Regan Brown runs a 3rd generation family business in the transport and logistics industry across Australia and New Zealand, which is more than 50 years old. Regan and his sister were delivered daily to their respective schools in Sydney’s Eastern suburbs by courier van. After school, he did his homework at the company office which was a transport depot.

As such, he was exposed to the transport and logistics business from an early age. As part of this, he met a lot of warehouse managers and truck drivers. He grew to love their personalities and upbeat approach to life.

Regan is now head of the family business, Labourforce Group, a staffing business serving the supply chain, transport and logistics staff. E-commerce and online customers are now an increasing component of this market.

Food markets, FMCG, automotive, transport and logistics companies and retailers are all clients of the Labourforce Group.

The pandemic has heightened everyone’s perspective on the supply chain. The community has a heightened interest in knowing how their food and goods are sourced. 

Regan is passionate about the real people who work in the transport industry. The people aren’t big talkers. 

One of the big trends in the industry are the continued growth of e-commerce. There is a lot of investment and retraining in this space. 

Customers are demanding faster service and delivery to their homes. 

Sorting equipment and robotics are increasingly used, and this means the skills are required to service the new technology.

The skills that are in demand in the supply chain are technical skills that have been used in manufacturing robotics and automation systems.

Students are being recruited out of the STEM areas because mathematics and science skills are required to fine-tune the automation processes.

At the end of the automated pick and pack process, a human is required to check that the order is accurate. 

For young people: where is your education level at and what is your appetite for doing some manual work. In the supply chain, there is very little opportunity to go into the industry in an office role without tertiary qualifications. Customer service is a great on-ramp to the industry. 

Joe Wenig resides in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. He spent 27 years in the corporate world as an executive working for the data analytics company Teradata. As part of this, Joe ran the Asia Pacific business from Tokyo. He loved this role because it meant servicing interacting with some of the great companies in the world as clients of Teradata.

On returning to the US, Joe started his own business using the franchise model. One of them is a business called the entrepreneur Source, which helps people work out what is next in their career. He helps professionals find a business that helps them transition from the corporate world into a business of their own.

Joe has stumbled upon his passion which is mentoring and helping people develop their careers. He approaches everyone as a puzzle and then tries to work out a discovery process that finds the best path for his client’s career. As part of the process, Joe works out the client’s personal Why and then helps them match it to a business opportunity.

Professionals are choosing to finish their corporate careers in increasing numbers and are looking for the next phase in their career and the lifestyle opportunities this change brings.

The hot areas where people are reskilling and moving towards are driven by their passion, personal interest and market opportunities. 

The pandemic has caused a lot of low paid service jobs to disappear or be reduced. In the interim, people have realised they did not like the roles anyway. 

As a part of the retaining, Joe works with transitioning executives buying their own franchise business. 

For leaders, the most significant change has been leading a distributed workforce. It is more than having a zoom call or picking up the phone. 

Younger people are also starting their businesses. Their energy and fast-moving capability help them get up to speed quickly. Experience is replaced by personal drive and talent. There are fewer preconceived ideas that can hold you back.

Mark Jones trained as an architect before running his own architecture business.  He then moved to an academic position at the University of New South Wales, where he teaches in the design school in the faculty of Arts, Architecture and Design. He is a design historian, which involves research around design history – Australian and Scandinavian.

His passion has always been architecture. As an academic, he can do research in his passion areas.

The significant change has been the work from the home phenomenon. Most people have been working from home because they have to and not by choice. Delivering education courses online has required a shift in priority skill sets. The principles of the design process are the same. Students find the raw materials in their homes to create prototypes which is taking priority over the finished product until students can return to the physical school environment.

The pandemic has piqued interest in the design aspects of our life. Everyone has had to be creative in the way we work and live how we set up a workspace at home. 

For leaders, the change in interpersonal relationships has been the biggest change. Screen-based relationships are not the same as face to face. 

Leaders need an acute awareness of the members of their teams and the individual challenges each person has. There is an acknowledgment that there is a change in how we work. 

People are now working differently and are practical and efficient in different ways.

There is some camera hesitancy, and people are protective of their situation at home. 

The development of office space has to change. Open workspaces was a thing but have been shown to be less productive.

Expensive office fit-outs will be less required.

Office buildings have always gone through the transition from office to an apartment and then back again.

Any training in a creative field is useful across a range of areas. Always pursue a creative career. Creative jobs are becoming more important.

