Harvey Norman CEO Katie Page on leadership, Gold Coast Bulletin Women of the Year awards

Harvey Norman CEO Katie Page on leadership “in the trenches”, going from one store to 300 and why making women more visible via awards and sport is critical. Video, full Q&A

GOLD COAST BULLETIN: Tell us about your leadership style and why Harvey Norman backs the Gold Coast Bulletin Women of the Year awards?

KATIE PAGE: Leadership to me is going through with your teams and making sure you are in the trenches with them. So it’s very important actually that you out there and you are showing people what your brand stands for, your values. And that’s really important to me. With the Gold Coast Women of the Year awards and the fabulous women we have every year coming through, you see they are talking about the same thing. Looking at the women this year up for the awards they are from very diverse backgrounds but are talking about leadership in the same way and it’s bringing people around you, sharing your values, contributing to society so for me to be able to be part of this night, to be leading a company like Harvey Norman that supports women in this way is extraordinarly important.

Katie Page, CEO of retailer Harvey Norman. Picture: Jonathan Ng

GCB: You moved to Sydney and ended up getting effectively a head-hunting call from Gerry Harvey who needed help with a retail outlet he had started – what prompted you to dive into what was then the first Harvey Norman store?

KP: For a start he didn’t headhunt me. I’d known him and Singo (John Singleton) for a while. Would you believe 40 years ago I joined Gerry at Harvey Norman, it was the first store. I’d known Gerry for some time and he was looking for someone who could do a number of things. And I said ‘What am I going to be doing?’ He said whatever you want. Do you want to do the marketing? Great. Do you want to sell furniture? Great. Do you want to do the property? Great. I said this is my sort of job. He’d started Harvey Norman with Ian Norman in October ‘82 and I joined them six months later. 40 years later I can’t believe how fast it’s gone, how much we have achieved. We were then one store and we were only going to have one store. We now have 300 stores in eight countries. What an amazing journey I have had.

Katie Page: “We were then one store and we were only going to have one store. We now have 300 stores in eight countries. What an amazing journey I have had.” Picture: Jonathan Ng

GCB: Harvey Norman and the Gold Coast Bulletin Women of the Year awards has been a strong partnership from the outset – why is it so important for you to back these awards highlighting unsung female heroes on the Gold Coast?

KP: The Gold Coast for Gerry and I has always been a very special place. My family are on the Gold Coast. We have got a business called Magic Millions which you are all probably aware of on the Gold Coast. And of course our brands Harvey Norman and Domayne have been on the Gold Coast for a very long time. We first started our retail business there in the 80s and for Magic Millions we started going to those sales on the Gold Coast in the 80s. We consider the Gold Coast our second home in actual fact. And it’s really important to me and it’s important to Gerry that we are supporting the Gold Coast and supporting women in these awards because they are the future in that region. It is a very vibrant, fabulous region. Our Magic Millions ambassadors when you consider (Royal) Zara and Mike (Tindall) coming from the UK, Nacho (Figueras) and Delphi from Argentina and Elsa (Pataky) doing the show jumping, our ambassador for show jumping, (retired NRL star) Billy Slater as an ambassador...and the most exciting thing they tell me of their year is coming to the Gold Coast. Because it’s a big fabulous family, you have surf, the bright lights, you’ve got everything really. So for Gerry and I to support and do what we can to bring people through and especially these awards is a great way to give back to the Gold Coast.

GCB: You’ve also been a passionate and strong supporter of women in sport particularly the NRL – the NRL Women’s league involved a stand out year for the Gold Coast Titan’s women. Why is fostering sustainable female sport codes so important to you?

KP: One of my passions in life is supporting women in sport. I started with the NRL probably 15 or 16 years ago when I went on that board. And the big takeout at that time for me was you had so many wonderful women supporting the game, supporting their children, working in the game, in the clubs, playing the game, but there was almost this invisibility about these women and it wasn’t as if the game didn’t want to highlight these women and bring them through more so I was very fortunate I was able to start the women in league with the NRL and when you think about what that did at the time, it was a game changer for a lot of sport where other sporting codes really got behind it as well. And we said we should be supporting more women in sport, not just as players, not just as women supporting their kids but in every part of the game. The other thing that was really important for me was bringing women in front of the camera. Making sure you had coverage of a football game and it was being called by a woman not just a man. Or you had players and could watch them on primetime TV and watch them playing the game. Fast forward now to 2022, this has been the most awesome year for women in lots of sporting codes. To be part of it all that time ago and to see how that has progressed you wouldn’t say it was an overnight thing because it has taken that long – but I’ve got to tell you that is one of my proudest moments.

Katie Page: “One of my passions in life is supporting women in sport. I started with the NRL probably 15 or 16 years ago when I went on that board.” Picture: Jonathan Ng

GCB: After last year’s awards, Harvey Norman made Champion’s of Sport winner Montana Atkinson - a swimmer with Paralympics ambitions - an ambassador alongside Olympic gold medallist Ariarne Titmus. What do you look for in ambassadors and why are those partnerships so important, we know Montana has been thrilled at the recognition and support.

KP: One of the things that has been important to Harvey Norman in sport is having great ambassadors that can be out there talking to other girls, other women and saying this is what’s possible. Ariarne - what a great ambassador for all girls, all women in Australia. We are so lucky that Ariarne wanted to do something with us. Monty wanting to go to the next Olympics as a Paralympian in swimming, this young fabulous 14 year old with this great dream. To have women like that, girls and women who can share their experience, it helps others to say we can do this, it’s inspiring, it’s all people want - to look up to other people and they want a guiding light. And so using these fabulous women and there are so many more we have as ambassadors, spreads this great inspiration to so many women.

Montana Atkinson, Gold Coast Women of the Year, Champions of Sport, 2021 - and also a Harvey Norman ambassador.

GCB: What gets Katie Page out of bed in the morning? What tends to get you buzzing?

KP: I often get asked what gets me out of bed in the morning - well can I tell you it’s sort of 24 hours a day. Our business because it’s in eight countries and across so many time zones. There’s not one hour of a day I have not got a store operating or online 24 hours a day, there is always something happening. For me having that buzz, I love working, I love what we do, I’m passionate about all of our businesses and I’m passionate about the people I work with, and I get to work with great teams in every country and they inspire me. So isn’t it a privilege be able to say that you wake up every morning, whatever time that is, and you love what you do.

GCB: What is your advice to women trying to break through that glass ceiling?

KP: How often do you get asked about what advice do you give women. With their lives everyone wants to do different things. Not everyone wants to be running a company. Not everyone wants to be on a board. But I can tell you everyone wants to be happy, they want their family to be happy, they want lifestyle, most people are aspirational, and for me it’s always been hard work. You have to do the hard work. But you have to love what you are doing. In the world at the moment, where there are so many different things being thown at people and at women and at families. We have all been through Covid, the most extraordinary two years. It’s now post Covid and we have different issues being thrown at us. But it’s resilience and it’s hard work. It’s making sure you are surrounded by great people that you admire who you want to support as well. For me and for Gerry, it’s about our family is number one, it’s about family.

GCB: Best life lessons you can share?

KP: Just hard work.

Originally published as Harvey Norman CEO Katie Page on leadership, Gold Coast Bulletin Women of the Year awards