Qantas Inflight Entertainment: Talking Business
Sue Forrester is the Chief Executive of The CEO Institute (Queensland) and holds directorships with several large enterprises. Her vast knowledge of the legal, commercial and change management spheres make her an authority on the ways to create diversity and equality in the workplace which results in optimal performance.
Peter Switzer: Sue Forrester is the CEO of the Queensland operation of The CEO Institute. The Institute provides a forum for CEOs and Senior Executives to discuss and share insights into business issues that matter. Sue has a wide range of experience in the legal, commercial and financial management world, in public, private and charitable organisations. Welcome to Talking Business Sue.
Sue Forrester: Thank you.
Peter Switzer: So, Sue, we’ve got a rough idea of your background, but how did you end up, sort of, plotting your course to become the CEO of The CEO Institute in Queensland?
Sue Forrester Well, that’s an interesting question Peter. I suppose it’s all about the journey that I’ve been on over the last 20 years and always being aware and alert to other opportunities. I trained as a banking and finance lawyer more than 20 years ago, and as much as I enjoyed the thrill of the big deals I worked on in the mid ‘80s, and some of the corporate collapses I worked on in the early ‘90s...
Peter Switzer: Did you cause some of the collapses? [laughter]
Sue Forrester: Oh, far from it, but when you’ve seen the message, what not to do next time around... But I suppose I just felt constrained about giving legal advice, so I was looking for something wider and a bit more commercial. Hence, at one point I had a fork in the road, I suppose, in career terms, and could have gone down the path of being corporate council in a major corporation or something else, and that something else was an executive MBA through Mount Isa Business School specialising in change management and strategy. So that really opened my eyes to how I could apply all those skills in a more holistic way.
Peter Switzer: Okay, for people on the plane who don’t know much about The CEO Institute, why don’t you basically give us a quick explanation on what you do?
Sue Forrester: Sure. Well The CEO Institute itself is a leading forum for CEOs, is a learning and development forum, so I suppose you might have heard before that education is all about formal education, example and experience. When you get to CEO level you’ve usually done all the formal education and you’re looking for a way of constantly developing yourself, so we offer a forum for CEOs only, where they come together once a month, group of 15 CEOs, and they talk about issues that are important to them and they learn from each other’s experience.
Peter Switzer: So, you might have arguably 300 CEOs, you have 20 groups of 15, and those 15 become like a support group were you can sound out issues and ask for innovative ways of tackling problems and things like that?
Sue Forrester: Very much, Peter. Yes, they saw that the role of CEO is the loneliest job in town, and so whilst we’re at the front of the company, they’re very confident externally, it’s nice to have a group of 15 other peers that once a month you can get together and show your vulnerability, admit you may not know what you’re doing, and learn from those around you. It’s also confidential, so even though CEOs are surrounded by great talent and skill within their organisations, it’s great to be able to look outside once a month and seek the opinions and experience of others in other industries and other sectors.
Peter Switzer: But clearly you’re not talking about publicly listed companies only, because there aren’t enough CEOs to make an organisation, so is there a starting point for a CEO of a company turnover or something like that?
Sue Forrester: We tend to focus on those with $10 million turnover plus, but it’s not all about turnover, it’s about diversity, and as you know we get the best performance out of a diverse experience. Around our tables we may well have a couple of heads of public companies, heads of not-for-profits, heads of government organisations, and it’s all about people coming along and contributing, because to be good at experiential learning you have to be aware and open and ready to contribute.
Peter Switzer: Okay, we’re talking to Sue Forrester, the CEO of The CEO Institute in Queensland. Now, because you deal with CEOs on a regular basis and most CEOs are encountering something that’s a bit challenging at the moment, called the global financial crisis, how are your members responding, what’s the mood of the CEOs that you deal with?
Sue Forrester: Sure. Well CEOs are under enormous pressure to perform, as you mentioned. They’re under enormous external pressure from their stakeholders and their shareholders, and internal pressure from employees who often haven’t seen this sort of crisis before, so they’re really copping it from both sides. Our CEOs, certainly in Queensland which is my experience, are quite optimistic, they’re not trying to look into the glass ball and say, when will this all turn around? But they’re saying, what do we need to do in terms of our own leadership to see us through this turmoil? Whether that’s tight cash management, working capital management, or whether it’s about what they have to do to twig their own leadership to get through these challenging times.
Peter Switzer: And I’m sure some of the people, the older heads in these panels are saying, look at this threat and look for the opportunities?
Sue Forrester: Absolutely, and I think leadership in the next two years or so will be all about those who can really balance the opportunities and the risks that are out there at the moment. It’s about bunkering down and now looking out for opportunities, but it’s not about being so innovative that you miss the core product that you’re operating with.
Peter Switzer: Okay, let’s go into a bit of a scary area for me and that is the fact that I think two groups are making the financial crunch that’s coming from this downturn harder. I think the media and also politicians. Do you think they’re actually adding to the fear factor for consumers and businesses by regularly emphasising the bad news out there?
Sue Forrester: I think, Peter, certainly around October/December last year they were, there was a lot of doom and gloom around, every experienced CEO were saying, I just don’t want to do anything at the moment and told tight.
Peter Switzer: If you looked at Queensland, in particular, was travelling so well. The mining sectors been affected, are you still feeling that in your state there is a sense of optimism, that this is not going to be as bad as the worst case scenario promised?
Sue Forrester Yes Peter. We did a survey of our members in late January this year [2009] and that was certainly the feeling, 80% said that.
Peter Switzer: And that was the worst time too, January wasn’t it?
Sue Forrester: That’s exactly right, yes. Certainly mining royalties were at their lowest ever, but there’s been room for other industries to come through, such as the agricultural industry. Tourisms had a battering but it’s showing signs of improving later this year, so I think our CEOs are really all about looking for the optimistic and, as I said, balancing those risks and opportunities.
Peter Switzer: What have you learnt about CEOs since you’ve become the CEO of The CEO Institute?
Sue Forrester: What I’ve learnt, and having been exposed to about 150 of them within Queensland, is that they’re human beings, they’re vulnerable, a good CEO seeks constant learning and development, and they’re the sorts of people that don’t see themselves as the top of the hierarchy, they see themselves as part of the team. So I found them very accessible and very keen to share their ideas in a forum such as ours.
Peter Switzer: Now, being of a media background, I’m sure you’ve had the odd phone call from a newspaper talking about the salaries of CEOs, and I’m sure you have a position. What’s your position on the salaries of CEOs?
Sue Forrester: The CEO Institute, as a spokesperson for CEOs, doesn’t have a firm position because we haven’t surveyed our members on that. However, certainly my experience in terms of sitting on boards and also being a CEO myself is such that CEOs don’t like being on the nose in the public domain in terms of their remuneration, and what they want to do is actually clarify their own performance goals with their board, so it’s quite clear what they have to achieve, what they’ll receive if they achieve and make that more transparent and accountable.
Peter Switzer: Sue, thanks for joining us on Talking Business.
Sue Forrester: It’s a pleasure.
Transcribed from Qantas Radio - Inflight Entertainment (October 2009) - Download a transcript of this and other Talking Business interviews with Peter Switzer.