misconduct prevention unit -...
Post on 05-Aug-2020
1 Views
Preview:
TRANSCRIPT
Wilson Projects Pty Ltd trading as
ACN 086 377 040 ABN 86361375884
Ph. 07 3376 3557 Fax 07 3376 6046Mob. 0416 285707
Email: admin@btstranscriptionservices.com.auWeb: www.btstranscriptionservices.com.au
IN CONFIDENCE
TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW
FILE NUMBER:Interviewee: Wayne Denning (WD)Interviewers: Vicki McDonald (VM)
Ray Weekes (RW)
GAME CHANGERS
Interview conducted at State Library of Queenslandon 31 August 2017.
STATE LIBRARY OF QUEENSLAND
1. VM Good evening everyone and welcome to this evening's Game Changers
event. I'm Vicki McDonald and it's my great privilege to be the State
Librarian and CEO of this fantastic library and on behalf of my colleagues I
welcome you to your State Library. I would also like to extend a welcome to
those watching at Rockhampton Regional Library and Laidley Library and
we're co-hosting live streamed events at those libraries this evening, so hi.
Let me also begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land in
which we meet and pay my respects to their ancestors who came before
them and I'm sure you know that the State Library is located on Kurilpa Point
which is a traditional meeting, gathering and sharing place for Aboriginal
people and of course, here at the State Library we continue that tradition
every day. I'd also like to acknowledge and welcome our speaker for this
evening, Wayne Denning from Carbon Creative, so welcome back to the
State Library, Wayne. Ray Weekes, Chairman of the CEO Institute and our
facilitator for this evening, members of the Library Board of Queensland the
Queensland Library Foundation council, Queensland Business Leaders Hall
of Fame Governing Committee and also QUT Business School. And of
course, a warm welcome to our generous donors and sponsors, Crowe
Horwath, Channel Seven, Morgans, NAB and RACQ. So thank you all for
joining us tonight at our August Game Changers conversation. This event
series brings together innovative leaders from business, technology and
creative industries together to share their insights with us. The event series
provides an opportunity to hear the honest, personal reflections of some of
Queensland's leading game changers in business as they share their
pathways to success and some of their battles and triumphs along the way.
Game Changers is an initiative of the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of
Fame and the Business Leaders Hall of Fame was established in 2009 by
the State Library, the Queensland Library Foundation and the QUT Business
School. And the Hall of Fame celebrates, records and re-tells stories of
Queensland's outstanding business leaders and their many contributions to
development of this State. There are four conversations in the 2017 Game
Changers series and they delve into the minds of individuals who have made
significant developments in their industries, revealing their insights and
experiences and I'm sure that their stories will fill you with inspiration and
acknowledge to incorporate into your own professional endeavours. Tonight
we are really pleased to be welcoming Wayne Denning, Managing Director
and Executive Producer of Carbon Creative. In 2006 Wayne took a leap
from his successful career in government to establish Carbon Creative, a full
service creative agency designed to give a positive voice to Indigenous
Australians. Earlier this month Wayne, who's a graduate of QUT Business
School, which was well done, Wayne. Was named a special excellence
winner at the 2017 QUT Outstanding Alumni Awards for achievements and
contributions to Indigenous communities. And earlier this week Carbon
Creative was announced as a finalist in the inaugural Indigenous Digital
Excellence Awards for their STEM.I.AM initiative which encourages
Indigenous children and youth to start robotics and coding as an important
building block to their future and I'm pleased to say that SLQ is one of the
collaborators, so we wish you luck in those awards as well. So this evening's
event is being live streamed on our website and to those who are live stream
viewers out there, including Rockhampton and Laidley, we encourage you to
tweet your questions using the hashtag QBLL, QBLHOF and it's on the
screen as well for the people who are here tweeting as well. So we do
encourage you to tweet and tweet questions as well or you can hold on to
your questions and we'll take those at the end of tonight's conversation. So
Ray and Wayne will address as many questions as possible that come
through on the tweets. So for now I'd like to welcome Ray Weekes to the
stage to introduce Wayne and to begin tonight's conversation. Thank you,
Ray (clapping).
2. RW Well, good evening and welcome to our Game Changers event and it's a
special one. Now as a successful entrepreneur Wayne Denning will be
sharing the story of his journey from the very small coal mining town of
Blackwater in Central Queensland to wheeling and dealing with Sesame
Street producers in New York. And you'll see a little bit tonight to developing
creative works centered around Indigenous culture and experiences that
influence social change. Wayne, as Vicki said, as Managing Director of
Carbon Creative, he did leave a very successful career with the Federal
Government to start Creative Media, quite a leap of faith. A full service
creative agency that delivers engaging content and compelling story telling to
give a positive voice to Indigenous Australians. Now when he's not
delivering advertising campaigns for positive social change he's on the
boards of the Queensland Theatre Company and also the National Film and
Sound Archive. Wayne is also an Advance Queensland digital champion.
Now Carbon Creative, which you'll again better understand tonight, does
help shape and share stories and ideas. Wayne and his team remain
anchored in social change. Now Wayne Denning will tonight allow you to
understand why he loves being an entrepreneur, one who combines his
sense of social responsibility with creativity and you'll hear why shortly but
before we get underway we're going to show you a film, a short film that may
tell you a little of what Carbon Creative is about. (video plays). We know
who we are. We always have. We innovate, invent, survive, thrive. Like
mine before we are wise, leading a (unintelligible - (ui)) power. Through our
lens we see yours and go with you to make a positive difference to give a
positive voice. Proudly Aboriginal this is Carbon Creative. (video ends).
