EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW
customers. Everybody in the business
is now aware of my management style.
It’s not a dictatorship — it is about
brainstorming and getting everybody
involved, all the way down to the guys
in the warehouse. We’re trialling five
different types of packaging at the
moment and that’s in reaction to the
feedback from not only customers, but
also from the guys on the floor.
Communication has probably been the
biggest shift internally. I am focused
on giving the employees the tools they
need, and giving them the authority
that goes with that responsibility.
That’s probably been the biggest
structural change within the business.
Every one of those people we have
given that extra responsibility and
authority to has really taken it upon
themselves to run with it.What is your personal leadership
philosophy? What do you think
makes a driven and successful
leader?Communication is no doubt the
biggest part of it. I am open with
my employees. I share all of our
financials and we’re riding a great
wave at the moment and having
great results. My background is as a
chef, so we have a quarterly barbecue
where I’ll go down and cook for the
team. For me, it’s about empowering
people. There are always going to
be some that step up and others
that are going to need a hand. We let
people go and make decisions now;
we let them take control of situations.
Education of people is key as well.
If you’re in the warehouse or if you’re
in customer service and you want
to get into finance we’re happy to
put you on a course to do that. It’s
probably the biggest satisfaction I get
outside of the results of the business,
the ability to help people. I had a great
mentor in my career and it’s one of the
personal things I like to do as well.What do you think sets Go Vita
ahead of the competition in the
health marketplace?We are a cooperative, so all our stores
are independently owned. We’re not
corporately owned like our
competition. We have more than 150
stores and every single one of those is
different. Their owners are actively
servicing the demographics of the
area in which they are located. They
can be directly and immediately
responsive to consumers’
requirements. That’s the retail side of
the business. Then with regard to the
Go Vita distributors, it’s really aboutbeing a one-stop-shop for the health
store industry. We were limited to just
supplying Go Vita previously, but we’ve
opened that up in the past twelve
months and we now supply nationally
to all health stores. That’s been one of
the big strategy changes that I
implemented. I said that if the board
wanted to push to be a really great
distributor then we had to open up
and supply. We’ve got 150 stores but
there are 500 health stores out there,
so I said let’s open it up and supply
every health store in Australia and give
them the opportunity to buy the
majority of their stock from the
one place.