership.
The further from her self-assigned answer you got, the more points you scored (eg if she ranked innovation in the 80’s a 9, and you put 4, your score was 5).
As I write this I’ve just come back from lunch with a good friend talking dementia and parents, and something salient that stayed with me from Anthea was how in later years Harry (the Founder of scenic world) had an assistant who would pick him up each morning and take him to work, which due to his later years meant going off on adventures to anywhere but Scenic world, keeping the peace and Harry in activity.
Nic and my first visit to the Blue Mountains together, I was up last year in October for the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW)’s Nature Positive Summit though the bill unfortunately got scuppered by WA Mining Interests prior to the election – I had a good chat with Marco Lambertini at the time about the Nature Positive Initiative which you can check out here if you’re interested – https://smarterimpact.buzzsprout.com/1168484/episodes/15935262-marco-lambertini-and-philip-bateman-halting-and-reversing-the-decline-of-nature
Premium Sleep
Wednesday began with a masterclass in caring for your workforce, embracing globalisation to sustain wealth creation, and what you can do with quality branding and positioning, kicked off by Albert Garry Beard:
One thing I strive to support my clients with is competing on value rather than price, and if you know anything about marketing or branding and go and have a look at AH Beards website, it’s ‘Premium Sleep’ section, brand videos etc, you’ll see the reference I made to a masterclass in action.
Whilst I wasn’t in the session that ran in the conference featuring Garry Beard, Jonathan Coles and Iain Good of Premiumisation Partners, I believe this delved into how they positioned AH Beard to achieve this.
Now, behind the scenes, the business is an intense logistics exercise and teeming with people – something notable I heard from the current owners was a message passed down to them by their late father when it came to making business decisions;
“Always do what’s in the best interests of the families we employ” – it was noticeable in the factory vibe, and I noticed this on our way out;
In all honesty, I preferred the mattress in the foyer to the two in the presentation room, one of which apparently cost $80,000 – that said, I don’t know how much the foyer one cost, though I know $80K is the ceiling so… fingers crossed 😀
It’s Just Not Cricket
My first attendance at the hallowed ‘FBA Longest Lunch’ or should that be the Sydney Cricket Ground.. Or home of the Swans.. or the South Melbourne Football Club.. history is a funny thing.
It’s a neat format. Three courses, switching tables between each in different sequences to the other attendees. Everyone gets to move with space between serving and it’s a great vibe.
Midway through, the value per word was served in spades from Andrew Pridham AO in conversation with Brad Scott – I rarely get to hear such solid, direct, well-mannered serves of ‘this is how to achieve huge things’ from speakers, though when you look at Andrew’s resume you’ll likely understand where it comes from.
Though what exactly did he say? As I remember it – ‘do what you say, don’t rely on questionable sources, and remember why you’re here’ (wherever that may be).
This last one specifically related to the apparent signage in the boardroom of the Swans – “We are a football club”.
As I understood it, don’t be distracted, don’t forget your purpose, and don’t agree to things which move you away from your core, whether you’re a business, charity or in a personal relationship.
Day.. 1?
Yup, we only just got to the first day of the conference on Thursday, the above was Tuesday and Wednesday.
Catherine Sayer, FBA CEO kicked off noting that “We are delighted that new members are at the highest number this financial year that has been recorded.” and it was great to see Allegra Spender back on stage in a continuation of her elected seat.
Notably she called on family business owners to contact their local MP, to invite them into their businesses, and to talk to them about the challenges and needs we have, because our Politicians are human (seriously, go with me here, I wanted to be one) and we get the politicians we deserve. So, how about we be more engaged and thus deserving?
Andrew Klein held the ship steady as MC throughout the next two days, and had a self-described personal step up to the level of ‘influencer’ when one of the Day 2 speakers, Elisha Hopkinson, owner of APG & CO, who hold the brands SABA, Sportscraft and JAG, had the team supply a suit for the occasion;
Above, Elisha is speaking with Elizabeth Pilovski – “Curiosity is really important to allow change to happen… If you keep doing what you’re doing, you will blend in. Challenge the status quo.”
A Shrewd Opening
Often when I hear David Koch AM speak, I gain more empathy for my fiancée when she expresses a slight, unnerving frustration at times, with the confident way I say things, regardless of what I’m talking about.
To be fair Kochie’s an Australian legend, his whip through on the economy and geopolitics was a useful level set to begin the day, paired with Merriden Varrall and Robyn Langsford.
