From small beginnings big things grow

This is a post about my twenty-year career in technology public relations. I’m motivated to share this life story for two reasons. First, as I testified in a recent post, technology is once again revolutionising modern life courtesy of Artificial Intelligence (AI). I witnessed similar transformative inflexion points during my IT career. Second, Garry and I recently celebrated the tenth anniversary of acquiring Artiwood, our wholesale toy company. Hence, it’s been 13 years since I chose to end my public relations career.

My career in the public relations industry began in 1993 when I answered a small advertisement in the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper. The ad simply asked if I enjoyed writing about the technology industry. I duly applied and was ultimately appointed as a public relations consultant by Recognition Public Relations. This was a boutique agency focused on the technology industry.

At the time, the company was owned by Steve Townsend. A few days before I started, he relocated the business from an old, converted terrace house in Rozelle to shiny new offices in Drummoyne. For the next five years, I worked at Recognition, making my way through the ranks, eventually becoming Steve’s second-in-charge. Steve was a superb boss. He was a kind and generous man who demanded consistently high standards of service and performance.

As a technology specialist, I championed clients such as Scientific Atlanta (now part of Cisco), Lotus Development (now part of IBM), Digital Equipment Corporation (now part of HP), Telstra (Australia’s largest telecommunications carrier), and Cabletron. Steve taught me to write, encouraged me to excel in all things, and continually had my back as a consultant during these formative years.

After five years, Steve offered me an opportunity to buy into his business. It was a compelling offer. However, at the tender age of 33, I wasn’t ready to settle down and spend the next, however many decades owning a small business. As fate would have it, a headhunter contacted me in January 1998, a few days after returning from annual leave. It was a quiet week. My diary was empty, so I agreed to meet her.

To cut a long story short, in April 1998, I accepted a job at Text 100. At the time, this UK-based public relations agency was embarking on a global expansion. One of its executives, Ava Lawler, was tasked with establishing the company’s first outpost in the Asia Pacific. I was appointed, as a local insider, to help her establish an office in Sydney. Ava is on the right in the image above. Our CEO, Aedhmar Hynes, is in the middle.

Ava and I were a powerful duo. We brought complementary skills to the business and complementary personalities. Like all opposites, we clashed as often as we synergised. However, together we built one of Text 100’s most successful start-up ventures at the time. Ava was a savvy operator who championed me internally within the company and helped me establish my credentials. I owe much of my subsequent career to her early support.

As my LinkedIn profile attests, I went on to become Text 100’s Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand, leading teams that secured noteworthy accounts, including Apple and IBM. In 2002, I was appointed Regional Director for Asia Pacific. I spent the next three years managing a network of ten offices, transforming the region from a loose collection of entrepreneurial start-ups into a unified, commercially oriented, and profitable entity.

During this period, I had the privilege of overseeing the company’s first foray into Mainland China. Under the leadership of Chris Tang, Text 100 opened three offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. As a result, I travelled regularly into China, supporting Chris and her team as they pitched for global accounts, including ARM and IBM. It was an extraordinary time watching this nation transform itself overnight. Elsewhere, an equally profound transformation was unfolding in India.

I learned a great deal about myself and the world, working cross-culturally for more than a decade. As individuals, we all carry unconscious biases. Exposure to other cultures, often in pressure-cooker situations, inevitably brought them out of the shadows. As a result, my Anglo-centric worldview was constantly tested and challenged. I came to understand that every culture has its own rhythm, its own aesthetic and its own expression of the human experience. My CEO will testify to the burnout I suffered during my first year as regional director. I learned a valuable lesson about the futility of resisting cultural norms and trying to bend them to your will. 

In 2005, I accepted an opportunity to relocate to London and run the company’s European network, a role that included responsibility for an office in South Africa. It was this relocation that prompted the creation of this blog. At the time, I found it increasingly hard to keep family and friends updated on our adventures. It was impossible to recall who’d been told what as emails and phone calls flowed. A friend who’d relocated to London around the same time showed me a blog he’d started, and the rest, as they say, is history.

My career at Text 100 finally ended in July 2012. At the time, it was a bold decision, without a clear roadmap ahead. I just knew i had to do something different. I’d joined Text 100 during an entrepreneurial global growth phase. As the years passed, I rose through the ranks to become its Global Chief Operating Officer (COO). Each role brought new challenges and new experiences. 

However, one common thread linked them all. My roles were always entrepreneurial by nature. I was constantly pioneering new entities and reforming old ones. Very little of what did involved maintaining the status quo. 

Everything changed after the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). Text 100’s parent company, Next Fifteen, launched a new strategic focus, committing the Group to reducing its financial dependency on the technology sector, and on Text 100, its largest subsidiary. The strategy made perfect sense for the Group, but not for me. 

As COO, my role had evolved from one of reform and GFC crisis management to one of relentless financial optimisation. A task best suited for a traditional Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA). Accounting and Pure Mathematics were courses I came perilously close to failing at university. A CPA I was not. I sensed my contribution was no longer valued by the Group, especially its CEO. It was time to move on while my credentials were solid and my reputation intact.

In hindsight, perhaps I could have evolved the role and played more to my strengths? Perhaps persevering for another year would have made all the difference?  I’ll never know. However, one thing I know for sure is that the last 13 years have been filled with wonderful adventures. Garry and I have maintained our standard of living, continued travelling the globe, and built a business we’re proud to own.  My career in the technology industry has served me well. I am forever grateful for the lifestyle it’s afforded me, and the people I’ve met along the way.