Kick traditional HR into touch & build a better business

Kicking traditional Hr into touch

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Busting your butt in HR but not getting the results? Join the waitlist for Australia's only dedicated People & Culture Accelerator Program.........

How to attract, hire, engage & inspire people to achieve extraordinary results – next program begins March 2025.

A few of my interviews:

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Why Change?

You might love doing HR on your own and be really effective and that is fine (I am always trialling new people practices myself) but have you ever:

Felt like ‘there are no good people out there’?
• Hated interviewing because of the abysmal candidates in the room (that is, when they bother to turn up)?
• Had your best people quit (leaving you in the lurch).
• Spent hours managing poor performance or feel exhausted from dealing with what Steve and Nat got up to at the Christmas party?
• Wished people would ‘just do their bloody job!’?
• Felt like HR is an underdog of the business, where everyone comes to whinge, but significant change never happens (and no, mass redundancies don’t count).

If you’d rather spend your time and energy on the things you love, like developing your skills and profit, enhancing your career (or just going out for a long lunch), not stuck in the vicious cycle of eternally hiring, performance managing and firing poor-fit people, then my innovative techniques can give you an edge.

A little bit about me......

Writing

I write a monthly Wicked Workplaces newsletter with a rundown on whats working in the people space (you can subscribe and get a freebie below). I’ve been interviewed and had articles published in the Financial Review, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, Boss Magazine and many others. My book Family Village Tribe is now a set text in The University of Queensland Business School’s MBA Strategy course; Winning the War For Talent was profiled on SkyBusiness News and US radio; and my Future Of Work essay is now an intro in Australasian university textbooks. And with the current savage labour shortage and the world of work morphing at lightning speed, my life just keeps getting busier…..

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SPEAKING

I have spoken at 150+ events in Australia/UK/China/Asia and South Africa including the Asia/Pacific Talent Conference, and I have definitely improved over time (hint, they’re now funny!). A few years ago I started Australia’s first People and Culture Accelerator Program (in protest at the rubbish that was being taught in traditional HR courses) and I now run this as an annual public course plus in-house for organisations such as Dairy Australia. The off-shoot – the PCAP Tribe – now has regular meet-ups in Brisbane to spread the word on innovation plus in my spare time I run signature masterclasses and guest lecture MBA students. 

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Business Advice

As a co-founder and ex-Director of Flight Centre’s UK operation and a life-long researcher, I use the techniques I’ve learnt (often from my biggest mistakes) to help organisations such as Michael Hill Jewellery, who halved their staff turnover and increased their profitability in just months, using my non-traditional techniques. I co-facilitate Australia’s only owner/manager program passing on my practical strategies to hundreds of businesses plus offer advice to global students from 193 countries as part of UQ Business School’s edX MicroMasters program. 

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Writing

A best-selling business author, Mandy’s articles and extracts have featured in the Financial Review, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, Boss Magazine and many others. Her book Family Village Tribe is used as a set text in The University of Queensland Business School’s MBA Strategy course; Winning the War For Talent was profiled on SkyBusiness News and US radio; and her in-depth Future Of Work essay is now included as an introduction in Wiley’s Australia and NZ high school textbooks.

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Speaking

Mandy is known for her humorous and thought-provoking keynotes, having spoken at 150+ events in Australia/UK/China/Asia and South Africa. One of only a handful of Australians to speak at the Asia/Pacific Talent Conference in Taipei, she also runs signature masterclasses, guest lectures MBA and Incubate students and delivers executive education courses at institutes such as Bond University and the University of Queensland Business School.

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Business Advice

As a co-founder and ex-Director of Flight Centre’s UK operation and a life-long researcher, Mandy uses her expertise to help organisations such as Michael Hill Jewellery, who halved their staff turnover and increased their profitability in just months, using their new-found knowledge. Mandy has also facilitated the Australian Owner/Manager Program passing on her practical strategies to hundreds of businesses and offers advice to global students from 193 countries as part of UQ Business School’s edX MicroMasters program.

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Keynote Speeches

KEYNOTE 1:

The Seven Steps to a Remarkable Workplace

Our workplaces are morphing faster than our business practices can keep up. In this keynote, I explore unconventional strategies to succeed in this rapid-changing world. Using compelling evidence from real business case studies, I debunk the myths and outline the 7 practical steps to build high-performing, remarkable workplaces.

This keynote has been profiled in national media, presented at the Asia Pacific Talent Conference at Taipei, and was part of Queensland University of Technology’s FutureWork series.

KEYNOTE 2:

Winning The War for Talent

How To Attract And Keep the People Who Make Your Business Profitable

Attracting and keeping great people is the number one issue on global executive surveys. In this keynote I outline my unconventional strategies, including the 3 secret weapons to great hiring, that produce spectacular business results and are still rarely used in most organisations today. Based on my second book, these ideas have halved staff turnover in organisations and been acclaimed in the Financial Review.

This is one of my most popular speeches and has been delivered to stockbrokers, dairy farmers, real estate agents, IT professionals, business owners, electricians, travel agents, and senior executives at over 50 conferences around Australia.

KEYNOTE 3:

Leadership Unplugged

In this keynote, I share the most crucial elements of leadership and teach participants how to apply these to transform their own business. Using my ‘in-the-trenches’ experience as a leader plus years of observations gleaned from researching and consulting, I explain how leadership is evolving, why it is getting harder, and outline innovative leadership strategies that participants can immediately apply to manage both themselves and their teams more effectively.

A hit with corporate clients from a diverse range of industries such as Teys Beef and Virgin Australia, I have also presented variations of this keynote as lectures to Bond University, University of Queensland Business School, Griffith University and the Australian Owner/Manager Program.  

Some Past Clients

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What people ARE SAYING

We have been working well with your systems and have seen our employee turnover almost half and are seeing positive growth in the profit in the business.
Stewart Silk
HR Leader, Michael Hill Jewellery Limited
Mandy, your presentation at the UQ Exec.Ed Virgin Leadership Program was inspirational and stimulating. They were talking about it long after you left.
Peter Ferreira
Director - Virgin Leadership Program
Mandy's Winning The War for Talent seminar that she ran for us at Bond University's Centre for Executive Education was the highest-rated program of the year. The content and workshop process was world class.
James Carlopio
Director, Bond University Executive Education
Mandy combines proven business experience with inspiring people skills. Her ideas and practices bring about real change and her seminars have invigorated our people and processes
Graham Turner
CEO, Flight Centre

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