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Dr Helen Monks, Beyond Tomorrow


Dr Helen Monks

Where do you want to be when you grow up?

It is so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day running of a business that you don’t actually take time to strategise and create your vision.

Dr Helen Monks from Highlight Consulting, based on the NSW Central Coast, combines a background in town planning consultancy with a PhD in management to help real estate professionals take a step back and plan for what lies ahead.

As chief executive of a number of regional economic development organisations, board member, company director and business owner, Dr Monks has been able to watch how different individuals react in different situations and pool this experience to coach and mentor others.

Look beyond the industry

In planning for realising your business vision, Dr Monks said it is important to look at all aspects of the business such as people, finance, management, structure and your end goal. She said a good way to do this effectively was to look outside the real estate industry to what other business sectors were doing locally, nationally and internationally. “I’m a firm believer in people looking outside their own business and their own industry for best practice,” Dr Monks explained, saying real estate businesses tended to be very sales driven, rather than focusing on management practices and strategies.

Thinking beyond tomorrow is the responsibility of the business owner and they should have a five or ten-year strategy, with a detailed action plan of how to get to that end result. “There’s a seven-year cycle in business and it affects the stock market, it affects the property industry, it affects interest rates, which is the cash market as well. If you know where we are and where your business specifically is within the seven-year cycle, then you base your strategy on that and you can start to do your planning,” she said.

Defining the vision

Whether you want to own the biggest agency in the region, run a chain of offices along the coast or bow out to semi-retirement after ten years, your business vision must include actions to get to that point. To make this strategy work, a business owner should set goals at the highest level, objectives at the lower level and create a detailed action plan from those objectives.

“If you haven’t worked out what you want from life, then you can’t set your business vision in a way that is going to be sustainable for you. I’m a great one for balance between private and business lives and it translates into division of your business, and that translates into the business model that you choose and that then sets your strategy,” Dr Monks said.

How to make it happen

To bring the vision to fruition, a business owner must concentrate on the operational side by developing good processes and systems, using reliable technology, choosing the right people, considering their credibility and even think about their standing within their community. “For somebody who is doing their succession planning that’s a really important thing to have in place, otherwise when the owner walks out the door with the cheque in hand at the end of their time with that business, a lot of the value walks out with them.”

Another consideration is the business structure and how that will work in the future if you are not around. If you are a sole trader, do you need to create a partnership with an investor or a company with shareholders? This will then lead to documentation for that business and whether it is necessary to appoint a board and when that needs to happen. “You need to make sure that whatever structure you choose is relevant to the time period for which it has to last,” Dr Monks explained.

A business owner who has their succession planning in place will run their business today as if they are going to sell it tomorrow, even if that tomorrow won’t happen for another ten years. “If you’re setting something up, think it through right to the point where you’re no longer there,” she added.

Appointing the right people

Populating the business with a complementary group of people is what is needed to keep it running well past the business owner’s vision. This not only includes staff, but also coaches, mentors, consultants, directors and finance and legal professionals. Surrounding yourself with people you respect who are outside your business can reap dividends as they will look at your business differently.

If you appoint a board consider if you are the right person to chair it, or whether you need to find someone with a more interpersonal skill set. Equally, a chief executive is operational, whereas a treasurer needs to understand the intricacies of the financial side of the business. A board may also include people who specialise in corporate law, intellectual property, human resources, risk management, IT and others who understand the strategic nature of the role. “What you have to do is keep helicoptering up and saying ‘we decided that our vision was…, but you then helicopter back up again and ask is this the best way to do it?” Dr Monks said when explaining how a board should work.

"When appointing a board, it is important to consider meeting regularity, gender and age spread and the criteria to ensure all members understand the business vision," Dr Monks said, adding that she was currently sitting on two boards and was the sole director of her company. Some companies appoint Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) graduates because they know how to manage risks and what their responsibilities are under corporation law or Australian Institute of Management (AIM) members. Public company and family company directors will have different responsibilities, so Dr Monks suggested talking to accountants about what directors are paid in your area when considering remuneration.

So when thinking about the end in business, work out your vision and the steps to get there, find the right people to put your strategy into action and highlight the areas of personal development that are essential to get you to that point.

 


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Dr Helen Monks