Episode 29, Jean-Baptiste Naudet, CFO, St Vincent de Paul Society (Vinnies)

Jean Baptiste or JB, as he's known, is CFO of the St. Vincent DePaul Society (Vinnies). Prior to this has worked for Johnson and Johnson, Coca Cola Amatil, Flight Center and Thales.

JB is a highly skilled and experienced CFO and Commercial Director, with a strong finance background and leading-edge comprehension, and expertise in customer insights and business intelligence

Throughout his career, has been recognized for his ability to build and enhance strong team cultures and increase engagement and outcomes.

To contact Richard Holmes please call 0403 513 720 or reach out on richardh@hprconsulting.com. https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardholmesfinancerecruiter/

Transcript

Please note that this has been transcribed by AI/Bots so there may be typos and the occasional strange things happening.

Richard Holmes

0:01

Welcome to the numbers people Podcast, where each week we're going to be speaking with some highly regarded senior finance professionals and create experts looking into the ins and outs of what makes finance people and their teams great. The podcast is proudly sponsored by HPR Consulting a leading executive finance recruitment firm. I'm your host, Richard Holmes.

Richard Holmes

0:27

JB, as he's known as CFO of the St. Vincent DePaul Society or Vinnies. And prior to this has worked for Johnson and Johnson, Coca Cola Amatil Flight Center and Thales. JB is a highly skilled and experienced CFO, commercial director, with a strong finance background in leading-edge comprehension, and expertise in customer insights and business intelligence, throughout his career, has been recognized for his ability to build and enhance strong team cultures and increase engagement and outcomes.

JB Naudet

0:59

JB, how are you? Great to have you on the podcast. Thanks so much. Thanks for having me, Richard. You're a great guy. I always think you're so enthusiastic. And you know, you got so much energy and everything you do and in the recruiting world and on LinkedIn, etc. So it's an honor to be here. Thanks so much. 

Richard Holmes

1:14

I've known JB for a number of years now. And I actually know about you before I'd even met you. I mean, your reputation is fantastic. In the market. I want to invite you, JB on to the podcast, I do genuinely think your background in your career history is interested in where and where you are currently. Like, I think it'd be really interesting for listeners to hear what you've got to say I'm sure you've got lots of insight and wisdom to impart. Would you like to walk you through your journey so far? 

JB Naudet

1:36

Sure. Yeah. So personally, I'm French if you know, JB Zhong Baptist, but I've been in Australia for now, 22 years, actually, it will be 22 years on Monday. And in terms of companies, I worked for four, I worked for five companies. The first one was a multinational French engineering and defence company called TELUS and I worked with them for about seven years. And they took me from France to England, straight after my uni to England and then to Australia. So I've got them to thank for leaving this beautiful country. It was great working for them. And you know, good foundation work bosses and mentors, and it was great, became a chartered accountant as well through them into permanent residency. But then I thought, okay, now, I've worked in defence for seven years of my life and, you know, great industry, but when you're a young child, it's probably not what you're thinking I'm going to do and you're old. So I thought, okay if I stay too long, I might get boxed in as a defence person. So I thought I should change industry in a very the other side, and I went to work for flights and worked there for two years now was a fantastic place as well. And obviously, I was a lot younger than such a vibrant, fun place. They really believe in people leadership and looking after their people and making it a fun environment. And I'd very commercial roles there, which was really awesome. And I learned a lot from a people leadership point of view, but also the commercial side of things. Unfortunately, at the head office in Brisbane, I was about to get married, I was running out of room there. So I left and I moved to Coca Cola Amatil, which is obviously a big, you know, blue-chip company. And I worked there for four years, various roles like FP&A manager for Australia, Commercial Manager for the IT department. And then I actually left finance, I did a bit of a project with the sales team, because I wanted to be more on that commercial side of the business after having done that for Flight Center. I was doing a profit pool exercise for them, you know, trying to work out category like soft drinks in restaurants and cafes, etc. How big is the profit pool? You know, US and the competitors and how much share of that we have. So that was a strategic benefit. And yeah, did that work? And then a competitor, a national manager competitor, competitive intelligence, sorry, opened up. And I thought I'd love to ever go ahead. That sounds absolutely fantastic. So I did that for a year and a half. And I did all sorts of things. And that was great. You know, really being in that strategy. Team. linguist commercial was the finance analytical background there. But we looked at mergers, acquisition, we did some analysis per competitor. He was fantastic. So that was great. But then I thought, wow, is this really going to take me somewhere? By that stage of my career, I was getting more senior and I was like, Am I going to be able to really make the full jump to commercial and get to for example, a GM or or or whatever, the path was unclear. And I got headhunted to go and work for Johnson and Johnson. Absolutely amazing company. And the role was great. Anyway, so I left Coca Cola and I joined Johnson Johnson says my fourth company and I've worked there for nine years. So I had a long career there. Absolutely fantastic. Love Johnson and Johnson. Healthcare. Now it's a very different from the fast moving consumer goods very different from retail, very different from engineering. So at Johnson and Johnson, the first role was actually very different against a role I've never done, financial controller, very technical 25 people all the core financing, APA reporting and planning was actually the FEMA probably did but like inventory, accounting, payroll, accounting, you know, Treasury tax, all these different things, right. So very technical role as Sox as well. So