Please welcome Wayne Denning (clapping).
3. WD Thank you.
4. RW Now Wayne, just why don't we start off by talking about Carbon Media, now
Carbon Creative.
5. WD Uh-huh.
6. RW Just what does it do and what's its real reason for being?
7. WD I suppose it goes back to the reason I created Carbon Media and evolved
into Carbon Creative which was really about exactly everything you've just
said. It's about, I mean, I was frustrated having had those years inside
government, going from a very proactive and social change agenda which
was in the early 90s to a progressive, more conservative approach, you know
in the mid to, mid to, mid 90s through to early 2000s and in terms I became
quite frustrated with that and particularly the way the portrayal of Indigenous
people were being, was being presented in the mainstream and on news and
all those sorts of things. And I, I got particularly frustrated about that and I
think the ability to communicate effectively and put ideas about what
Indigenous people really wanted and what, that we're not considered in the
deficit and that we do want positive contributions to be a part of this society
but we can be leaders not only to our own people but to the country and to
be held up in that space. So to me it was about facilitating a mechanism to
do that and subsequently Carbon Media, now Carbon Creative came to be,
Creative came to be, yeah.
8. RW The word carbon, explain that.
9. WD Well, you know it's interesting, you know. I was sort of toying with the idea
when I came up with the company idea, which I was pretty fascinated by.
There was a rugby sponsorship in Europe 02 and you know a
telecommunications company, so I thought that was pretty cool and I saw
that and I think it was just after, you know we, the British had beaten us in
the, the English had beaten us in the World Cup in rugby. So it was slightly
annoying but it sort of stuck in my head that oh, well, let's think. I love that
element and I love the idea of simplicity around that but something that says
something and the beauty of carbon, it's a base element. It's, on the periodic
table it's number, it's sixth and all life is derived from, you know we're carbon
beings and everything. So it gives this sense of eternal connectivity, original
and I thought being an Indigenous person that where we come from in our
way into the future the word carbon really epitomised that to me and it was
quite a, that was the reason and it was just prior to all the debate around
carbon, carbon trading and carbon tax and all those sorts of things, so I know
it went sort of bad at that point but once you explain it people sort of get it,
so.
10. RW Good. Good, thanks. Now telling inspirational Indigenous stories and
portraying Indigenous role models, positive Indigenous role models is really
at the heart of your work. So a decade on, this is a decade on now from
when you created Carbon Media and Carbon Creative. Can you describe
some key moments when you think this did come to fruition, when you
actually understood that this was going to work?
11. WD Well, I mean, I don't know if I'd say everything, it's ever going to fully work. I
just think we, it's almost a gain of inches really, I think. Sometimes when we
get momentum around things and then you slightly get frustrated but I think
we've got a better move forward now. You know we did the first ever, I
mean, we were very experimental as a company when we first started. We,
we did live broadcast from the Torres Strait. We did, you know live web
stream not dissimilar to tonight but you know this is probably 10 years ago,
so those sorts of things and very remote challenges thrown at us and the
idea was really connecting people. And I thought well, you know let's
proceed being innovative, being change driven. Some of it worked, some of
it's not but takes those sort of risks but in acceptable margins of a risk, I
think, pushing forward. I suppose for me really the crux point for it all, that
shift, is probably only in relative recent times in the last, probably last year
when we moved into Carbon Creative from the company that, the initial
company of Carbon Media and the brand and sort of split our two entities to a
degree from television to campaign agency work.
12. RW Let's talk about risk for a minute, just your appetite for risk because you talk
about the need for risk to drive...
13. WD Uh-huh.
14. RW ...success, to drive creativity. So what's your view of risk and how, what's
your level of appetite for risk?
15. WD I would say I'd probably take too much risk at times.
16. RW Yeah.
17. WD I think, I mean, I probably like to jump ahead. I like technology. I get excited
by those sorts of things. Although, I mean, I am surrounded by people that
advise me well about risk. My wife and my management team are extremely
level headed when it comes to those sorts of things, whereas I'm probably a
little bit more excitable about doing things and getting things a bit out of
control but I mean, we push forward and then we take a step back, so it's
that sort of thing. So risk does drive innovation. It does drive, it creates that
urgency that we need to put our hand up and take ownership of a problem
and accept responsibility. I think those sorts of things are really quite
important as a, as a leader and as a manager and I think by nature of seeing
a vision and trying to sell a vision and take people with you, you've got to be
able to analyse and strategise around risk.
18. RW Let's just explore some of the values that have really shaped you and where
do you get your values from that have a direct bearing on you and your
entrepreneurial spirit?
19. WD I mean, core values for me come from my family...
20. RW Right.
21. WD ...without a doubt, I think, and I, a lot of that goes to my grandmother and my
mother and my father who, and my grandmother grew up in a time in the
State and in Australia where she was, you know she wasn't a citizen. She
was an Aboriginal lady, you know pre, pre 1967 and you know she faced
significant adversity but always had a smile, was someone who was resilient
and strong, spoke no ill-thoughts of anybody but really wanted, worked really
hard. So those sorts of things definitely epitomised my mother and went into
my, her and her siblings and also linkages with my father who's an English
man who again gave me a bit of a thought about, again a very hardworking
person but who epitomised that the place was bigger than, than just the local.
So it sort of gave me an idea that, you know that he could as a young 28
year old guy move across the world and take up an opportunity to take, start
a life in another country and meet an Aboriginal community of people and
just start a life totally different to everything he probably expected and it's just
turned out pretty cool.