Notably in the way only my friends who are data statisticians, research scientists, heads of investments committees for impact funds tackling climate and socioecomic crises can, or the more renowned ‘policywonks’ in Government can achieve, KPMG scared the hell out of everyone under the banner POLYCRISIS and some intense slides.
You couldn’t realistically navigate this complexity without… KPMG.. so I guess it did the job, though I’m 5,084 days sober at the time of publishing and this session made me want a drink, likely because I was already tracking most of what was being discussed, though in a single serving? Hmm.
Don’t let me deter you – click to get Top Risks to Australian Businesses in 2024-25
Early-Intermission: The 4 Sights
Whilst we’re into geopolitics, business and a changing world, this is a great moment to introduce you to The 4 Sights.
As a Trusted Advisor to CEO’s and Families, I have one pair of eyes, though I like to bring four sights to discussions – Oversight, Foresight, Hindsight and Insight, and if you keep them in mind, you can too!
Simple, right? Kind of.. It’s hard when you’re close to something – the classic ‘work on’ and not ‘in’ the business – though it also requires casting a broad net and knowing who to speak to.
Using this as a frame for what we’ve covered so far, I’d say KPMG and David we’re focused on leveraging their Insight to reflect on Hindsight and give us a bit of Foresight.
Then bedding wise, the Premiumsiation crew used Oversight of the AH Beard capacities, mixed with Foresight for the changing demographics of wealth aspirational customers in Asia, to develop ‘Premium Sleep’ as a concept and sell a lot of high-ticket mattresses that could cover the cost of being so well-made, whilst positioning the brand distinctly amongst competitors (that’s my Insight).
If you think of wearing each sight as a hat it can be an easier way to get into it – put one one and discuss from that perspective – I find it a useful model in my role as professional best friend / non-conflicted sounding board when I’m bringing a second set of eyes to my clients endevours.
Göran Roos
.. on Families, AI, Quantum Computing and Bio-tech
This was an academic tour-de-force from Göran Roos with many slides that had me taking photos on my phone and then zooming-in to read (hand-outs or not doing this would have been great, though that’s how academics seem to roll on stage).
As with most things, true gold in the Q&A (and I’ll decipher my hand written notes for you), as I paraphrase what I remember:
“You can learn nothing from success, the luck and array of circumstances that must come together are never repeatable, no one will tell you this in their book on how they built an empire.”
Q. But Goran how do we actually innovate?
- Get access to data no one else has. Acquire it through interviews with customers, through your website, through sales, however you do it, get unique data
- Match this with public data to enlarge your data set (buy it from various platforms)
- Use a tool to see patterns
- Make a prediction about those patterns
- Find someone who will pay for the prediction
Now that’s Foresight.
By Invitation Only
It was almost perfect satire to go from ‘you can learn nothing from success’ to being so thoroughly entertained by Bruce Keebaugh on stage with Tony McGinn OAM.
The only negative was that Chyka Keebaugh couldn’t be in attendance due to illness, as Bruce recounted the beginning of their journey to one of the world’s greatest hospitality and event empires at The Big Group, all the way from making and delivering sandwiches together in suburban Melbourne, to throwing weddings for royalty or flying orchestras in for events using the hiring families fleet of planes.
“We are the creators of dreams and the sellers of memories” – an inscription and tagline in the 35 year celebration of The Big Group which you can buy at https://thebiggroup.com.au/by-invitation-only/
There’s little I can tell you in any worthy depth about the breadth of the story Bruce shared, other than people, passion and service are the keys to greatness.
One thing of note is he started his career waitering in Pelligrini’s on Bourke St Melbourne, a true institution and the last place I was sat with Nicole Stewart, awkwardly checking my watch and trying to have her arrive at 7:30 pm on the dot to co-incidence with the violinist and the friends I had hiding behind trees to propose to her, back in 2023 🙂
Emotional Men
Now we are into Parallel Workshops sessions for the afternoon, and I kicked off with Francesco Lombardo FEA (session host), and his clients Hugo Douglas and Sam Douglas in “Navigating Change in perspectives, Beliefs and Behaviours”
It was remarkable to see tall Scottish lads speaking on stage about their emotionally staid upbringing and then the emergence of their awareness and embracing of their own feelings, learning about themselves, their triggers, and the ‘gigs’ they play as Francesco calls them, plus the counter-point in behaviour they’d demonstrate when over-compensating for each gig.
I’ve previously run 4 years of my own ‘Dark Moon Men’s Lodge’ (guess when we met) in my backyard, been a Tribal Group Facilitator in https://menergy.org.au, on the fringes of the https://mankindproject.org and am an active Freemason, so it’s always a beautiful thing when I see emotional leadership in action.
