Deakin Uni’s Alexander Newman studies what makes an entrepreneur

Deakin University’s Alexander Newman investigates what makes a successful entrepreneur.

Alexander Newman of Deakin University investigates what makes a successful entrepreneur. Photo: Simon Peter Fox

Wise heads warned Alexander Newman at the start of his academic career that he would need to have a clear focus, a specialty, to succeed.

And it’s clear from his substantial publishing record and reputation in human resources and organisations that he took the advice – up to a point.

However, he has diverse interests, including fostering the careers of people from refugee backgrounds into employment.

“Careers is now my third research stream on top of organisational psychology and entrepreneurial psychology,” says the head of the management department at Deakin University’s business school, who is named as Australia’s top researcher in the field of human resources and organisations in The Australian’s 2021 Research magazine.

Entrepreneurship is a burgeoning field, and some of Newman’s highly cited papers are about entrepreneurial self-efficacy – “the confidence to do entrepreneurial tasks”, as well as entrepreneurial leadership – where innovators “encourage their subordinates to engage in entrepreneurial thinking and implement entrepreneurial ideas”.

He confirms an innate tendency towards innovation is important – the children of business owners are more likely to go into business themselves – but also gives credit to the education system, where a lot more schools are now teaching entrepreneurship from an early age.

“I believe that we can develop these skills, however, there is that innate personality profile,” he says, summarising it as “being open to experience … that curiosity and excitement in doing new things”.

While the positive side is the vigour that comes from those qualities, the downsides can be burnout, plus the fact that the founder of a business is not necessarily the one to take it forward to, say, stock market listing.

Newman had his own entrepreneurial moment soon after he arrived in Australia when, in 2013, the federal government reintroduced the policy of turning back boats of asylum seekers.

“I saw this as a really important social issue,” he says. “People from a refugee background have a lot to provide to Australian society and the economy and we would benefit from a more humane approach.”

He set out to help. “A lot of agencies were providing support for people to get low skilled jobs such as catering and cleaning, but a lot of highly skilled professionals … were not able to get access to the kind of jobs that they had back in their home countries, and students from refugee backgrounds found it quite difficult to obtain graduate positions without a specific visa type.”

An Australian Research Council grant in 2014 enabled him and others to begin work and in 2019 they set up the Centre for Refugee Employment Advocacy, Training and Education, where he is director.

It runs career clinics that cater for 200 people annually, with an eight-week program and individual mentorship.

The centre has also developed guides to educate employers about the benefits of hiring people from a refugee background, and guides to support those people into the workforce and education system.

“Last year during the pandemic, we had a 60 per cent success rate in helping people to find skilled employment. That’s what I want to be known for, because it’s having the most social impact.”

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