22. RW Wayne, let's just stay with your grandmother for a minute because she was
just an inspiration to you, your grandmother, and she thought you a number
of life lessons. She had that generous spirit as you said but take us through
why she was such an inspiration.
23. WD Look, she, she was a strong woman of faith. She, she really believed in a lot
of things. She was really strong around family and community and had great
friends and good networks. She didn't have much in the way of material or
money and those sorts of things but she was a lady that just loved in a way
and was so encompassing of everyone that sort of knew her and, and you
can't go wrong with those sorts of values. I really do think her ability, once,
you know not that she ever mentioned much one she was alive but when you
find out some of the harder things that she had to live through and you know
it was difficult you know what I mean. I remember a story that I heard, they
grew up, my grandfather and my nan were courting. Well, you weren't
officially allowed to court without permission from the Aboriginal protector.
They lived in Woorabinda in Central Queensland and you're just hearing very
clever ways in which men had to express feelings, that they were slightly
interested in a girl outside sanctioned sort of social occasions and it was like,
it's crazy but men used to spit in the direction of a girl that they liked. It is just
because they weren't allowed to, so they got...
24. RW This is downwind or upwind?
25. WD I don't know. So hopefully, yeah, so you've got to dodge it but, you know I
remember my nan had to spend a night in, in lock up because she waved to
share her, show her, that she was interested she wave to my grandad and
yeah, so she had to, she had to be put away for, because they saw her, so
she wasn't allowed to do that. So just a simple wave of love for a teenage,
young early 20s I suppose girl, and it just showed you some of the things but
she never spoke much about those sorts of things...
26. RW No, of course.
27. WD ...but just continued and be, and was embracing of everybody and
everyone's cultures, so.
28. RW You also drew inspiration and life lessons from the fellow who's on the $50
note, David Unaipon. What's about his story that inspired you?
29. WD Well, you know I think, well, he was a certified genius and this is a man that
is very familiar to us all because, you know I know times are tough but we've
hopefully got a couple of $50 notes in our pockets occasionally and the
reality is that David Unaipon was an amazing Australian. He was an
Aboriginal man born about 130 years ago. He innovated. He was, he was a
da Vinci of our country. He linked to me our traditional ways of doing things
to the way of innovating and inspiring a country. As you know he created the
orbital shear which on the $50 note it celebrates everything about him and
it's still used today and this country grew up on the sheep's back. Anyone
would have told you that at some point in your life and you would have said
well, the man who changed that made economic wealth for Australia was an
Aboriginal man but he was widely disregarded in that sense. So to me but
he continued. He wrote about issues. He, he was a very brave Australian
and a strong Aboriginal man and to me this idea of innovation and resilience
and leadership as an Aboriginal person but for the whole country...
30. RW Is embodied in him.
31. WD Yeah, embodied in him. An inspiration to me. He should be an inspiration to
all Australians.
32. RW Now in 2013 you made TV history by producing the first ever Australian
content, the first ever Australian content of Sesame Street's Five Kangaroos
staring Indigenous singer and actress Jessica Mauboy. What was important
about this moment for the company, and you did a bit of wheeling and
dealing with the New York producers, about this moment for the company
and for the history books in your view?
33. WD Well, you know who would have thought a 90 second clip would have the
impact it has on everything that, you know for me and for the company but
way beyond that. Kids are still jumping around to it but look, the reality was I
went to New York. I had an idea that we needed to get content to be taken
seriously at that time in the children's television space but, and I'd heard from
a great kid’s television producer, a lady called Di Manson who's an Australian
who lives in New York who gave us good connections and said you need to
get in front of the Sesame Workshop team and Di introduced us or gave us
an opportunity or spoke about someone to go talk to a lady called Kimberley
Wright. And we pitched the idea of working with Jessica Mauboy, that we
would go over there and we've got this idea of working in, you know come
Down Under and work with Australian content and Australian kids because it
had never been done before. They weren't looking for Australian content.
They weren't even looking for English content. They were looking for
Hispanic content from America. It was freezing cold. It was February in New
York. I was dodging black ice and things like that. It was one of the coldest
winters on record and it snowed in, those super cells that they talk about. It
was, it was crazy times and she took a leap of faith. I went with a pack that
she presented our beautiful art and I think we had Es for emu and all sorts of
other things and all these ideas and, and I just really wanted to be, if we aired
the first content on Sesame Workshop, and I grew up on this as a kid. It was
45 years old at that point as an, as a production and for us to be there, I
would have, I just wanted it to be Indigenous kids and Indigenous talent and
Indigenous kids to be a part of that and I didn't have Jessica. She didn't
know I was over there pitching that she was on board with the show. She
didn't have a clue. Sony didn't certainly know. They were all, if they would
have found out, and then, you know Sesame Workshop, to their credit
Kimberley and others, the producers went down. I think Sapphires was
screening in a theatre somewhere in Manhattan and...
34. RW It was one theatre in the whole of New York, hey.
35. WD Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you know that's just, we think things are, we're a big part
of the world but sometimes we're not. And to, and they went down and said
oh, we'll go and see this girl, she sounds really good, so they did and she
said yeah, we'll refocus it. You can, we'll come on board with you to produce
Five Kangaroos, so and the next thing you know we're in Alice Springs.