And in this context, which I thought was an excellent frame from Francesco “Emotional Governance before Corporate Governance”. Bravo.
The Role of Family Offices
Not the best photo of a slide here, though take from it what you can, and I’m sure Brad Scott would love to chat more about it with you!
Fundamentally, does the complexity of growth serve you:
Jazzy James
Guess who’s been a pilot for 30 years and flies home after gigs at 1 in the morning on instruments in the darkness on his own plane? Australian Jazz legend James Morrison AM, and his sons, Harry and Will.
“Dad” in the car, “James” on stage – as said by one of his sons about how to keep professional and familial relations in balance when working in the family business.
The other really interesting thing for me was James insistence on never pushing his kids into music, and then letting them become eminent professionals in their own right before joining him in a quartet, so that they wouldn’t struggle to emerge or live forever in his shadow.
Anyhow – music’s not supposed to be read about, I filmed the last segment they did and uploaded it to my Facebook page, you can click here to watch, and don’t mind all the cat photos if you go scrolling.
Dinner was a Vibe
Excellent food, a hilarious Brihony Dawson, banging music and well-deserved awards;
Congratulations to all of the 2025 Family Business Excellence winners – Eather Group, Yalumba, DECO Australia, Amanda K Challen MAICD and Jordana Ashcroft O’Sullivan.
INTERMISSION
Phew.. need a cup of tea before we go on? Day 2 is a bit shorter, don’t fret, though before we get there, it’s time for:
Ruinous Empathy vs Radical Candour
As a leader or senior in your organisation or family, are you too nice to try and spare people’s feelings? Or are you able to be clear and direct, whilst demonstrating care through critiquing feedback?
You want to be operating in the top right – Radical Candour!
Like healthy eating, meditation and getting good, regular sleep, it’s fair to say this is aspirational and a skill to develop, though C’est la vie.
It’s also why I’m privileged to act on behalf of a small group of successful families and business owners as their Sense Maker, sitting in the middle of these two circles as we go on the journey;
Time for Chai (Day 2)
You know who backs up an awards dinner that finishes at 11 pm with a 7 am Women Leading the Way Breakfast? Yup, it’s the FBA. And you know who shows up to present 3 weeks after giving birth? Uppma Virdi, Founder of Chai Walli Pty Ltd.
Introduced by Aubrey Stillwell, Uppma unpacked the cultural, societal, financial, personal and psychological barriers that went into finding herself, founding her business and bringing the science and mysticism of the Veda’s, specifically Ayurveda, to the West.
That may sound like I’m being hyperbolic, though as an Indian woman telling her parents she was going to give up being a lawyer to be a manufacturer and seller of chai, the name itself ‘Chaiwala’ meaning to be a street vendor who sells tea, was a devastating thing to them, something only surmounted in the family when Uppma was on the front cover of the paper, from memory for winning the Forbes 30 under 30.
A few quick ones:
- Chai means tea, don’t call it ‘chai tea’ – you’re literally saying ‘tea tea’
- The recipes of https://chaiwalli.com.au are based on thousands of years of medicinal knowledge, some of them handed down by Uppma’s grandfather
- Uppma’s road to success was based on the stories of herself and her community, focus on your audience, not your product
Speaking of chai, if you’re looking to do something beautiful, challenging, pretty dangerous and generally awe-inspiring, in 2018 I embarked with 2 friends on The Adventurists‘ Rickshaw Run with 70 or so other teams in an unsupported rally from Jaisalmer, Rajasthan to Kochi in Kerala:
It’s Time For Smarter Intergenerational Conversations
Megan Gerhardt, Ph.D., Founder of Gentelligence.org and Professor at Miami University kicked off the Day 2 keynotes and refused to adhere to giving us a chart with the three bullet points associated to each generation.
Notably, Gen Z outpace Baby Boomers in the workplace, respect, connection, competence and autonomy are universal needs across the generations, and when it comes to all things include respect, we have semantic density around each word based on our upbringing.
Case in point, Megan shared an email a Gen Z student sent her saying that ‘due to feeling anxious about school and the state of her mental health, out of respect to her Professor and classmates, she would not be attending class’.
Now, for the Boomers and Gen-X in the conference, respect generally meant ‘shut-up and show-up’, yet for the younger generation, not so much… ahh conditioning.
Do you take the time to ensure you’ve set a shared context before diving into the content, or checking with your peers what a word means to them, and sharing your take on it, before powering on to disagree?
