1 00:00:04,240 --> 00:00:09,440 Speaker 1: Today's episode is another my favorite Tip episode where I 2 00:00:09,480 --> 00:00:13,920 Speaker 1: go back to interviews from the past and I dig 3 00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:17,520 Speaker 1: out the thing that was my favorite tip, like the 4 00:00:17,640 --> 00:00:21,280 Speaker 1: thing that I got out of the interview that really 5 00:00:22,120 --> 00:00:27,200 Speaker 1: impacted or resonated with me. My extract on today's show 6 00:00:27,280 --> 00:00:30,200 Speaker 1: is from my chat with Kendra Banks. Kendra is the 7 00:00:30,200 --> 00:00:33,800 Speaker 1: Managing director for Australia and New Zealand at Seek and 8 00:00:33,840 --> 00:00:36,360 Speaker 1: if you live in Australia, you've probably used Seek at 9 00:00:36,440 --> 00:00:39,800 Speaker 1: some point in your career and for overseas listeners. Seek 10 00:00:39,840 --> 00:00:44,080 Speaker 1: is Australia's number one employment marketplace. Kendra has had an 11 00:00:44,159 --> 00:00:47,280 Speaker 1: amazing career and has worked in senior marketing roles at 12 00:00:47,360 --> 00:00:50,159 Speaker 1: Cole's where she was the general manager for Customer Insight 13 00:00:50,280 --> 00:00:54,000 Speaker 1: and Cole's Brand, and also in London at Tesco. Kendra 14 00:00:54,120 --> 00:00:58,040 Speaker 1: holds a master's in European Politics at the College of Europe, 15 00:00:58,080 --> 00:01:01,640 Speaker 1: where she was a Fulbright Scholarship recipient, and prior to this, 16 00:01:01,720 --> 00:01:06,600 Speaker 1: Kendra completed a Bachelor of Economics and Mathematics at Yale University. 17 00:01:07,200 --> 00:01:11,240 Speaker 1: So in my extract from my chat with Kendra, we 18 00:01:11,520 --> 00:01:15,360 Speaker 1: talk about how her executive team at Seek make their 19 00:01:15,400 --> 00:01:19,200 Speaker 1: biggest decisions, which I found fascinating because this was recorded 20 00:01:19,280 --> 00:01:22,440 Speaker 1: during COVID where they were making a lot of big 21 00:01:22,560 --> 00:01:27,880 Speaker 1: decisions given the plummeting unemployment rate. So let's head on 22 00:01:27,959 --> 00:01:31,959 Speaker 1: over to Kendra. I'm wondering with the decisions that you 23 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:34,640 Speaker 1: have to make as a leadership team, like, are their 24 00:01:34,680 --> 00:01:38,640 Speaker 1: strategies that you would deliberately use to make better decisions 25 00:01:38,800 --> 00:01:41,960 Speaker 1: or try to remove emotion from some of the big decisions, 26 00:01:41,959 --> 00:01:44,840 Speaker 1: because I would imagine, like during March and April there 27 00:01:44,840 --> 00:01:48,360 Speaker 1: would have been some very emotional decisions to make as 28 00:01:48,400 --> 00:01:49,120 Speaker 1: a business. 29 00:01:49,560 --> 00:01:53,280 Speaker 2: There were, yeah, and look some of them were a 30 00:01:53,280 --> 00:01:54,880 Speaker 2: lot of them were around our people in terms of 31 00:01:54,920 --> 00:01:57,600 Speaker 2: how quickly we were going to mandate working from home, 32 00:01:58,200 --> 00:02:00,360 Speaker 2: and we ended up going more on the earlier side 33 00:02:01,160 --> 00:02:03,400 Speaker 2: of businesses to say, not, you know, everyone just work 34 00:02:03,440 --> 00:02:06,480 Speaker 2: from home. This is very uncertain, let's see what's panning out. 35 00:02:06,480 --> 00:02:09,080 Speaker 2: But also how we dealt with our customers. So on 36 00:02:09,120 --> 00:02:12,480 Speaker 2: the hiring side, we've one of the key decisions we 37 00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:16,119 Speaker 2: had was around how much support we give to customers 38 00:02:16,120 --> 00:02:20,120 Speaker 2: who have pre purchased advertising packages with us, So they 39 00:02:20,120 --> 00:02:21,880 Speaker 2: would have said, oh, you know, across the next year, 40 00:02:21,880 --> 00:02:24,639 Speaker 2: we're going to hire five hundred people so we'll buy 41 00:02:24,639 --> 00:02:27,880 Speaker 2: this kind of level of investment with you. Now, for 42 00:02:27,919 --> 00:02:30,079 Speaker 2: a lot of those customers, that five hundred dropped to 43 00:02:30,120 --> 00:02:33,320 Speaker 2: nearly zero, you know, overnight, And so how we dealt 44 00:02:33,360 --> 00:02:36,640 Speaker 2: with that was really important. Probably the key approach we 45 00:02:36,720 --> 00:02:38,799 Speaker 2: use in making decisions, which was relevant there but I 46 00:02:38,840 --> 00:02:42,520 Speaker 2: think is relevant for other decisions as well, is setting 47 00:02:42,600 --> 00:02:45,000 Speaker 2: up what are the principles we're using to make this 48 00:02:45,080 --> 00:02:48,280 Speaker 2: decision and which are the most important. So in that case, 49 00:02:48,280 --> 00:02:51,600 Speaker 2: we had different factors to look at. We