Jessica's on board minus her luggage which went missing but she went to
Target. So we had a totally different wardrobe for her but anyway, she's a
great person and a lovely, a lovely Australian, so she's beautiful but the next
thing you know we're in the Todd River with the kids from Yipirinya State,
Yipirinya School and Jessica Mauboy creating Australian television history.
36. RW Do you want to see a film about this? Yeah, let's watch it. (video played).
Isn't that great (clapping). Let's just explore some of your personal attributes.
As a leader and as an entrepreneur, we're going to explore in a second why
you love being an entrepreneur but I mean, these leader attributes, your
effectiveness as an entrepreneur are the key factors in your success story
but is there a personal story where you best understood your leadership
capacity because a lot of leaders will tell us a point in their lives someone
said to them, explored with them a capacity they didn't really think they had.
37. WD You know I mean, I guess a constant self-reflection. I mean, I think it's a
journey and I mean, putting myself forward as, as a leader, even the word
entrepreneur sort of sits slightly uneasy with me. I get what that means but I
think particularly I look at people who are leaders in this country and around
the world and they are attributes that inspire me and that make me feel
stronger about certain things. You certainly gleam and try and pull ways of
being better, better at what you do. I mean, it's certainly, it's something I
struggle with I've got to be honest with. It's, I've got a, the truest aspect
probably in really recent times is as we evolve as a company letting go of my,
my day to day hands on approach to things. I've got a really amazing team
and management that are just, you know and I've just got to take a step, to
me I suppose leading by, by realising that as a small business who's slightly
corporatising in a different way and taking on things and we've got new
challenges. There are other people, I used to be pretty much a general's
doing everything. Now we've got good specialists that are better at things
than I am. That's the bottom line and, and my ability to surround myself with
the better people that are great members of my team, I would say that in the
back of my head but I've got to remind myself that, you know you can't do it
sometimes. You can't do it all and your leadership is actually bringing those
teams together, inspiring that and getting a common objective and selling our
dream really, which is, it's an interesting one. You know we, as a company
we are a commercial business. We're but we have values, so it's, you know
profit with purpose, time manage but to actually sell that into the way
Australia works and the way the mind set works, that you can be commercial
but also want to change the world is, I feel is something relatively foreign.
We're not really about a secret objective here. We just want to, to make
particularly the focus on Indigenous Australians and the disadvantaged
groups of Australia and actually make things a bit better in terms of that and
give it a voice and be quite positive around that, and that doesn't always
mean reflecting on a deficit or a, or a disadvantage need. It's also about
promoting and celebrating heroes and leaders and role models and really
saying that as a country we can get behind this, you know and it doesn't
always have to be on a sporting field or on an art gallery. It can be in all
shapes. It could be a scientist and that's why we are very passionate about
STEM.I.AM and engineering and coding and science and getting as many
Indigenous people, kids into that.
38. RW Yeah, I'll come back to them in a minute but the best advice I ever got as a
CEO was surround yourself with the best people.
39. WD Exactly.
40. RW Make your expectations clear and then constantly demonstrate your trust and
confidence in their capacity to deliver but the hardest thing was letting go.
41. WD Absolutely.
42. RW Yeah.
43. WD And it's, that's a very current thing for me really in all honesty. I mean, I've
been very much at the helm of this company, it's 12 years now since, coming
up 12 years since we created it. You know it started as a project plan at
QTM, you know the MBA program. I pitched and the guys got behind it as
(ui) and we did a project, you know where the business team was absolutely
nothing like what really running a business was like at the time but it certainly
stand me in good stead in terms of where we've landed. You know and the
ability to realise that tells you by its very nature you've got to surround
yourself with good teams and good people that bring different attributes to
the table. Working with teams in that way...
44. RW Yep.
45. WD ...and even to sell it at that point now you know we've got professionals at the
table. We're dealing with significant campaigns that are making strong
messaging or providing strong messaging, so making lives better and
promoting positive social change and...
46. RW But if I ask members of your team tell us about your Wayne, what does he,
what does he represent, what does he stand for, what do you think they'd
say?
47. WD You know I think they think that I'm very passionate about making the place a
better place really. I think my values are very much driven by that. I get very
frustrated by that. Sometimes I get concerned that why doesn't everyone
see this idea. My, and I, you know I lose it a bit about that but that's just,
that's just who I am and I suppose I'm impatient with those things but yeah.
48. RW So what are the values that you look for in people that work for you?
49. WD Look, it's really driven by team. I probably, we make mistakes sometimes but
I, I really value that sort of capacity to, to gel a team and it's becoming more
around building machine parts or something I feel. Like, we're getting the
right cogs to the right, and this is a journey we've been on, I've had, you
know different teams at different times in the life of Carbon and, and to get to
the point now where I think it's more of a sophisticated approach to certain
things and the team that I have today is nothing like the team I had, you
know five years ago, six years ago. It's just evolved and I see it as a
constant, and the vision and the clarity around the objectives at which we're
trying to achieve now is, that's a direction we'll be going in into the next
period. And talking about leadership before and one of the attributes that I
really like is the ability to reinvent yourself and to use that team and to, whilst
the name Carbon stays consistent I would say we're nothing like we used to
be and that's kept me fresh, you know that ability to move from being a public
servant working in government being an adviser to creating a television
production company essentially and now I'm moving into stronger social
change campaigns. That's, to me they're different careers. They are, each
time we evolve and I literally was talking to Rebecca, who's one of my team,
management team who, the other day about reinventing yourself around and
doing, and you know and my wife as well around doing studies, doing things
and trying to evolve around what your learnings are and just saying we've got
to keep fresh, you've got to keep evolving and looking for innovation and
that's, that excites me as a person, keeps...
