By Jeff Bell.
What are the leadership and financial challenges of transitioning from a builder to a developer?
What have you learned from this recently completed development?
How do you balance the demands of your business with a busy family life?
These are some of the questions Band of Leaders Australia (BOLA) members and guests posed for Michael Lawson, MD of Northerly Group Australia.
Michael led a Guest Conversation for entitled Towering Success, at the group’s monthly meeting on Friday 15 March. We met in the boardroom of Northerly’s stunning new residential development, Altum (www.altumliving.com.au) in Scarborough.
BOLA is a peer membership group for business owners and chief executives. We seek to take our members beyond achievement to success—the essence of leadership. Inviting Guest Conversations is a key activity in our group meeting.
In an in-depth conversation Michael said that the company’s transition from builder-only to builder and developer had been precipitated by the Altum project–he had earlier bought out 2 partners in a block of flats on the site and conceived it in 2016 as the means for a vertical integration of the business.
“I always felt that in the construction tender market, it was a race to the bottom with margins and high contract risks,” Michael said, “not a sustainable model.”
Even though the project was launched during Covid, he said that the company would have found it difficult to navigate through the post-Covid environment without its own development. Although it was “the toughest thing I’ve done” and “I’ve lived and breathed it for 5 years” it had been very worthwhile.
From his career and this development in particular, Michael had learned that: “We have had to pivot. We have done strategy, but there will always be unexpected obstacles that must be overcome, on your way to success.
Encapsulating it with “It’s how you deal with things.”, Michael referenced a video made in in 1987 at a religious broadcasting convention by the successful businessman and motivational speaker Art Williams–the Do It speech.
Also, there was an inevitable impact of the project on family living but in an interesting twist, a café, The Porch, on the ground floor had become a family affair. His daughter Sophie is the manager and son James and youngest daughter Grace also pitch in.
Michael grew up in Wembley Downs. He was a student at Churchlands SHS, completed a Diploma of Construction at TAFE, was awarded his Builder’s Registration ticket and completed his degree in Construction Management and Economics at Curtin University in 1993. He worked for Entact Clough for 7 years (including 2.5 years in China) and 4 years for Lend Lease, before starting out on his own–from the front room of the family home in Trigg.
He has been Northerly MD for the past 22 years–through deep personal difficulties, evolving partnerships and in a range of locations and organisational formats. At one stage Northerly employed 120 people, but today it employs 25 people.
Altum is a resort-style complex designed by GHD Woodhead Architecture–a pair of curved apartment buildings created specifically for the over-55s with broad thoroughfares, garages and storage units. Even Michael’s mother lives there.
Inspired by the art deco style, the 51 apartments have sweeping views with floor-to-ceiling windows, spacious living areas and balconies, and superb kitchens, as well as luxurious fittings and fixtures. On the ground floor there is a cinema, wine cellar, bar, gym, hair salon, indoor heated pool and meeting facilities.
Northerly recently won Home of the Year for a single residential property in Applecross. A new office development at 320 Rokeby Road has just been commissioned and Special Disability residences have been built for Rocky Bay.
BOLA members will meet next on Friday 19 April when we return to Casa Nostra Caffé in Osborne Park.
Typically, our agenda includes such a Guest Conversation as Michael’s, processing of strategic opportunities raised within the group and leadership development tools and activities. Our April Guest Conversation with be with Damione Wright, MD Asia Pacific for Mechanix Wear.
Prospective members and referrers are invited on request, as Paul Manning is continuing to build his BOLA Growth group.
In the meantime, each member will have a monthly coaching session with their BOLA Chair, Jeff.