had obviously 50 00:02:51,600 --> 00:02:53,800 Speaker 2: a financial factor. If we were going to refund customers 51 00:02:53,800 --> 00:02:54,840 Speaker 2: a lot of money, that was going to be a 52 00:02:54,880 --> 00:02:58,440 Speaker 2: significant financial impact. We had are we looking short term 53 00:02:58,480 --> 00:03:00,760 Speaker 2: or long term? Is it better to keep the the 54 00:03:00,880 --> 00:03:03,880 Speaker 2: long term loyalty of a customer or the short term 55 00:03:03,880 --> 00:03:09,679 Speaker 2: financial gain? What are our competitors doing and what you know, 56 00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:12,160 Speaker 2: if we're in our customer's shoes, what would we want 57 00:03:12,200 --> 00:03:15,800 Speaker 2: to see? And we decided that our most important principle 58 00:03:15,800 --> 00:03:18,440 Speaker 2: there was we wanted to be proactive with whatever we offered. 59 00:03:18,880 --> 00:03:21,200 Speaker 2: We didn't want to have customers coming to us and 60 00:03:21,240 --> 00:03:24,480 Speaker 2: asking We wanted to be proactive. And once we decided 61 00:03:24,520 --> 00:03:28,440 Speaker 2: that principle, that forced everything else into place, there's only 62 00:03:28,520 --> 00:03:31,040 Speaker 2: so many things we can do proactively. There's only so 63 00:03:31,080 --> 00:03:34,480 Speaker 2: many things we can do quickly and simply. And if 64 00:03:34,480 --> 00:03:37,720 Speaker 2: we wanted to err on the side of generosity because 65 00:03:37,720 --> 00:03:40,240 Speaker 2: we'd rather keep the customer for the long term, then 66 00:03:40,280 --> 00:03:42,440 Speaker 2: actually there was only a handful of options that would 67 00:03:42,440 --> 00:03:44,800 Speaker 2: even make sense. So we were able to kind of 68 00:03:44,880 --> 00:03:48,920 Speaker 2: narrow down a very complex, ambiguous question about how we 69 00:03:48,960 --> 00:03:52,200 Speaker 2: were going to support our customers to a narrower set 70 00:03:52,200 --> 00:03:53,600 Speaker 2: of options that we could look at and make a 71 00:03:53,600 --> 00:03:54,840 Speaker 2: decision quickly. 72 00:03:55,400 --> 00:03:58,160 Speaker 1: And in terms of deciding on what those principles are 73 00:03:58,280 --> 00:04:01,000 Speaker 1: and how much each of them will be weighted, is 74 00:04:01,040 --> 00:04:03,760 Speaker 1: that a group decision or is that something you'd think 75 00:04:03,800 --> 00:04:08,200 Speaker 1: about before harnessing the collective wisdom of the group to 76 00:04:08,200 --> 00:04:08,880 Speaker 1: make a decision. 77 00:04:09,640 --> 00:04:11,920 Speaker 2: We'd probably you know, there are probably one or two 78 00:04:11,920 --> 00:04:15,360 Speaker 2: people who would lead the structuring up of that thinking, 79 00:04:15,840 --> 00:04:18,039 Speaker 2: but then we would take it to a group. So 80 00:04:18,080 --> 00:04:19,800 Speaker 2: in that case, it would have been my leadership team, 81 00:04:19,800 --> 00:04:23,159 Speaker 2: but also in consultation with you know, our finance team 82 00:04:23,240 --> 00:04:26,960 Speaker 2: and executive leadership. Because it was a big, big decision, 83 00:04:27,480 --> 00:04:30,200 Speaker 2: very symbolic decision in terms of how we relate to 84 00:04:30,240 --> 00:04:32,960 Speaker 2: our customers. But I think it helps for one or 85 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:34,440 Speaker 2: two people to kind of structure up well, this is 86 00:04:34,440 --> 00:04:36,040 Speaker 2: how we're thinking about it, and then you've got kind 87 00:04:36,040 --> 00:04:37,560 Speaker 2: of a straw man for everyone to look at and 88 00:04:38,279 --> 00:04:42,360 Speaker 2: debate and discuss, just to keep things flowing quickly. 89 00:04:42,960 --> 00:04:46,640 Speaker 1: That is it for today's show. If you want to 90 00:04:46,640 --> 00:04:50,480 Speaker 1: listen to the full episode, I linked to that in 91 00:04:50,520 --> 00:04:52,559 Speaker 1: the show notes, so you might want to check that out. 92 00:04:53,120 --> 00:04:56,719 Speaker 1: And if you are enjoying how I work, I would 93 00:04:56,760 --> 00:04:59,880 Speaker 1: be so deeply grateful if you just take five seconds 94 00:05:00,120 --> 00:05:03,000 Speaker 1: of your date to leave a review in Apple Podcasts. 95 00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:05,360 Speaker 1: It might be a star rating or a few words, 96 00:05:05,839 --> 00:05:09,240 Speaker 1: and by doing so, it helps other people find the 97 00:05:09,320 --> 00:05:12,559 Speaker 1: show and it also brings a huge smile to my face. 98 00:05:12,640 --> 00:05:14,400 Speaker 1: So thank you to the hundreds of people that have 99 00:05:14,480 --> 00:05:17,760 Speaker 1: left reviews. It is so deeply appreciated. So that is 100 00:05:17,800 --> 00:05:20,920 Speaker 1: it for today's show, and I will see you next time.