50. RW But that gives, differentiating yourself, it keeps you ahead of the game. Is
that the way you stay ahead of the game?
51. WD Yeah.
52. RW Yep.
53. WD I think, well, firstly realising that you, you can't stay still. I think surrounding,
it's an interesting perspective. We literally interviewed a social, not social, a
strategic strategist, social media guru all of 22 and she blew my mind away
yesterday and I just, unbelievable. It was just, you know I think I know
something about something and it just, to have someone who's just
absolutely amazing in terms of the way we have to communicate and how we
have to engage, and it's easy to say that and we realise that the platforms
that are being used in social media and other ways in terms of selling a
message are continuously evolving but to actually, to recruit the right people
around that sort of space and it gives us that edge. It was something I was
pretty, very excited about, particularly since she said yes.
54. RW Wayne, you're the creator of this, and I just want to come back to STEM for a
minute.
55. WD Mmm.
56. RW You created this STEM project, a Queensland Government initiative. The
aim is to increase the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
as, students looking, going to, pursuing STEM at university through targeted
and engagement activities for young people but just explain why this
particular work and your social model of enterprises is just so important to
you.
57. WD Well, you know I suppose STEM.I.AM is something, I mean, a few years ago
I originally started out studying engineering before I didn't want to do it
anymore. It was too hard. And I sort of felt, you know is this really what I
wanted to do? But, so I'm always passionate. I love technology. I love the
idea of inventing things and I was pretty excited about that at that time but I
did a presentation at the Melbourne, University of Melbourne own. They did,
held an inaugural engineering summit, Indigenous engineering summit and
we spoke about David Unaipon at that summit and this is a, you know
university in, you know I think their engineering school's top eight, top 10 in
the world. A 130 plus year old institution. It had three Indigenous graduates
in engineering and they were dismayed about that and I was equally
dismayed by that fact. I understand the reasons behind why that might be
hard but it, that's not, not right and I think, and I think the main thing for
Indigenous kids is not realising the opportunities that may exist for them and
much to, you know the situation, my grandparents probably wouldn't know
the doors that are open to me and the opportunities presented to me. And,
and I'd like to claim credit for that statement but that's Noel Pearson who said
that but those sorts of things are really important and I thought, you know the
digital economy we're looking at then I don't think we can afford to have, to
use the term close the gap, another gap appear for Indigenous kids,
particularly those that don't even know the opportunity exists and I, I became
quite concerned about that, so I thought we needed to do something, and
yes, it is part of a Queensland initiative but it's a national initiative. We firstly
pitched the idea and went to Google Australia came on board very promptly.
The Queensland Government has been fantastic as well in this State and we,
it's something we're very passionate about.
58. RW One thing we just spoke about the other day which really resonated with me
is you described the crystal clear skies and the landscape of Central
Australia, what it means to you personally and also your, the bearing it has
on your thinking. Just explain that.
59. WD Well, you would have seen with the intro piece they've said this is Carbon
Creative and there's some art that captures and that's the Milky Way. And
around that Milky Way, that's really Carbon's value statement. It's that piece
of Aboriginal art is our values and it puts our team and the people sitting
around our clients, we're all around that but we're looking at the Milky Way
and because that's the big thinking and that's the strategies and the ideas
about that and the Milky Way to me, I remember growing up as a boy in
Blackwater but also you know travelling in the Northern Territory and so forth
and watching shooting stars and it gives you a sense of place and a sense of
opportunity and where you need to be and where we can go. And just, you
know I just said, you know I'm in this very small town. You can feel very
alone but you know there's something greater out there and I think to me
that's an inspirational point of view and it just certainly stimulates your mind
in a way that and, and the other point I think we said the other day, you're
actually, you're looking at the past but you're in the future too at the same
time because that light takes millions of years to come to you from those
stars and then what you do with that is, you know you can change the world
with that.
60. RW You talk about landscapes. You talk about the changing digital landscape,
creating endless opportunities for young entrepreneurs. How do you see
this?
61. WD Well, it's totally what it is but I think, I mean, one of the things, I think a lot of
it's back to being true old fashion values too. We can see all these
opportunities in the tech and so forth but good strong communication skills,
ability to look at problem solving and pitch ideas still work in a social context.
I think these are the values that we need to ensure, despite what the
mechanism, be it a piece of technology, be it coding, be it a social media
platform but actually staying true to those sorts of values as a society, as
people, as humans and going back to some very ancient ways of working
and linking that will set us in good stead for the future.
62. RW Has the fear of failure been a factor in your, is it a great motivator for you?
Has it figured in your journey, that fear of failure? Because a lot of
entrepreneurs will say that.
63. WD I don't, I don't believe I'll fail, you know. I know it's constant. I believe, and
just maybe its delusion and the signs of a madman but it's the reality is that,
if I believed I was going to fail I don't know if I'd take the challenge, you know.
I don't, you don't...
64. RW But does the fear figure in your, the fear of... ?
65. WD I know I fear it. You know I think that's an acceptable reality. You've got to
deal with that. Failure is inevitable and learning from failure is the valuable
lesson you take from that. It's the step, so but then you say was that really a
failure or was it just another way of moving forward and you know change
direction or that wasn't meant to be. It's those sorts, I think as long as you
reflect on, on failure and on your learnings and actually incorporate that into
where you want to go into the future.
66. RW So what do you know about yourself now that you didn't know when you
started out on this journey?
