Prior to starting his private investment company, Andrew Northcott commenced his career working on a cattle station near Julia Creek.
Andrew then founded and held the role of Managing Director of Labour Solutions Australia, a diversified workforce management company with annualised revenues in excess of $100m and recognised as one of Australia’s fastest growing companies having been awarded 5 times by BRW magazine and being the only business in the 25 year history of the prestigious BRW Fast 100 list to be named in the top 10 fastest growing companies in Australia for three consecutive years.
Andrew currently holds directorships of Austpec Capital, Austpec Pastoral, Roubler and has been recognised as Ernst Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards and awarded the 2015 Young Alumnus of the Year Award at QUT.
Andrew will be heading to Westech Field Days this year as part of the Free Entrepreneur Matching Program being run in the Innovation Space & Technology Precinct. We’ve asked Andrew a few questions so you can get to know him, and then if you’re interested you can register to meet Andrew in a ‘one on one mentoring moment’ here.
What does innovation mean to you?
Challenging the norms and not adhering to the status quo. There is always a superior, more efficient lower cost way of doing it and embrace change.
Who would you love to see registering for your mentoring sessions?
Gerry Harvey, Jorge Paulo Lemann
What is the best piece of business advice you’ve been given?
Retaining a thirst for knowledge and to always continuing to learn. I have continually craved learning new things and done quite a lot of study overseas having previously attended a 3 year MIT course and currently in my final year of a 3 year program at Harvard Business School.
What is your advice to anyone thinking about starting up their own business?
When I was a few months into my first business in 2004 and not sure whether to continue or take a recent job offer I recall a bloke saying to me. Give it a go, what’s the worst thing that can happen, you give it a go and if you stuff it up (used slightly different language there) you will go and get the same job you were offered last week. Give it ago.
Who has been the most influential person in your career?
Without a doubt, Ken Warriner. I was fortunate to have Ken as my business partner from March 2007 until we sold the business in December 2013 and learnt a lot both commercially and personally and am grateful for the opportunity to have shared the journey with him
What is your greatest achievement?
I’m hoping this is yet to occur, we launched a new business www.roubler.com earlier this year. I suppose if I had to pick one, having the opportunity to experience the full business cycle from creating a business from nothing through to selling it to a South African based conglomerate during my 20s. I will forever remember sitting around a fire having a drink at Clover Hills with my good mate Tom Chandler after signing the term sheet with the new owner.
Your first business, Labour Solutions, was formed after you spotted a gap in the market. What gave you the confidence to chase that idea and what advice do you have to people thinking of doing something similar?
The decision to start Labour Solutions was a lot more simplistic than this however as we grew the business we become a lot more sophisticated around the market sectors we focused on and what service offerings could successfully be delivered to those markets. www.roubler.com has been a better example of a more sophisticated market entry and on a global scale from day 1. Using many of the learnings from my previous experiences, we have created a HR and payroll technology platform which entirely eliminates the need for our customers to do data entry, manage time and attendance or payroll. Roubler manages the entire employment lifecycle from recruitment, onboarding, rostering, time and attendance, business analytics and a fully managed payroll. This is a great example of seeing a gap in the market and creating one platform that solves all the HR problems.
Book your one-on-one mentoring moment with Andrew here.
