Dusseldorp: Vision that endures
How a legend of capitalism and socialism inspired a successful collaboration between a large corporate and a social enterprise.
Matthew Byrne knew nothing of the legend of the late Lendlease founder Dick Dusseldorp until his innovative not-for-profit group tendered for a multi-million-dollar contract earlier this year to manage the catering at the property development giant’s global headquarters at Barangaroo.
“I learnt about Dick Dusseldorp in the most unlikely of manners,” says Byrne, the founder of Pure, a social enterprise that operates a number of cafes and catering services across Sydney’s CBD and in North Sydney.
“Our group was so warmly welcomed into a corporate culture at Lendlease International headquarters, that he seems to have somehow been able to weave his values into the fabric of their operations.’’
Pure trains and employs refugees and people with disabilities, and donates its profits to a number of charities, including food rescue service OzHarvest. In return, many of its clients subsidise the rental costs of its facilities.
The firm won the Lendlease contract on its own merits, but the deal linked Byrne with Dusseldorp’s granddaughter, Teya, in the same year the family marked the 20th anniversary of her grandfather’s passing.
Teya Dusseldorp is the executive director of the Dusseldorp Forum, a $50m philanthropic foundation established by her grandfather that is focused on improving the educational and life opportunities of children and young people throughout Australia. It was funded and authorised by Lendlease employees and shareholders following Dick Dusseldorp’s retirement. But Dusseldorp did not want it to just be a grant-making body. He wanted the forum to be a place to bring people together from a range of different perspectives and expertise to work on pressing challenges, especially around the empowering of young people.
Celebrating its 30th year in 2020, the forum was overseen for many years by Teya’s father, Tjerk Dusseldorp before his daughter took over. Her sister Marsha and brother Joe have also recently joined the board.
“My grandfather’s business and philanthropic lives were totally interconnected. He was a capitalist and also a socialist at the same time. I grew up absorbing all of those lessons,” says Teya Dusseldorp, who is also a member of Lendlease’s Reconciliation Action Plan which focuses on the upskilling of Indigenous people to bring them into the business.
“I feel very proud of my grandfather and what he achieved. How he had these strong principles of empowering people and getting the balance of the profit, social and environmental.”
She says Pure boss Byrne reached out to her earlier this year after researching her grandfather’s working philosophy.
“It really imbues Matt’s philosophy as he has been building Pure,” she says. “From when he was talking to me, he said there was something fundamental in what he was doing that was inspired by my grandfather. He is keen to have one of my grandfather’s quotes engraved on a plaque and on a table that people will sit around in the cafe at Barangaroo.”
Pure now exclusively manages the catering events, internal cafe, and food and beverage service for thousands of Lendlease’s Sydney staff.
Lendlease’s Corporate Real Estate team has openly encouraged Byrne and his team to bring its training and employment programs for disadvantaged people into their offices, internal cafe, shared spaces and meeting rooms.
The Lendlease Foundation is also supporting Pure to produce meals for charities, distributed in partnership with OzHarvest.
Luke Greenwood, Lendlease’s head of corporate real estate, says Dick Dusseldorp connected different interest groups of people to work together for exceptional outcomes.
“He was a pioneer in advocating the need for business to justify its worth to society, and he made it the Lendlease way,” he says.
“Our partnership with Pure has been built on this legacy with innovation, creativity and customer centricity at front of mind.
“The response from our people and visitors — once they understand the business model we have been able to deliver where they contribute to people in need just by buying their normal daily coffee — is extremely motivating.”