Female CEOs share Covid’s lessons in leadership

Coca-Cola Amatil boss Alison Watkins has warned corporates against favouring people working in the office rather than remotely.

Coca-Cola Amatil chief executive Alison Watkins warns against unconscious bias during COVID. Picture Ryan Osland

Coca-Cola Amatil boss Alison Watkins has warned corporates against favouring people working in the office rather than remotely as the business world moves to a hybrid model in the workplace.

Ms Watkins said she was optimistic about the societal and workplaces changes prompted by COVID-19 but thought there was need for a “watch out”.

“I’m just really conscious that there are the people you see who are in the office — some people will not be in the office much — and other forms of unintentional bias can creep in because you tend to have stronger relationships with, and perhaps judge differently, the people you see and are in contact with more often,” she said.

Ms Watkins made her remarks in a special issue of The Deal published on Friday and dedicated to women leaders. She said the pandemic had led her company to sharpen its focus on customers. And its approach to staff had also changed.

Coca-Cola Amatil CEO Alison Watkins. Picture: John Feder

“The reflection for me was, ‘oh boy, we have a lot of rigid rules and processes’ and, actually, we have so many smart, motivated people who can really operate a lot more flexibly and in an agile fashion with just more of a principle-based approach and less of a prescriptive approach,” she said.

Ms Watkins added that COVID had changed the way she worked. She felt less “busy” because she was not travelling: “I feel more considered and calm.”

She said it was a mistake for young people to think the organisation would look after and advance their careers.

“It’s really important not to think there is some sort of big machine that will create solutions and opportunities for you, but to recognise that it’s really (about) people,” she said. “You need to have the mindset of ­creating those opportunities with the help and support of those people who want to help you. If you wait for the big machine, the HR team, to tell you what’s going to happen next, that is disempowering and disappointing.”

MECCA Brands chief executive Jo Horgan. Picture: David Geraghty

MECCA Brands CEO Jo Horgan said the company had been lucky in COVID because it was in a category that was less affected than travel, hospitality and fashion, and had been able to pivot and respond in an agile way to the lockdown. It had quickly moved to a 24-hour operation in its warehouse and had been able to cope with an increase in online sales of between 600 and 1000 per cent.

Mirvac CEO Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz said she would “never forget” the weekend of March 14-15 when the company responded to the pandemic. “We already had 75 per cent of people on flexible working arrangements before and so we were well equipped to shift over on the weekend … One minute we were talking about rotating floors and then the next minute we were like: ‘No, everybody out, everybody who can, go home’. We were one of the first corporates in Australia to do that and by Monday morning the whole company was operational remotely.”

Mirvac chief executive Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz. Picture: Britta Campion

Ms Lloyd-Hurwitz said she had realised during the pandemic, where there was no playbook, that people had to draw on their values and principles to make decisions.

“I’ve learned that you need to have developed that muscle before you get into a crisis,” she said. “Being in a crisis is not a good time to try to work out where your character is.”

Company director Diane Smith-Gander told The Deal the loss of travel because of COVID had had an impact on the way she operated.

“I’ve really learnt the power of things such as the Chairman’s Lounge,” she said.

“While it’s not a place to do business, it is definitely a networking place. People who I used to see a lot, I don’t now. I’ve had to think how I could get in touch and keep in contact with those people. I miss the hallway interaction and when someone bumps into you and you can say: I hear your board’s doing such and such … can you give me five minutes on it?”

The Deal features interviews with Qantas Loyalty CEO Olivia Wirth, The Iconic CEO Erica Berchtold, KPMG partner Shelley Reys and the Australian Museum’s Kim McKay.