JB Naudet

5:00

a whole different level of compliance than everywhere I've worked before because all these other companies were not American. I mean, I learned a lot actually stayed for years in that role. We had some sap implementation, and we had a lot of stuff, but he was fantastic in. And what I really loved as well was that people leadership passion I got before, here was managing managers in our side, 25 people at my five managers, so getting that passion of God about leadership, to those managers, and some of them, you know, they become managers, the more accountants then you know, people, leaders, so trying to get that passion into them, and you know, and surfacing that emotional intelligence. So that was really good. And then I moved into the pharma part, and I left finance again. So I actually worked in business intelligence for the pharma division, I was leading that for Australia, New Zealand, that one is very commercial, again, right hand side to the business, looking not just at financial data, but external data, you know, market research, external market share data, patient data, doing some very complex modeling to forecast sales by patients, etc.

JB Naudet

6:02

There was a lot of fun. And then from there, I got promoted to Asia Pacific role. So I did that for two and a half years. And now I was looking after business intelligence, mergers and acquisition, but also strategic marketing for a portfolio of more mature drugs, you know, that we've had in the market. And now was just amazing, you know, discovering, you know, cultures, Japan, and China, Ninja, you know, North Asia, etc, Southeast Asia, but also the different markets. I mean, in medical device, for example, we have device that you use one off, it helps you to basically, when you do a surgery to cut in, but at the same time could arise. So you don't have to cut in all blood everywhere, let's stop it, etc. But that goes straight in the body, right. And so we use it as a one time device in India in China, they wash it, and they reuse it four or five times. But also from a financial modeling point of view, obviously, you get one sales and fire rather than one selling every surgery. So that was amazing. I really loved it. Also very commercial. And business intelligence was fun. I put in systems for business to get more insights, etc. I really loved that. And then I got asked to go to the third sector, which is back to fmcg, which is the consumer health sector and as a CFO, but then I left J&J. And then actually took a few months off, which was fantastic. Never did that. In my career before. I think it was one week between jobs I took in my whole career. I took some time off and he was doing COVID abroad, my mum home from France, because my father passed away. So I thought, okay, I'm on each other better. Bring my mom home. And he was in January, just before COVID. So very lucky. So I took some time off, looked after my mom, spend time with the kids, you know, I really enjoyed at j&j the purpose you have. It's not just about as a finance guy, let's generate some shoulder return, right? It's, you know, we helping patients, we helping doctors, you know, they've got amazing credo agenda, which I recommend everybody to look at. So I really enjoyed that sense of purpose. So then, when I was looking for roles, a couple of NFP roles came up. One of us was a global school. And then another one was St. Vincent de Paul, I thought you know what that is going to be like, for purpose on steroids. It's almost all for purpose. I mean, you still need to manage your finances so you can do more with less money. But it is really all about the mission, which is amazing. So I've been there for nine months as the CFO I look after property procurement, payroll and finance. It's great it's a really enjoying very different from the corporate world. Like very different from the certainly like the big blue chip companies. But then it's nice, because I know what good looks like I've seen it, you know, so I can bring that to that organization and try and help them out. I feel like I'm adding value to a place that adds so much value to people. So, so far, very happy. It's great. 

Richard Holmes

8:43

And just listening to your story though JB, did you have a career plan or a development plan for yourself? Listening to you then you don't technical roles m&a, business intelligence, where you driving that always with the opportunity to present it?