Megan gave us several ‘Power Questions’ throughout, and I’ve taken a screenshot of half of them above. You’ll have to go digging on her website to find the other half as it wouldn’t be fair to let you skip her excellent funnel > https://www.gentelligence.org/
Lastly I’ll throw in the above, because I’m an ’82 baby, which means I grew up with cassettes and VHS, can operate DOS, login to a Bulletin Board using a 33.6k modem, and now speak to my mum on face-time through a thin piece of digital glass via satellite in real time, when she’s on the other side of the world. What a time to be alive!
Victoria’s Real Secret
MAS Holdings, started in Sri Lanka in 1987 by Mahesh, Sharad and Ajay Amalean (pictured), joined on stage by his son, Kunal Amalean.
They set out in 1984 with $10,000 USD to buy 40 sewing machines, and in ’86 partnered on a handshake with MAST Industries to manufacture women’s synthetic dresses.
Now with 53 manufacturing facilities in 17 countries, and employing over 100,000 people, they design and develop in New York, London, Hong Kong and Colombo, and are behind a world of brands you’d know, love and likely have several garments from in your house.
Words of wisdom from Mr Amalean:
- “Inequality festers” – things to look out for in the family
- “Are you making money on my business? I want you to succeed” – ask your suppliers
- “Why do you need to fit into my shoes? Why don’t you fit in your own shoes?” – don’t make your children bend the knee to your view of the world, free them to find themselves
The Man in Black
I’m riffing on the photo here, though to out-him for the business superhero he is, I’m talking about Richard Turner.
And guess what makes billion-dollar companies? The basics.
The presentation included:
- How to articulate your Mission, Vision and Values
- Finding your front man aka ‘who is your Mick Jagger’
- The importance of systematising your business
- A deeper dive on how marketing fits within sales
- The need for a 1 year operational plan and a 3 year business plan
- Intensely focusing on your customer to discover room for innovation
- Protecting your secret sauce
- Planning for externalities
And don’t despair you missed out, get Richard’s book at https://essentialentrepreneur.com.
Having done my own Master’s Degree in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, I haven’t found a quicker level set than Richard’s presentation, and it’s a great place to start with clients to ensure you or I, and they, are operating in an agreed context when we’re figuring out if we need to do a sales OR marketing uplift!
Be honest, did you think ‘sales and marketing’ were the same thing?
Your Defence Force
It was notable how often Lieutenant General Natasha Fox AO CSC, Chief of Personnel for Defence Australia / ADF said the line ‘your ADF’.
Looking at socials, it’s apparent that’s the branding tagline, so props to her for being on message, though more over, she shared an inspired story of the rise of women to places of power, leadership and equality.
And more over, finishing the entire piece with a quote from Brene Brown was a lovely outro considering the nature of what the ADF are tasked to do.
I’d point you to this zinger of a summation on the bottom of the slide, which was shared in the context of our national makeup and from where we, as business owners, and the ADF, are recruiting.
Saving The Best For Last
Sick of hearing about and talking about the basics of AI? Did you know ChatGPT exists yet? Or that you can write prompts that make it do things?
I’m being very facetious here, and I am so grateful that our last presenter got on stage and informed us he wasn’t going to bother with any of that, even though he was here to talk about AI for the Future of Business.
Instead, we got a tour de force of excellent presenting and the next frontier of AI-enabled medical science through Hyperpersonalised Brain Care from the past CEO of Facebook for ANZ, Stephen Scheeler.
Since 2019 he’s been leading Omniscient Neurotechnology (o8t) and I won’t go into it in any detail, just go to the website and have a browse, you’ll be amazed – www.o8t.com.
In his own company, the guardrails or policy they have for using AI look this;
..and if you don’t have your own policy, it might be time to get on with it. Remember, don’t tell people what the policy is, ask them what they want it to be; they probably know more than you do and are using it in ways you hadn’t imagined.
And whilst we’re on the topic.. here’s a summary of Sam Altman’s keynote for Sequoia Capital‘s AI Ascent about OpenAI from 3 weeks ago, because after all we’re betting on the future right?
THANK YOU FOR READING!
If you’re not yet a member of the Family Business Association (AU), or you are and you’re not yet in a Forum Group like the folks below, make sure to get in touch with Olivia Spalding.
If you enjoyed this, please let me know what stood out to you in a comment, and give this a like and a share – it makes a huge difference to the algorithm.
On behalf of Nicole Stewart and I, don’t hesitate to contact either of us if you’re looking for a trusted advisor to discuss your family and business with.
Someone’s probably got photos of the farewell drinks, where we ended up in a hybrid of canapes and karaoke, though I don’t have them.
See you next time, don’t forget to subscribe to Smarter Impact!
