22 November 2008
By Philip Hopkins - The Age
A Melbourne company that makes seats for Victoria's trams, trains and buses has won The Age/D&B Business Award.
McConnell Seats Australia, which won the manufacturing category award, emerged the overall winner for 2008 in light of success that saw sales up 25 per cent last year and 50 per cent on three years ago.
The awards, which began in 1993, have six categories - manufacturing, rural, building and allied services, IT and business services, retail, and export and wholesale. They seek to promote and reward outstanding business achievement among Victorian companies.
McConnell, a family company based in North Coburg, is the largest designer and maker of transport seating in Australia.
Managing director Denis McConnell, whose father Jim founded the company in 1952, received the award at a function in Melbourne, saying he had been associated with the company since he was 10.
"I swept the floors for my father and joined as an apprentice 51 years ago. It's been a long, hard struggle," he said.
Mr McConnell took over the business in 1972. "We've had our ups and down since then," he said, but credited the company's success to its move to a new Coburg factory in 1994 and an outstanding management team.
Guest speaker at the function was the deputy chief executive of Fairfax Media, Brian McCarthy, who spoke of the ingredients required for business success.
Mr McCarthy, who has worked in the media industry for 32 years, said stability in management was important. Other key qualities were continuity in management, acknowledging and building on experience, loyalty, and knowledge. "These are the important things," he said. "A stable organisation will always do much better than an organisation that has churn."
For success, Mr McCarthy said it was necessary to minimise head office interference.
"Head offices are too dictatorial and interfering You need to set your discipline centrally and decentralise creativity," he said. "Let them breathe don't shut them up with head office bureaucratic nonsense."
Mr McCarthy said he was a believer in internal promotion and that good management creates a ready pool of talent.
McConnell Seats managing director Denis McConnell (left) with general manager Alan Smith, Dun & Bradstreet's chief executive, Christine Christian, and Fairfax Media's deputy chief executive, Brian McCarthy. Photo: Paul Rovere |
About D&B
D&B is the world's leading provider of business-to-business credit, marketing and purchasing information and receivables management services. D&B manages the world's most valuable commercial database with information on more than 130 million companies.
Information is gathered in 193 countries, in 95 languages or dialects, covering 186 monetary currencies. The database is refreshed more than one million times daily as part of D&B's commitment to provide accurate, comprehensive information for its more than 150,000 customers.
The Australasian operations were bought out by the senior management group in August 2001. It was the first MBO of a wholly owned subsidiary in D&B's history worldwide.
Today Lazard Carnegie Wylie owns an approximate 90% stake in DBA and the local management team a 10% stake.
Strategies for future growth include developing DBA's commercial and consumer credit referencing business; expanding its receivables management outsourcing business; maintaining its lead in the development of unique credit and risk scoring products; and developing new products specifically tailored to the Australasian market. DBA currently employs over 500 people in Australia and New Zealand.
