10 Days in New York: Anything is possible. Monash Global Discovery Program 2018
“There is no one linear pathway and if you try to make it linear… you are missing out on opportunities.”
Ten days ago, Monash University flew ten student scholars on their annual Global Discovery Program to New York City to uncover the future world of innovation. Bright-eyed, curious (and now in hindsight thoroughly naïve) I didn’t expect to be embarking on trip of a lifetime.
During our time in New York, we discovered countless crucial insights, like how one should never ask Americans for a pair of “thongs” for the shower.
Trust me — that didn’t go down well!
Maybe of greater significance were the imperative lessons learnt from meeting highly influential and accomplished Monash University alumni, who were now experts in their field and undoubtedly full of wisdom…
From Stephen Margetts, former War Crimes Prosecutor at The United Nations, to Karl Redenbach, Co-founder and CEO of LiveTiles (one of Australia’s fastest growing tech start-ups); we had the opportunity to pick the brains of over 20 industry leaders of innovation.
They all focused discussion on global career journeys, authentic leadership and, most notably, the future of work. Incredible insights!
But don’t worry, you didn’t miss out on much because I’m going to showcase the highlights and connect the dots for you:
FINDING YOUR “WHY” = FINDING YOUR WAY:
“The key to becoming a great leader is…knowing your authentic self.” Dimitra Manis, Chief Peoples (HR) Officer at S&P Global.
Beyond degrees, capabilities and work experience, employers look to see if you truly understand what motivates you and value your why. As Dimitra openly explains, she is motivated by money. Straight up — no shame. But why?
Coming from humble beginnings, her greater why to provide a better life for her family is her inexhaustible intrinsic drive.
Truett Tate, Chairman of QBE (also founder of 16 companies across the world…this guy is definition of Mega Legend), reiterated this importance of finding your motivation from a recruiter’s perspective.
As former CEO of ANZ, he used to ask prospective employees why they chose to apply for this specific unit at ANZ. The worst answers always boasted how ANZ was already a prestigious company and their selected unit was established as a high performing team so they wanted to be part of it. “Don’t try find the best company to work for…find the best thing that motivates you…”
“Young people today make the mistake of not knowing why they want to do things.” Jake O’Leary, Global Head of Music & Marketing at YouTube.
E.g. Why does one even attend University? For Jake, it was always consciously to get a better job (although, side note: he did give up his $1.5 million DJ’ing business to focus on university, better doesn’t always = greater salary).
For many, it may be to become a teacher and educate others, protect the environment, improve global access to health care…
Regardless what you do, the best form of self learning is reassessing why you do what you do every few years and realising that this might change…and that is perfectly fine.
Take the funeral test.
Ask: If my funeral were to be in 5 years, what would I want people to remember me for? Who would be there?
NON LINEAR CAREERS
“There is no one linear pathway and if you try to make it linear… you are missing out on opportunities.” Jake recollected on how his collation of experiences from dropping out of high school, travelling as a DJ and racing up the marketing team at Proctor & Gamble all contributed to landing his unimaginable dream job at YouTube Music.
Whether it be in career or personal journeys, we may not know the exact next step to take…but that is the absolute beauty of the process… because then we will never know where it will take us.
“Look at tasks as learning experiences.” Patrick Loftus-Hills, Managing Director at Moelis & Company, reflected on his journey from chemical engineer deployed to the mines in Broome to partner of one of the largest investment banking funds in New York, to remind us that even moments of seemingly fruitless toil are learning opportunities.
Nothing is pointless if there is a lesson learnt.
During his university years, Patrick was passionate to pursue environmental law, but since the subject didn’t exist yet, he was told the subject would only run if he wrote all the lecture notes for the semester. Spending tireless hours assembling the resources for his own lecturer to recite back to him (good one, Monash), Patrick unquestionably became an expert in the area and later reaped the rewards of his labour when he aced that exam that… he wrote the notes for.
