Alison Quesnel
As General Manager of Blackmores NZ Ltd, Alison, has a favourite Helen Keller quote, ‘life is not a dress rehearsal’.
Private Wealth Given Freely for Public Good
Janis McArdle, CEO of the Manukau Community Foundation, explains why Community Foundations are particularly appealing to women.
Performance at the Top
We look at the determinants of success, core values and the representation of women in NZ’s top high-performing senior management teams.
her inspiration
In The Blackmores!
Alison Quesnel
General Manager of Blackmores NZ Ltd, Alison Quesnel, has a favourite Helen Keller quote, ‘Life is not a dress rehearsal’.
An extremely active and dedicated businesswoman, Alison certainly takes nothing less than centre stage in the theatre of life. Growing up in Wanganui and Wellington, Alison left her homeland in the 70s to do the big OE, living in countries such as England, Scotland and The Cameroon’s in West Africa.
Alison’s first dealings with the food industry took place in Aberdeen, Scotland, where she worked in the marketing department of a large meat factory. From there, Alison’s career orbited around the food, beverage or nutrition industry in a variety of positions, including business development, general management and human resources. “It just got a bit cleaner in each factory,” quips Alison, “progressing from meat to fruit to cereal and then dietary supplements over the years… thank goodness.” Alison’s career traverses some big companies with some big bucks. Alison returned to New Zealand in the 80s and worked for Taura Natural Foods, an ingredient manufacturer. Over eight years the business grew into a multi-million dollar franchise.
Alison has not only gathered a wealth of experience in each position but also has the habit of picking up a menagerie of business mentors along the way. In the early 90s, Alison’s boss was asked to provide a business mentor for Business In The Community (BITC), a business mentor programme and promptly volunteered her for the job. Alison confides that she was hooked from the very first mentoring assignment, she explains, “You learn so much about yourself, about what you actually know and at every assignment I have learnt something new.”
While she was working for Hubbard Foods Ltd in 1996, Alison continued to mentor SME’s through an Auckland mentor agency. At that stage Alison asked for, and was given, the job of Chief Executive of BITC Ltd and worked closely with Sir James Fletcher. Again the organisation took a turn for the better and for Alison this was one of the most personally rewarding jobs she has had. “Delivering a service that is vital for the SME sector, that people want and find useful, and delivering it free via agencies around the country [is wonderful],” says Alison enthusiastically. “It was not difficult to raise funds for the organisation as Sir James and I were so passionate about the scheme we were just about irresistible as a double act.” Of course, Alison collected another mentor in the shape of Sir James Fletcher.
Although Alison was enjoying her work with BITC, the opportunity to work for a commercial business presented itself with Blackmores. Alison was instantly attracted to Blackmores, even with her limited knowledge of the company. What she did know was that the company was ethical and had integrity. Alison was somewhat of a ‘wild card’ according to the recruiter but her relevant business experience meant that she did fit the bill.
Blackmores has been on the scene for around 70 years and seeks to improve people’s lives by delivering the “world’s best natural health solutions,” quotes Alison. “The company values integrity, respect and a passion for leadership and social responsibility. This is a health food company that takes itself very seriously and pays attention to detail. All products are researched thoroughly and every single raw material supplier is continuously audited by a visit from the Blackmores purchasing team before the purchase of any materials.”
One of Alison’s most significant achievements as General Manager of Blackmores NZ Ltd was to literally put herself out of a job. Alison presented a business case to the board that ultimately meant closing down the New Zealand offices and licensing the brand to another company. This meant of course that everyone, including Alison, was out of a job. Fortunately, Alison is still involved on a daily basis with the New Zealand partners, API Consumer Brands, and together they have fostered a relationship that works well for both companies.
“A theme throughout my career is that I am not afraid of change, I adapt and learn in any new environment and I enjoy new challenges, and I try to work my way through them,” says Alison. The current challenges that Alison faces in her role as general manager include looking after the interests of New Zealand and the United Kingdom, and by researching other potential markets for Blackmores, coming back with business opportunity information and starting pathways to the new market.
Although Blackmores is based in Sydney, Australia, Alison asked to be able to continue to live in New Zealand and Blackmores agreed. However, her airpoints are definitely adding up. Alison spends a week out of every month in Australia but would prefer to spend more time at home working from her ‘remote office’ in Waimauku, Auckland. A new and improved role for Alison is currently under friendly negotiation.
Alison never rests on her laurels. Not only is she the General Manager for Blackmores, she is the Director of Business Mentors New Zealand and also a Trustee for the Equal Opportunities Trust, an organisation that supplies advice and help for employers and it also focuses on the work/life balance - the organisation is also a government appointee to the Food & Beverage Taskforce.
