summer 2007

Welcome to VogelPercy e-news , the quarterly e-report featuring extraordinary leadership of the VogelPercy clients who are producing world class business achievements.

 
Introducing Mike Tilley - CEO, Challenger Group
  














       
 

"breaking down the 'tribes' that existed was crucial in getting a team to work together ..."

    
       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


ASX listed Challenger offers a broad spectrum of financial products and services.

Even if he didn’t realise it at the time, the founder of the Challenger Group gave his company a very appropriate name. The listed company is a key player in the financial services industry but when Mike Tilley came on board in June 2004 as its chief executive officer, he knew that getting the organisation into a shape where it could operate efficiently was going to be the toughest challenge of his career.

One of the most overwhelming issues he faced was transforming the organisation from a disparate set of divisions where managers refused to share information, into one where everyone was able to trust each other so that they were all working for the benefit of the company.

“One of the main problems was that there was so much fundamental stuff that needed to be fixed before we could start to re-build,” Mike says. “Tax returns had never been done, there had never been any monthly management accounts or a budget and no-one could even specifically say who our customers were.”

Mike says breaking down the “tribes” that existed was crucial in getting a team to work together to solve these shortcomings.

 

“One of the problems with companies that grow too quickly is that one person usually ends up with all the information held in their head,” Mike says. “A successful CEO makes sure that crucial information is shared between the management team for the benefit of the company.”

Mike says a CEO must know when to take control of a situation and if tough decisions need to be made for the sake of survival, then they should be made.

“When I came on board, everything you looked at and touched needed to be fixed,” he says. “But the changes meant in the end we were all working together to get the company running efficiently rather than looking over the fence to see what everyone else was doing.”

As there was no culture in the organisation for people to talk to each other, Challenger employed VogelPercy to run a program that instilled a sense of what the company was all about into senior management.

  


“Di and Martin were able to get the management team to put aside issues from the past and got them to focus on the opportunities the organisation has for the future.”

One of the key beliefs Mike wanted to instill in his staff was that every day they could make a difference.


 
  "we needed to go through the pain of the transformation to make it into what it is today"  


 

“This is a key role for a CEO,” he says. “Staff need to know that what they are doing also has a positive effect on others. My most rewarding moment was when a senior staff member told me by his second day on the job that he’d already felt he had made a difference - whereas he had never felt this in the five years he’d held in a senior role at a major bank.”

Challenger is now a savvy, successful company that in the 2007 financial year will make over four times what was made throughout all of 2004. “I credit this to our ability to work together as a team” Mike says.

“I look back now and realise just how tough a time it was when I joined,” Mike says. “The company was in a difficult position. But we needed to go through the pain of the transformation to make it into what it is today.”


 
VogelPercy: e-news

VogelPercy e-news contains ideas from Australia’s foremost CEOs for navigating tough business terrains. It provides snapshots of authentic leadership experiences and succeeding in contemporary business. VogelPercy e-news is privately available to key members of the global business community. Contact Barbara Zarco at VogelPercy if you’d like your story featured.


  
VogelPercy: strategists - advisors - facilitators

Increasing Competitive Advantage

VogelPercy runs Business Innovation Programs with corporations who want breakthrough business and leadership strategies. In 2006 we worked with a major Australian trading company, a key statutory authority and several financial services firms. These are medium to large corporations, some ASX 200 companies, including one that is the largest in Australasia in its sector.

Results Focus

VogelPercy is working with successful, growth companies in the financial services and health sector. A key financial institution that we have helped is now aligned internally with the top team working powerfully together. In 18 months this firm’s bottom line result improved from a loss of over 100 million dollars to a profit of over 200 million dollars.

Industry Initiatives

VogelPercy is involved with a number of Industry Development Initiatives, to help generate business for Australia as well as a welcome sense of optimism and vision. We are working with key industry figures to help lift the whole industry in Life Sciences, Agriculture, and Carbon Trading.

Private Consultation

VogelPercy works behind the scenes with Australia’s best CEO's, directors, and other corporate and social leaders.




 
VogelPercy - Beyond Strategy
 

We work with Chief Executives to help companies and their people become more successful and profitable.

The majority of our client organisations are entering a new stage of the company’s life cycle, such as an M&A, requiring a process of re-invention, transition and exceptional leadership.

We work with corporate leaders who understand that the right mind set and perspective is essential to further success and profitability.

Martin Vogel and Di Percy

 
For a print friendly version of VogelPercy e-news : click here (700k PDF)
 

CLICK HERE TO KEEP RECEIVING VOGELPERCY E-NEWS
Back to Top

Authorised by Vogel Percy & Co Pty Ltd
t:+ 613 9682 8900| f: + 613 9682 8955
Level 5 - 180 Albert Rd South Melbourne VIC, 3205
mastery@vogelpercy.com.au | www.vogelpercy.com.au
Ensure you get our messages: subscribe + add mastery@vogelpercy.com.au
to your address book

Illustration by Irene Salmont © 2006
Design by www.designscope.com.au