There merit in everything we do…any step forward, is a step forward.
Ryan De Remer and Luke Woodard, Co-founders of Sweatshop, are prime examples of the irregularity of careers today.
Graduating as industrial design experts, the two friends had a distant goal of “doing design stuff” but opportunity struck elsewhere and the two of them found themselves amongst the coffee culture in New York to open Sweatshop.
The small storefront quickly became Brooklyn’s top brunch destination and the pair turned the café into a half-and-half creative design studio (which kind of tops the arena of “design stuff”). Often the alternative route is the road less travelled…but where most significant opportunities lie.
TODAY, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE
“Too many people talk about entrepreneurship but don’t do anything about it. Make it a habit to make small changes…. Make innovation a habit.” Truett Tate, (reminder: the guy who started 16 companies, many of which got acquired, but also many of which failed…) spoke from experience of both his success and shortcomings to demonstrate that anything is possible; we are only limited by our belief and initiative to do so.
Unfortunately, this is the extent of our ingrained human condition to fear uncertainty, “I could ask the CEO of a multinational about innovation and they could talk about it for hours, but if I asked them to do it…nobody would know how to start.”
BlackRock global investment management is an exemplar that anything is possible, “Just 30 years ago the founders were advised not to start… today, BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager with USD$6.3 trillion in assets” Anne Valentine Andrews, Managing Director at BlackRock.
Imagine if they had taken that advice…
Bluestone Lane is New York’s fastest growing premium café brand, doubling in number of stores and revenue each year. But just five years ago, Founder of Bluestone Lane, Nicholas Stone was a former footy star working in banking “without a single day of experience serving coffees in retail” starting a coffee shop (talk about non linear careers!)
Imagine if he’d let inexperience convince him not to give it a good crack…
Today, the flexibility to reinvent ourselves, jump industries and begin ventures from nothing is more prevalent and possible than ever.
And out of everyone we’ve met, nobody takes better advantage of this in the world than… my high school students from the afterschool entrepreneurship program I began this year.
Their naivety to question current discourses and say “Imagine if we lived in a world where …X… we didn’t harm the environment…plastic rubbish didn’t end up polluting our waterways…our lunchboxes were made of playdough instead of plastic” creates a world of opportunity to change confirmative norms and make anything possible.
LENS OF A TRUE LEADER:
Dimitra Manis, renowned for her HR leadership in transforming the culture at Revlon, Estee Lauder and Nike before S&P Global, described the true leadership process as, “before you are a leader, success is about growing yourself… when you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”
Yet, too often we forget about the second part once we’ve achieved the first, “the element of capitalism that we’ve lost is the part where we take other people along with us on our success journey.” Truett Tate, Chairman at QBE and former CEO at ANZ (aka 16 company guy).
It’s the manifestation of “solo success” in the ruthless capitalist world that has led to polarisation in society and the persistence between rich and poor… privileged and disadvantaged… leader and follower.
True leaders don’t look to grow more followers … they grow more leaders.
When even Patrick Loftus-Hills, Managing Director at Moelis & Company, leading global independent investment bank, describes his (obvious) leadership position as, “people don’t work for me…but rely on me for direction and purpose”, there is a clear motif that employers aren’t looking for the number of times you’ve been a ‘manager’ or ‘head of…X…”; but want to hear the stories of how your subordinates became leaders, too, with your guidance.
Although counterintuitive, I really took away that, “you don’t have to be in a position of power to be a leader” Dimitra Manis, Chief HR Officer at S&P Global (you can probably tell I borderline adore this amazing woman right about now).
Having a extravagent leadership title is not what permits you to help guide and invest in others’ dreams… but simply being an empathetic human does.
In the first iteration of YES& Young Entrepreneurial Students (formerly Reach In Education)’s afterschool program to teach high school students an entrepreneurial mindset, I struggled with this perception of leadership profoundly.