Holding down this myriad of responsibilities must surely be a juggling act for Alison, but she believes she balances things much better than she used to and jokes that she is a reformed workaholic. “I find that if I go out for a long walk each day it really clears my head. It’s about making time for a personal life really.”
And of course, where would she be without the aid of the very product that she endorses. “People always ask me if I take our products - of course I do!” says Alison. At one stage, Chairman Marcus Blackmore suggested that if she took nothing else, she should always take antioxidants, “So I do - every day. I also take Omega Heart which is a one a day product right for my age group and gives me the omegas I need, and I always take Executive B Stress to replace those B vitamins that get used up with running around.”
Given Alison’s track record as an active and driven businesswoman, who expends a lot of energy giving back to the community as well as having a family life and full-time high-level job, this personal endorsement of Blackmore’s is worth its weight in gold.
By Kelly Alexander
her insight
Private Wealth Given Freely For Public Good
Janis McArdle
Community Foundations are the fastest growing form of community philanthropy in the world today. They are re-shaping the face of ‘giving’, and they are particularly appealing to women because the Foundations offer a high degree of engagement for donors. The CEO of the Manukau Community Foundation, Janis McArdle, explains why.
“My mum helps people give their money away,” was my daughter’s answer to a recent question about my occupation. “Wow, what a neat job,” was her friend’s reply. She was right. I have one of the most fantastic jobs on the planet - just like my colleagues at the Melbourne Community Foundation, the Puerto Rico Community Foundation, the Community Foundation for Ireland, and more than 1100 other Community Foundations in 46 countries.
The modern Community Foundation, which was born out of a particular tradition of philanthropy in North America in the early twentieth century, has been adapted successfully to local cultures, socio-economic circumstances and ‘giving’ traditions in countries all around the world. Now it is happening in New Zealand where there are eight Community Foundations emerging that serve communities as diverse as Northland, Ashburton and Manukau City.
Philanthropy has a number of definitions but I prefer to talk about the ‘use of private wealth freely given for public good’. Women now control more private wealth than at any other time in history and it is not surprising that they want to use their money to create better communities. Also, they want to take a more hands-on approach than ever before - gone are the days when writing a cheque satisfied our desire to do good. Community Foundations are the perfect vehicles for this new form of ‘hands-on philanthropy’, with their focus on providing an avenue for donors and matching these donors to the needs of the local community.
And why do people want to give their money away? The answer is simple - because they can, and because they care. The desire to help other people is as old as human civilisation. But with the busy lives of modern women there isn’t often time to reach out to our neighbours or those in need, as perhaps our mothers did. And many of us think we’d be hopeless at helping other people anyway. We don’t have the skills but we are full of respect and admiration for the people who do the ‘helping work’ - the work that transforms lives, strengthens families and builds healthy communities.
We can however all use some of our wealth to ‘help the people who help the people’. And that’s my job - and that of the other staff and trustees of the Community Foundations - to help as many people as we can to become involved in personal philanthropy.
If you don’t have heaps of cash to give away right now but want to link with groups of other like-minded people who want to get involved in on-going and regular ‘giving’, the Community Foundation will pool your donations into one of its areas of interest. As its name suggests, this option lets you choose the area of community need you may wish to support - for example the arts, the environment, social services or education and scholarships - and your funds will support a number of projects in that specific area in your community. Regular contact with the Community Foundation and reporting from the projects or community organisations will keep you in touch with the changes you are helping to make in your community.
If you have significant wealth and want expert advice and robust systems in which to invest your charitable funds, or want help evaluating how best to disburse and monitor the grants your fund can make, then I suggest you think about setting up your own ‘named fund’ at your local Community Foundation. That way you can really engage with the impact of your ‘giving’ and you can do so either anonymously or in a way which publicly recognises your generosity. You can nominate what you want to support - the staff at the Community Foundation will show you how. They will do the research for you, place options in front of you and maybe even arrange for you to visit the projects that you are funding. That way you get to see, up close and personal, the real needs of your community and how your generosity can and does make a difference.
Community Foundations are also committed to building up their endowed funds. These are permanent funds where the capital is invested, and only the interest is given away each year as grants. By working with donors to build this permanent financial asset for their communities, the Community Foundations are ensuring that future generations will have resources to meet their changing needs.
Also, we hear a lot these days about ‘intergenerational wealth transfer’ - which is a fancy name for the fact that most of us are now much wealthier than our parents. Many of us are accumulating significant financial assets during our lifetimes - not always in cash, just look at the level of property investment in New Zealand - and we will need to do something with it when we die. As they say, ‘there are no pockets in a shroud’. The bequest programmes at the Manukau Community Foundation and the Acorn Foundation in Tauranga for example, are working with local lawyers to help their clients to appreciate how they can leave a legacy for good when they pass away.