67. WD I didn't know, I didn't know I mean, I don't know if I am particularly patient but
I didn't know that I, I suppose I didn't know what I didn't know really. I just, I
struggled with the fact, I thought things are easier. I thought, naively thought,
you know you follow these, the textbooks and that sort of, you know those
sorts of thinkings and you hear the rhetoric, the jargon, the team and all
these sorts of things and but the practical application of that is like, there are
true things in there. It's like you, you've got to get it right. I mean, we've had
some monumental failures in recruitment. We have had some monumental
failures in my own decisions but despite that we've sustained, moved
forward, took those punches and dust ourselves off and moved on. I didn't
know I would be able to survive then. I think that word around resilience and
the drive towards innovation are probably, you know just didn't factor as
much as I thought it would.
68. RW And persistence.
69. WD Persistence, yeah.
70. RW So having said that what do you think distinguishes successful
entrepreneurs, anything else? Resilience, persistence. What else?
71. WD You know I think the innovation aspect, I think. I think you've got to keep
looking for opportunities to, to innovate, and I know it's a jargon word and we
throw it out there but it's, to actually take that and I suppose innovation is
actually to evolve to accept risk, to learn, to take that and own things. I think
accountability is another key element to me is actually. I, if I'm looking for
recruiting people and the type of people I like to work with are those who take
responsibility and own, and own it, I think, and that's not always the case but
owning something I think and taking, that I've got this, I'm going to drive this
forward and taking that responsibility on an accountable level is something
really cool and really strong and an essential part of successful business.
72. RW Like give them space to take that ownership...
73. WD Yeah.
74. RW ...(ui) ownership.
75. WD Well, yeah. I mean, yeah, you've got to, you've got to, you can't control, so
you've got to allow people to make mistakes but you want them if they do
make mistakes to say I made that mistake, so.
76. RW So your burning passion from here, your burning desire, the fundamental
differences that you want to make, just explain, and where you see this in
five years.
77. WD Well, I mean, I like some of the programs that we're working, you know one
of the things that we do, and it's one of our sweet spots as a creative agency
is we've, we did a smoking campaign called Don't Make Smokes Your Story
with an Aboriginal man and his family, his trials and tribulations. And a guy
called Ted in the ads and it was that, and we've just got some fantastic
research back from the research companies for the government, the Federal
Government and the reason it's with Fred being, who was an Aboriginal man,
an Aboriginal family but non-Indigenous people saw that man as a man that
was just dealing with the family issues and taking that forward. They did not
for a moment think there's an Aboriginal man and to me that's the sweet
spot. That is like saying that's leadership by just accepting the reality behind
that and for us to have contributed a methodology behind doing that was
quite strong. We recently did something similar with a domestic violence
campaign for the State Government, Stop the Hurting where we spoke to
Aboriginal focus groups and kids about what they wanted to see. It was a 12
to 17 year old demographic target group and the idea was to, what did they
want to see and the Indigenous said look, we realise there's issues but we
don't want to just see us, we want to see everyone but, and be a part of that
and that was great learning and we created a campaign with, you know Illy
the singer, a hip hop artist and these kids and it just, that was something I'm
pretty proud of as a campaign. It's quite unique, so.
78. RW Good. Now look, we were expecting to see some tweets coming out of
Rockhampton and Laidley and so on. We haven't seen any yet, so if you
have any please let us, send them through. Could I ask you any questions
from the audience? And look, we have a microphone here. We have a
microphone on both sides, so let's just raise the lights a bit on you so we can
see where the questions are coming from. Now I can see your hands. Who
would, there's a question here, thank you. Just over here. Just over there,
thanks, and please raise your hand if there's another question over here.
Yep, right. We'll come to you next.
79. XX Thanks. Thank you (ui) and I really have enjoyed this tonight. I was just a
little bit interested to hear about your journey from actually the Federal
Government...
80. RW That microphone on by the way?
81. XX Okay. Yeah. Thank you very much for tonight and I was very interested in
your journey or your decision actually to move from the Federal Government
to doing what you're doing. You mentioned the disillusionment but it's still
quite a big decision when you go from I suppose a secure job, pay packet,
etcetera.
82. WD Yeah.
83. XX Like, did you do that, did you transition and you were doing something on the
side or was it literally just that clearer jump?
84. WD Well, I was disillusioned. I mean, I was more frustrated by a range of factors
and I mean, it's also a personal journey. Yes, there was the politics and all
those sorts of issues and what we were working but I really felt the need to
be my own boss and my own, take my own agenda and if I was going to be
frustrated about this let's live and die by your own sword so to speak. And
what I did was I was in government and I was there for about, I suppose
about 11, 12 years and I, I needed to break that but you know I went and did
an MBA at QUT and not just because they're the sponsors but that was the
reality for me and to be able to do that and re-progam how I was thinking. So
you know I was specialising in entrepreneurship and the strategy and
governance and those sorts of things I thought were the types of learnings I
needed to take away to set up a successful business. I didn't have a lot of
time to do that, so I did a very intensive one year to get back out because I
didn't have any money coming in, so those sorts of things. So and to actually
start a journey and pull ourselves up by the bootstraps as they say and it was
successful. And I'm right to say that this was a slowly, it was, you know
again very small gains to build and then build again and as the theory works
but that's how, it actually did work for us and I was happy to move on with
that.