Was I the best person to do the job? Heck no! Two years out of high school, I was essentially ‘teaching’ students 3–4 years younger than me about being entrepreneurial — a mindset I was only just beginning to adopt and by no means any expert (in hindsight sounds like the blind leading the blind).
At first, I had no idea how to deliver and establish a ‘sense of authority’. But through weeks trying to be the expert I wasn’t, I realised that leading my students was less about my knowledge dominating the discussion, but rather asking my students what they wanted out of the program and being the agent of change to say, “I’ll be the one who believes in you and invests my time to get you there.”
Now, one of my students is growing her own sell-out project providing healthy desserts in schools and others have gained the confidence from launching their ideas in the program to enter Australia’s leading high school entrepreneurship competition…and the best part is; they still ask for advice and I can call them all dear friends.
“Invest in great relationships; if you always put more deposits than withdrawals in the emotional bank account, others will always owe you one. (Literally, do the math)” Jake O’Leary, Head of YouTube Music.
THE RIGHT WAY TO FIND MENTORS:
“Don’t ever ask someone to be your mentor… earn the right” Truett Tate, Chairman at QBE and former CEO at ANZ. You don’t even need to ask if you can inherently make someone want to be your mentor.
From Truett’s experience, gestures that add value to him are the best way to get someone to notice your potential and invest time in you. Whether it be reading up on their current ventures and frequently linking them to articles that might interest them or conducting some research that might help them, earn their attention.
Patrick Loftus-Hills, Managing Director at Moelis & Company, is also a huge fan of people who can teach their leaders something new.
NARRATE YOUR STORY LIKE A NEW YORKER:
“The story of your life is not your life … it’s your story.” There is certainly an unwritten philosophy that underpins the way people narrate their professional story in New York that one can’t explain until they meet 20 industry leaders back to back and realise …huh, there seems to be something in the water here.
People in New York can narrate their story in such away that you’re so taken aback by their list of accomplishments that you suspect it would have taken any normal person three lifetimes to achieve so much!
Their infectious charisma is borderline ‘don’t apologise for being brilliant’ and… ‘I really know I’m good at what I do’.
Although I haven’t quite figured out what the difference is yet… but I think the basic formula goes something like this:
- Hit them with a big title (get them shook)
- Explain what change that big title actually creates (now they know you’re legit)
- Explain why that role is important in the current affairs of the world (now they know you’re fully legit)
- Link the inspiration behind the work to a past experience or childhood (the human factor)
- Nod profusely (gets everyone to at least physically show agree-ance)
- Repeat steps 1–5 about five times until others are absolutely star struck!
Instead of listing off a catalogue of accolades, communicating the impact and thoughtful motives behind their career makes all the difference.
THE FUTURE OF WORK IS “EXPERIENCES”
“The future of brands and consumer products are all about experiences because digital has changed value and power… from corporate to consumer. Everything is more consumer-centric.” Greg Baxter, Chief Digital Officer at MetLife Insurance.
Prime example of Apple, whose products traditionally shouldn’t exist in corporate world; they lack of predictability and certainty for corporate purchase, whereby we only know what we are getting at the big launch events. Yet it does… because of consumer driven demand.
In the same light, the future of real estate is about experiences: “we need to want to go, stay and work in spaces” WeWork, America’s rapidly expanding share workspace creators.
Unsurprisingly, the future of AI is about creating human experiences: “whoever cracks using AI in the workforce will be the next Microsoft of this digital age” Karl Redenbach, Co-founder and CEO at LiveTiles, crafting software solution for the intelligent workplace.
Ultimately, ten day in New York has unlocked the beginnings of the global mindset we undeniably should all foster in this era of innovation. There is much to learn internationally and vast opportunity to expand into the global market, but only if we allow ourselves to dream bigger.
Understanding how consumers are going to perceive new products and innovations across different cultures, to transact globally, is truly an art in New York City.
Love Always,
Li
