Growth Newsletter

Have you ever come across a business owner where it’s “my way or the highway”?

It’s 1986. The birthday clock had not long ticked over the number 18. I was in my first year of university at the New South Wales Institute of Technology, which was to morph into the University of Technology, Sydney, two years later.

Last weekend, I was a guest presenter at the annual retreat for the Family Business Association Forum Groups hosted by my friend and colleague, Andrew Barter, in Montville in the beautiful Sunshine Coast Hinterland in South East Queensland.

Do you remember the Costa Concordia? It was the cruise ship that ran aground off the coast of Tuscany in January 2012 after the captain stepped away from the bridge to, how shall we say, attend to other matters.

It’s Friday evening. I’m heading home after a late appointment in North Sydney. The traffic is surprisingly quiet at 7pm as I head across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. To my left, I can see the Brilliance of the Seas manoeuvring away from the Overseas Passenger Terminal and preparing to do its miraculous turn in front of the glorious Sydney Opera House. You never, ever get tired of that scene.

You start off in business and take any work that is offered to you. As a former consultant that we used to engage in my former accounting practice, David Connell, once remarked, if they had the smell of a cheque book, they became a client.