Taking time out with our CEO’s

One thing this virus has taught us is: to take inspiration from our leaders

ClubsACT takes this opportunity to share stories and experience from our leaders in the Club Industry during this very challenging time.

First up is Ian Mackay, CEO, Canberra Southern Cross Club Group.

Describe your career in the club industry.

My first role in the Club industry was with The Canberra Southern Cross Club, and come July it’s been six exciting years since I joined! Before joining the Club I worked in various roles in the racing industry including Tabcorp, Racing NSW, The Australian Turf Club and the Sydney Turf Club. Before all that I worked for big organisations particularly Mobil Oil and The Coca-Cola Company.

The best memories of all my roles has been the people. I’ve been lucky to get to travel to some amazing places with work as I ran the Pacific Islands for Coke and then for Racing NSW I started a racing series called The Championships and got to travel to Japan to try and ‘’recruit” their horses to come to Australia for The Championships. One of my best memories was recruiting two horses to come to Australia for the first ever Championships series and both won big Group 1 races. An Irish horse called Gordon Lord Byron won the Ryder Stakes and the Japanese mare Hana’s Goal won the All Aged Stakes.

I’ve worked with and for some inspiring people along the way but two perhaps stand out most. Robert Nason ran the betting or wagering division of Tabcorp and he is the smartest person I’ve ever worked for. He didn’t suffer fools and was able to cut through what he used to describe the ‘swirl’ of so many things going on at once to find the best path to achieve outcomes.

The other is Peter V’Landys who I worked for at Racing NSW. More people may know who Peter is. He is tough as nails but also kind and loyal, and when goes after something is an unstoppable force to be reckoned with.

As with everyone no matter what role they do I’ve faced lots of challenges through my work career but none bigger than what we are going through now. I’d rank the 3-4 weeks of mid-March to mid-April as the most challenging I’ve faced in my career. But using my past experiences, and helped enormously by a fabulous team here at the Club, I think we’ve been able to navigate it pretty well thus far.

Ian Mackay in 2014 with Morgan Cahalan the Irish owner of Gordon Lord Byron immediately afternoon his horse just won the $1million George Ryder Stakes at Rosehill

What is the most valuable lesson you have learned in your career?

That no challenge is insurmountable. I do get frustrated when people tell me why something can’t be done. I learned off the leaders I admired that you can cut through to how something can be done and then have a relentless determination to achieve it. That’s not always popular and you do have to accept you’ll have failures along the way –but I’ve always tried to live to the adage of “a person who’s never made a mistake has never made anything at all’’. So I encourage my team to “have a crack” and through that our team has delivered really good outcomes like Snapper on the Lake, our Community Rewards Program and more recently a really thriving little home delivery service whilst we’ve been closed.

Another key lesson I learned (from a manager I really disliked) was that “what gets measured gets managed’’. So I am fastidious about measuring trying to measure the success of programs and products we launch –it help’s you stop doing the bad ones and keep doing and improving the good ones. It’s the best way to learn from the mistakes we all make from time to time.

COVID-19 has been incredibly challenging. Describe the process the club has undergone and how are you keeping yourself and others positive?

Our team worked incredibly hard to keep pace with the fluid situation from march onwards. From the shutdown on March 23rd we’ve been in ‘semi hibernation’. We have around 300 staff on job keeper and another 34 on a program we’ve launched at the Club called Job Saver. This program is aimed at our international visa workers who play vital roles at our Venues, often in our kitchens. The Job Saver program also has some staff who for other reasons aren’t eligible for Job keeper but are toughing it out. It’s been really fabulous that we’ve been able to help them.

We’ve kept ourselves busy through the launch of our home delivery and takeaway services at all venues. We already offered Uber Eats and Menu log so the transition to our own service was very smooth –helped by a team of people who wanted to make it happen. We’re staying engaged with our staff through a social platform called Jostle which helps us spread news on everything ranging from Job Keeper updates to new policies on hygiene and social stuff too –Anurag our General Manager pudding even posted a recipe for warm soft centred chocolate pudding for everyone to make at home!

We’ve also done some things to stay engaged with our teams such as providing free take away lunches every day to anyone who needs a good feed and providing free flu shots to our team. We’ve got most of our managers still actively involved with our venue teams 3 days per week and I try to post a video update on Jostle every week with an update of where we’re at.

What has been the most common type of feedback received during this uncertain time?

The feedback has been amazing. I have no doubt the community we live in has become tighter through the last month and I do hope it’s going to be a constant reminder to us all of what’s really important. There’s some really nice feedback we have received and a couple that I’ve really cherished have been:

From a member Lyn - “Thank you staff and Chefs at the Tuggeranong Club for another beautiful dinner tonight. Home delivered hot and tasty. You are doing wonderful work that means we don't miss the food available on the take away menu we only miss the atmosphere and the friendly staff.”

From a staff member Nahid on learning she would get payment and work under the Club’s Job saver program - “I would like to thank you and the Board from the bottom of my heart in lending a helping hand in this time of need. Thank you so much! I am very blessed to be working with an amazing organisation that not only accepts its employees as family but treats us with the same level of care and love. I am happy to work any shift that is required. This will give me a mental boost as well, because I love coming into work and working with a great bunch of people. They have all become my family in the short time I have been with the club. I cannot wait for the day that things go back to normal and I am able to come back to work and meet my family.”

When you get feedback like this it’s a real fillip and helps ensure you stay positive. Ian Mackay, CEO, CSCC

What are you looking forward to most once this is over?

Seeing all our team again. Under normal operations we have around 600 staff and hopefully understandably I don’t know everyone by name. But when we get back I’ve realised I need to work harder at getting to know personally as many of our staff as I can. Every single one of our team has hopes and dreams that have been damaged by the Coronavirus shutdown. I want to try and ensure we get each and every one of our team back on their personal path to reach their goals as soon as we are able.

On a personal note I am looking forward to not trying to be a home school teacher. I have a new found massive respect for our primary school teachers!

Anything else, you want to add?

We have been so fortunate to be in Canberra during this time. When you see the horror of other major cities in the world we have escaped (fingers crossed) the worst of it. I do hope it is a wake up call that continued urban densification has it’s downsides and should not be a strategy our town should gallop along pursuing unabated. There are risks of replacing green space with high rise and this pandemic is a stark reminder of that.