Check out our national website (
www.nzcommunityfoundations.org.nz) to find a community foundation near you. And if there isn’t one why not investigate what it takes to set one up to serve your community. Then you too can have a job as good as mine!
By Janis McArdle
her inform
Performance At The Top
What makes a high-performing senior management team? Bev Marshall, Managing Director of Winsborough Limited, looks at the determinants of success, core values and the representation of women in New Zealand’s top teams.
Organisational behaviour specialists, Winsborough Limited, recently undertook research into the workings of senior management teams to determine how well they were performing, what their personal values were, and to find practices and tools that could be used to improve effectiveness at the top. Using a combination of structured interviews and questionnaires that were given to both senior managers and CEOs of 13 well known New Zealand organisations, the research discovered important findings on the role of senior management teams.
The substantive findings of the research showed that on the whole the role of senior management teams in New Zealand’s organisations is not sufficiently defined and that there are no formalised measures in place to determine their success. This can significantly impact on the ability of senior team members to balance day-to-day and strategic objectives, and increases the possibility of team discord. Only one of the participating organisations believed that they had set out requirements for their senior team in a formally defined role, however, on the whole there were no measures to determine whether the team was working in a manner considered as successful.
So if a company has no formal determinants of success for its senior management team, how can they determine whether their senior management team is working well? The research identified five key differentiators between teams that performed well and those that performed poorly, and identified the following characteristics as those of high-achieving senior management teams:
1. Task focus: Executives are united in pursuing their goals, have similar standards for performance and are prepared to help others to achieve team goals.
2. Development: CEOs and executives consciously consider team performance and invest time in improvement.
3. Norms and decision making: Teams have formal processes for decisions, there are no hidden agendas and teams use consensus to make decisions.
4. Trust and safety: Team members trust colleagues, raise any issues of conflict and admit to mistakes easily.
5. Contribution to team: Colleagues participate, hold up their end and add value.
Secondly, the research considered the role that personal values played in contributing to the organisational effectiveness of senior management teams. The values most commonly identified among executives participating in the study were those associated with analysis and data-orientation (science values), a concern with high-quality outputs, and the look and feel of products (aesthetic values). The executives also considered that values associated with being change-oriented and being prepared to adapt to shifting circumstances were of higher importance than values regarding security and tradition. From a gender perspective, women on senior management teams tended to rate altruism and aesthetics more highly than men; showing a higher interest in actively helping others, societal improvement and an interest in the quality, look and feel of products.
The research also considered the difference between the values of public sector executives and private sector executives. The research shows that executives working within the public sector are more analytical and quality-oriented than those working in the private sector, and as a consequence are more inclined towards debate and issue exploration. Public sector leaders are also less inclined to seek the limelight and will avoid publicity. On the other hand, private sector executives are more inclined to value teamwork and a collegial environment. They are also much more concerned with achievement and results than public sector leaders. Finally, private sector executives are inclined to want to have fun at work and build workplace cultures that emphasise enjoyment. These differences intuitively reflect the differing nature of their work. Public sector executives are typically concerned with analysis, policy development and the design of outputs and often face a high degree of scrutiny. Private sector executives are more likely to be concerned with measurable results.
Overall, the research suggested that values are important in most, if not all, organisations. Leaders invest time in choosing values that they believe will shape the organisational culture and these values often determine what the leaders notice, which problems are given importance, the solutions proposed to problems and how to evaluate the effectiveness of the solutions. Significantly, the findings from this investigation suggest that teams composed of individuals with broadly similar values perceived their team as more effective, while the teams with more diverse values reported greater discord and less trust around the top table. A team whose values are aligned provides a common base from which to make decisions and to prioritise team tasks.
Finally, the research considered social cohesion - the extent to which teams develop interpersonal connections - as a driver of organisational effectiveness. Although having team alignment in values is a driver for effectiveness, on management teams social cohesion is not important and features relatively low on the executives’ value scale. In fact, teams who demonstrated higher levels of social cohesion reported lower levels of effectiveness.
In terms of gender representation, this research showed that there was a general under-representation of women in senior management teams, and that this was more obvious in private sector organisations where there is one female member for every 10 males. Women fare better in the public sector, with one female for every four males in a team. What causes this disproportion? Although the research did not set out to answer this question, it is likely that the obligation of public sector organisations to report on their EEO initiatives and to show compliance with the requirements of the State Sector Act to be a ‘good employer’ strongly influences the uptake of women into senior management teams.
The findings of this research provide some powerful lessons for developing effective senior management teams. Organisations must build a team that has clearly defined roles and processes, and that focus on execution of strategy as opposed to day-to-day operational functions. And leaders should choose executives who will effectively drive a particular culture by ensuring values fit where possible.
By Bev Marshall
Disclaimer: Winsborough Limited researched 13 senior management teams across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors, involving 117 executives. The research will be repeated in 2008.