85. RW Is there another question just here? Thanks.
86. XX Thanks, Wayne. I was just wondering with all of the sort of paradigm shifts in
the marketplace recently with what's going on with technology, you know
these days a single app could be created that, you know for 99 cents that
can kind of change industries completely like Uber for example. What sort of
changes will existing business models need to make and what sort of, what's
the sort of mindset that any entrepreneur should have going into creating
new business ventures with, before the rapid change that's happening?
87. WD Yeah. Look, I think we've moved into an industry, I mean, the ad agency
world is, you know very much a guarded world and it hasn't really probably
shifted, I mean, it probably has in recent times but it hadn't needed to really
shift probably since the 60s and 50s when that model had come about but
we're a very bespoken light business. There’s only about 10, 12 of us.
Companies traditionally are larger. They have digital teams and so forth.
We, we are, you know we work with professionals that come in. We bring
people we but we maintain a very senior sort of management model that we
work with, with groups and the other thing around that is the general
business practice, working with cloud based technologies around like Zero
and project tracking systems like Trello and Workflow and Harvest, those
sorts of things that made small businesses. We don't have big commercial
overheads in terms of corporate support. It's really, you're looking at me and
other people like me in my office. There's just a handful of us and to actually
do that and integrate with that makes things streamline. So we don't have to
be big, so we can keep our overheads down as a business and not be
bigger. That's what the digital disruptions really created for us and has
made, I mean, the company was born out of digital disruption. If, when I
originally came up with Carbon the idea was, we were trying to pitch the idea
of video content over the emerging digital device. There was no iPhone.
That hadn't happened. That hadn't happened for several years after we
created Carbon but we were thinking there was an opportunity to do
webisodes and all that, sort of low entry cost things, low barriers to entry.
And then democratise media through things like the software products put up
for by Apple and those sorts of guys allowed us to start a business that
traditionally was going to cost millions of, or hundreds of thousands of dollars
to gain an entry and that's no longer the case, so.
88. RW Another question? Yep, thank you. Sorry. Peter, the microphone just here,
thanks.
89. XX Wayne, thanks very much for inspiring conversation and I'm sure everybody
in the room, well, certainly in my own case, we really want to see Indigenous
businesses thriving. It's really important, you know for the Indigenous
community and that's important for Australia. I just, you mentioned thinking a
couple of times and some of the references that you made, led me to think
about how you think and whether you're consciously aware of your
Indigenous heritage and culture influencing the way you think because
there's been a lot of criticism of Australian business leaders and
entrepreneurs thinking very narrowly and focused on the short term. And I
wonder whether you're conscious that, that your Indigenous heritage is
informing the way you think, not just about the day to day but the future of
your business.
90. WD I'd say yes, it does and it's something that sort of became more apparent to
me, and it's not just uniquely me or anyone like that. It became more
apparent in terms of a particular philosophy. I went to a procurement or a
supply diversity conference in the US in Orlando a few years back and where
the minority supply groups are working and there's billions of dollars’ worth of
trade going on for minority groups working with the big, you know the big
blue chip companies and so forth. Over there those companies are actively
pitching for multi, you know minority groups to come and work with them
because not because they're minority groups and for social good but
because of the way that they think and the cultural diversity that they bring to
the table actually improves the bottom line of their businesses. I don't know
if Australia is anywhere near that, particularly in the Indigenous space. I
attend a similar type of event here in Australia. We have to pitch to pretty
much government sources as an Indigenous business to, you know to
engage with our services and it's, there's a mega mind shift because it's,
there's an imbalance to what is actually brought. There needs to be an
appreciation that an Indigenous man and Indigenous ways of thinking or
Indigenous businesses actually bring significant opportunities for the bottom
lines of whatever the business is, not just in the Indigenous space but in
terms of the thinking.
91. RW Different thinking, yeah.
92. WD Look, I met a guy, I did a, sat on Robotronica at QUT a couple of weekends
ago on a panel about old ways, new tech and I was sitting with an associate
professor from UTS in Sydney and he was talking about the way robots and
coding works and integrating Indigenous communication methodologies and
traditions over thousands of years that have been developed into
streamlining quicker sign apps type thinking in the robots and the way we
code robots. So he's thinking that there's a significant bottom line from
something very ancient communication skill sets that are very traditional but,
and how robots of the future will work and what, as opposed to juxtaposed to
a western thinking methodology, so you know. So yeah, I do think that and
it's not just me, so yeah.
93. RW Question? Yep, thank you.
94. XX Good evening, Wayne. Thank you very much for sharing your story with us.
I'm more interested, I'm really passionate about social change as you are
and I believe that social change starts with the people and so if you wait in
queue, move a bureaucratic government you'll be waiting a long time. So I'm
really interested in your opinion how we as Australians as part of the
community can change our behaviour to create social impact that creates
equality for all Australians.
95. RW That's a big one.
96. WD Well, look, you've seen the debate. I think, on several social fronts at the
moment, be it the recent recognition process for Indigenous Australians and
how that was handled by the Federal Government and the current, you know
marriage debate that's going on. And to me I think facilitating clear lines of
communications and being quite progressive in that space. I think
Australians as a society, you know personally, I think we all have a voice and
we need to share that. We don't necessarily need the government to tell us
how to think about certain things. We need to be able to express ourselves
in a way. We are very empowered in this day and age through the
mechanisms we have to express our thoughts but I don't know if we
necessarily take the time to actually, the vast majority of us to take our time
to actually express clearly what we have to say and that leads to quite radical
thinking and dominating the landscape about how our society would work
and I mean, that's my opinion, so I think on the whole as humans I think we
should take a stronger stance and actually care about how we work better
and what's, and to create an inclusive and diverse and respectful society
moving forward.
