Month: August 2005
Role:
Paul Brennan would have you believe he is the living embodiment of that old joke about what is the difference between Australia and yoghurt? You know the one - that yoghurt has live culture. In the course of the interview not once but twice he described himself as both a brash and an uncultured Australian.
Even if it were true, which it manifestly isn't (although it's true that he comes from Sydney) then there is an awful lot to be said for it. For Paul Brennan has an impressive and enviable track record of success. In 17 years in the UK he is now Chairman of five companies, one of which is public, and has acquired a reputation for being the person to come in straighten out and set straight smaller technology companies.
Were he in need of a quick buck, Brennan could knock out a best-selling business guru guide based on his straightforward, easy-to-understand, and wonderfully succinct business strategy. For Brennan, business success is dependent on a one simple thing - integrity. If you have it, you'll succeed; if you don't you won't.
But this is not to say that Brennan is on some sort of crusade for truth and morality in business. His definition of integrity is not built on some nebulous moral cloud, but rooted in a much more down-to-earth concept.
'When I say integrity what I mean is doing what you say you will do. And if you can't do it, then saying so, and saying what you will do. That is integrity.'
Like so many of today's business leaders in IT, Brennan is an alumnus of IBM. And like so many ex-IBM employees he views his past warmly, though not with rose-tinted spectacles.
'It was a terrific grounding. I would say this, but they recruited good people - it didn't matter what your background was - and then spent two years training them to be the best.
'At the end of the training on the one hand you understood how systems and applications worked, and on the other you could sit down with a Managing Director and talk about his company. It wasn't just about technology; it was about understanding how business worked.
'It was tough, you had to work hard, but it did two things: it built up a strong team identity and the ethics were very strong.' Indeed many of his old colleagues have become life-long friends.
It was also, in those days at least, a job for life, and a job anywhere in the world. Leaving Australia and IBM to see the world, Brennan eventually ended up in Britain. So he went to IBM over here and asked them for a job. And they said yes.
In all Brennan spent nine years with the company. 'But in the end the temptation to leave the company was too great,' he says. He left and found himself, an Australian working in the UK for an American company helping pre-IPO companies across Europe get to market.
But the cultural problems for the Americans and Europeans were fairly significant. 'To begin with the Americans would take a company public, and then put in some Americans to run it. The company would crash and burn and the Americans would go home.
'So then they realised they needed European management. So they would take a company public, and then put in some Europeans to run it. But this was no better. And as any European will tell you, as soon as one European opens his or her mouth, another one will hate him. The company would crash and burn and the Americans would go home.
'Being Australian was a real help,' he says. 'I was a bridge between the Americans and the Europeans without being in either camp. I could get on with any European because I wasn't seen as any of them. And I understood how both sides worked. Most importantly, I got the job done.'
It would be too much of a cliché to say that Brennan's Australian manner is the reason for his success - there are plenty of Australian failures (like the cricket team, let's hope), but what Brennan brings is a directness of approach that is more usually found among his countrymen than over here.
And that directness extends to his positions as Executive Chairman. Although he talks about the more traditional roles of the Chairman, such as dealing with VCs etc, he doesn't believe that once you get to the board you are above getting your hands dirty in the business.
'I'm a very hands on guy. I am happy to get involved with sales or anything. It sends a powerful message to a client if the chairman is involved. It says 'I want you to understand how serious we are'.'
He sees his main role as being a mentor and confidant for the CEO. 'That's my number one role - being a mentor. I spend a lot of time with the CEO. It is all about how can we - together - make this business fly. What can I do to help you?'
There is a danger that an Executive Chairman could, if he or she were not careful, end up straying into the CEO's territory. 'Not if there is respect and understanding for each other. Not if each of them has the integrity to say what they will do, and do it.'
Brennan's notions of integrity permeate right through his management style and his dealings with people. 'If I tell you I will call you at 5.30, but at midday I discover I can't make it until 5.45, then someone with integrity will phone then and reschedule rather than just trying to wing it and call 15 minutes late.
'The reason it is so important is that it builds trust and self-accountability. If your CEO has this integrity, then they are accountable.'
Oh, and as if running five companies wasn't enough of a challenge, to relax and wind down and the end of a long week, Brennan likes nothing better than to enjoy the triathalon - the sport for people for whom running a marathon just doesn't quite do it.
So all in all, not bad for a brash, uncultured Australian.
Paul Brennan's career details:
1999 to current: Managing Director, Pre IPO Sales Ltd
2002 to 2003: CEO Metamerge AS
2002 to current: Apptix ASA, Executive Chairman
2002 to 2004: Xtractor AS, Executive Chairman
2003 to current: Korral Partners Limited, Partner
2002 to 2004: Trustix AS, Executive Chairman
2004 to date: Zeus Technology Ltd, Executive Chairman
2004 to current: Archangel Filmworks Limited, Non Executive Chairman
2005 to current: Vision OSS, Executive Chairman
2005 to current: Humanitarian World Holding SA, Non Executive Director
Ben Rooney is a freelance business journalist. Ben can be contacted at ben@benrooney.com
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