Michael Bartura has an eclectic background. He worked as a physical and psychological therapist for 12 years before moving into executive roles in non-profit organisations for 20 years. About ten years ago, he moved back to working more directly with people as a consultant and is an associate of the Asian Leadership Institute.

His coaching business, Happy Habits Coaching, focuses on the idea of using positive neuroplasticity and happy habits then the real perception of life can be changed for the better for individuals.

Michael grew up in Israel, where there is a prescribed narrative. His home environment was humanistic. His experience in the Israeli military and the time of the war with Lebanon conflicted with his values and his idea of what it is to be human.

Michael’s passion is the realm of interaction between humans and its relation to wellness and happiness.

The deeper one delves into the authentic self, the less there is the personal identity within.

The authentic self decides on the degree of engagement with others and also the degree of separation.

Recent changes in the business environment mean that we are forced to become more existential. 

The leadership requirement in the new business model is a new type of leader. The leadership needs to be more interconnected and wise. 

The leadership requirements need to consider the individual, the tribe, the country and the planet.

The age of learning a set of knowledge or know-how is winding down. What is more important is to learn how to learn and to be agile. Problem-solving skills and interpersonal skills are essential. Also, as part of this, taking care of personal wellness is critical. Take an interest in the flow of learning and interacting with others in the process.

We are on the planet for a particular journey and not just to consume things and excessive consumption.

James Koefoed is the Digital Strategy Leader at one of the public broadcasters in Australia, SBS. Since he started the role 18 months ago, he has only been to the SBS office five times. The remainder of the time has led his team of 5 members from his home office. His role is split between performance marketing and optimising the marketing budget and thought leadership and innovation for the SBS digital strategy.

More broadly, James has been a career marketeer, conversion rate optimiser. He has worked at Fuji Xerox, in agencies, Disney and the Australian public broadcaster, ABC.

He has worked as a marketing lead, sales, producer and freelancer.

The rise of digital marketing as a driving force has been significant during his career, but the overarching fundamental of marketing remains the same. Digital marketing has allowed campaigns and marketing efforts to be measured.

The underlying passion for James has been delivering results. He loves coming up with business cases and scenarios and measuring the results. He expects marketing will make a material impact on the business and works to demonstrate this, so the perceived value of marketing is elevated in the organisation.

SBS has one of the best cultures in Australia. It’s the best culture that James has worked in. The charter at SBS is based on Diversity, Inclusion and Equity. The charter forms the impetus for the culture.  SBS is one of the few services in Australia that provides a broad range of services for the migrant and Indigenous communities in Australia. James's boss is on the multicultural committee. Diversity and Inclusion are about caring about people and their well being.

The most significant change for leaders has been working and collaborating with the whole person and just the employee. It takes more time and requires more listening to ensure that proper work-life balance is achieved and the mental health of team members is optimised. Many team members feel under pressure to complete projects on time and to a specific requirement. James tries to alleviate the pressure by focusing on the outputs and setting realistic schedules. As much as possible, he gives his team permission to start and finish the project when they want as long as the output is to the required standard.

The second aspect of Jame’s leadership is the rapidly changing technology around digital marketing. Intimate knowledge is required for marketers. His philosophy is to lead from the form and make sure his whole team is up to date with the required skills and processes. It’s a never-ending professional development process.

Advice for young professionals starts with making sure you have a passion for marketing. Don’t worry about titles or compensation. Challenge yourself on why you want to go down the marketing career path. If you are sure, go in and test through an experience. University degrees in marketing have little correlation with the actual marketing roles available.

Karen Kirton is the founder of Amplify HR, which specialises in helping SMEs with their HR strategy and operations.

Laura Koefoed is a young recruiter for the University of Sydney with a background in the education sector for internal and external recruitment. She also is interested in photography and creative work for some start-up companies.

Sam Webster is of Scottish descent. She spent 15 years as a high school teacher in Liverpool, UK, before immigrating to Sydney in 1999. She is now based in Perth.

John Peachey is a highly successful failed entrepreneur. John is the Chief People Mechanic at The Think Farm, which has a team of People Mechanics. They work with leaders and leadership teams to get pragmatic solutions in challenging times.

We demand of leaders things we don’t require of ourselves.

Tim Dwyer has been working as a consultant and advisor for 20 years. Before that, he came out of a corporate environment where he worked as a leader and executive for companies like Telstra. He headed up a division focused on supporting small and medium enterprises.