97. RW We have a question from Laidley. Just what is the one piece of advice you
would give to a local business owner or local business owners. Is there one
piece of advice that you would pass across to the community of Laidley?
98. WD One piece of advice? I, I know it's tough and I think, and it's easy to say just
stick it out and all those sorts of things but the realities of cash flow and
teams and working with people make things very complex but I think keep an
open mind is one thing. I think be decisive in your decision making because
at times I cannot be, sometimes I'm not that and I should be there.
99. RW There's a question from Rockhampton too. What achievement are you
proudest of?
100. WD I think, it's hard to say. I actually really am proud of the evolution of the
company now and to where it's going. I think with our focus is absolutely
right. Rather than hoping that people get the social change we're actually
infusing it in the campaign work that we're getting. I mean, the beauty of
Five Kangaroos or any, those type of initiatives, we really are targeting kids
and the youth around that but we're doing it in a very subtle way and you sort
of hope that they get that. Sometimes they do and sometimes they just enjoy
dancing around like kangaroos, so that's really cool too but to actually get
more targeted information to people and that's really hopefully making their
lives and changing things is quite, it's something I'm very proud of.
101. RW Any final question from the audience? Yes, thank you. Thank you.
102. XX Hello, Wayne. I was just wondering, as you said with Sesame Street they
were looking for content that different to what you produce. How do you go
about approaching a partner that might not necessarily be looking for what it
is that you're doing?
103. WD Yeah. Look, it's, I mean, that's a broader challenge anyway for people. If
you, you know if you don't have a mindset or you don't know what you don't
know then, I mean, they weren't even looking Down Under. They didn't
even, it wasn't even on the radar. They were just, we, mostly didn't really
realise that we, we took their Sesame Street, you know rather than, you
know in other parts of the world, you know South Africa has its own version
of Sesame Street. India has its own version but Australia has American
Sesame Street and Australian kids were learning what the American kids
were doing, so it was really difficult to actually put that to them but you know
it was just really opening your mind to it. Like, we went with a beautiful piece
of art. We deliberately, sometimes much to my despair were overly iconic in
certain things. You know we had to give them the outback. We had to go to
Alice Springs. We had to do this. We had to have boomerangs. We had to
have kangaroos. We went with the best Indigenous singer I could find and I
happen to think she's amazing. You know it just, that was just throw that all
in, make this fantastic cake. If that didn't work then we weren't ever going to
do it. It was just...
104. RW That's right, yeah.
105. WD It was just, a lot of things fell into place and sometimes it's just that bit of
magic. If it, you just smell when something is going to work and they went
oh, wow, we didn't even know that existed, you know. It's just amazing, you
know and that opened the mind and thankfully had some people over there
and I find if you share and have a conversation with people that, and it
probably goes to the core of what we're about. If you have a conversation,
share an idea you'll exchange a message and may be make some
differences to people's lives.
106. RW So any final advice as we, as we leave this to emerging business people,
entrepreneurs, innovators in the audience tonight?
107. WD Yeah, look, really probably just that last point. I think the effective
communication and which really was what, the frustration I why I created
Carbon was like, I said there's got to be a better way to communicate
positive change and make things different. I think we're quite simple beings.
If we sit down and talk and communicate. The type of mechanisms that are
available for us to communicate have been complex and, and ever changing
but at the end of it to have a conversation and share an idea and be
respectful. You know it's allowed my company particularly to put that in the
forefront and succeed and you know we deal with all the real, trials and
tribulations of a business but the ability to communicate I think is the
strongest thing.
108. RW Good. Good. Now to conclude the conversation let's, let's look at this film, S
is for Sibling (video played). Not bad (clapping). Could I just say to the
people in Laidley and Rockhampton, thank you for being with us tonight and
we didn't get to all your questions but thanks so much for all your questions.
Please thank Wayne Denning.
109. WD Thank you. (clapping). Thank you.
110. RW Fantastic, thank you.
111. VM So thank you Wayne and Ray for allowing us to sit in on your conversation
and I think one of the great things about the Game Changer series is the
opportunity to hear first hand from successful leaders about their reflections,
their insights, their experiences and that's certainly what we had the
opportunity this evening to hear from Wayne. And I think for me it was the
clarity of focus around what you wanted to achieve and that being positive
change, so congratulations on everything that you've achieved.
112. WD Thank you.
113. VM If you would like to re-visit this evening's conversation or share it with friends
or colleagues the webcast and transcript will be available on the State Library
of Queensland website within the next week and once again we thank you for
being here tonight and supporting Game Changers and the Queensland
Business Leaders Hall of Fame. And thank you also to everyone at Laidley
and Rockhampton for joining us as well. It's the first time we've done a live
webcast, so we hope it was successful in both of those communities. We'd
also like to invite you along to the next Game Changers conversation which
will be on Wednesday, the 18th of October and Ray will be speaking with
Therese Rein, founder of Ingeus. I hope I've said that right, Ray.
114. RW Yes.
115. VM An international employment service agency assisting job seekers and
particularly long term unemployed people entering the workforce and I'm
sure it's going to be a fantastic conversation as well. So that's on
Wednesday, the 18th of October. So please now we'd like to invite you to join
us on the Queensland Terrace for refreshments which is supported by our
generous sponsors Clovelly Estate and Newstead Brewing Company and
those of you in Rockhampton and Laidley, you also have your own
networking experience as well, so do have a great evening, so thank you
again for joining us this evening. Thank you (clapping).
top related