JB Naudet

8:55

I wish I could say that, Richard, but it's not the case. And I was always in my mind more of a commercial finance person, if you want always enjoyed m&a. When I did my business school, master's thing, I my paper was on m&a. But in the end, I, you know, I went to work for that defense company. And I was a, you know, I was assisting the CFO first for the UK. But then when I went into Australia, the role was a cost controller. So I was looking at the project cost on massive, you know, billion dollar moved around, and I became a shared service manager there. So I was doing management accounting, but then I became a shared service manager. Yeah, so I think you just took me to your point, like if you know, somebody saw I did something well, and if Okay, we should give him more responsibility. He could help us in that spot. When I was at Coca Cola, even leaving finance, you know, that was not planned. He was just what I really thought, you know, I want to be commercial because that's what I said, I enjoyed to get in j&j when he was back to being you know, very technical cost control. I was like, on one side, am I gonna enjoy it? Is it me, you know, but then on the other side, I said, You know what, as a person, I'm quite positive. So I enjoy

JB Naudet

10:00

I enjoy what I do, because if not, I would not do it. So I enjoyed it. And I love the people leadership side of it, I thought that would be really good. That would really compliment my career with all the commercial fpn a job I've done to have the financial controller to then one day become a CFO. So I did think, you know, even though it was maybe not the most appealing, you know, prospect to do really technical work that would really actually round my CV quite nicely. 

Richard Holmes

10:23

What advice would you give to someone who wants to pursue a career like yours? 

JB Naudet

10:27

Yeah, I mean, the first one is be yourself. And if you're trying to be somebody else, or whatever, it's exhausting. And also, it can't be good for the soul. Just be yourself. And he might have to notch yourself down a notch. Like, for example, I'm a guy who likes to have a laugh and all that stuff. But I know that, you know, when I present to the board, I just tone it down, right? I can't just be myself, like, I'm with my friends or whatever. But be yourself. Don't try and be something else. Work hard. It's a simple one. But even if like tennis players, whatever, they've got a natural gift, they don't work hard, they're not going to have a good career, at the end of the day, you can wing it for a while, if you've got good horsepower, like you've got a good brain. And then if you've got good interpersonal skills, you'll wing it for a while, right? You're going to limit your potential, you're not going to get as far as you can see, you've got to work hard, work smart. And that's an advice. You know, my first bosses that tell us, Alan Ball, fantastic man, still a very good friend of mine, he told me you work smart, don't just work hard, just work smart as well. And it's so true, there's people that just do everything to the nth degree than they do less. So then they don't get their head out of the weeds to do whatever, there's some things you need to do to the nth degree, right, compliance, etc. but other things, you just need to give enough to be able to make a decision, it needs to be accurate enough that you're going to make the right or the wrong decision. And also what you work on, you know, if you, for example, you're very good at technical things, and that's what you're comfortable with, as you go up the levels. If you keep doing technical stuff, well, that's probably not what people want to do any more. They want you to do more strategic things. So you need to also work smart on what you pick, you know, that you're working on, and you put your time and energy. So that's probably to have them be confident about your capabilities as well, in a back yourself up, I'm naturally confident persons, maybe being French, you know, that arrogant thing.

JB Naudet

12:09

Let's do the French, I can see other people they're not some of my friends, you know, they were looking for jobs, and I can't I can't apply for that, I haven't done that. Don't worry about it, apply for it, let them tell, you know, if they think you're not, but don't cut yourself short, you know, just have a go. And then from it, that emotional intelligence is very important. I studied at Flight Center really got into all that books on you know, leadership and servant leadership and emotional intelligence, but you know, the be aware, you know, be able to stop yourself, you know, self manage. And then obviously, that being externally focused and think how other people perceive you and all that stuff. That's so important. In see people the career stopped, because they just don't have that they don't think about it, it's not second nature. And it creates friction, which at some point is, you know, rocks, you're talking about leadership books, I mean, is there is any good recommend. I mean, some of them are quite old books, Primal leadership, unleashing the power of emotional intelligence, it resonated with me, I understood the different elements of the emotional intelligence and how important it is. Things like Good to Great and all that stuff, the fantastic book, it was one it was about servant leadership, it was fantastic. And it had this story of this guy in South America and Central America and in how he really was he ran a factory, really leading that seven issue, which is, I think, very rare, and certainly at back at the time, and in the factory space and mipple. Being that in that culture as well. It was absolutely a revelation for me to hear that as a leader, people are not here for you, you're here for them got a team of 25, for example, this 25 people doing work, if what I can do is coach these people, so that they can do better, work smarter, work happier, you know, etc. and unleash the potential. I mean, it's gonna do much more than if I'm killing myself doing everything myself, but there's only one of me so that servant leadership, you're there for others, to make them life, yours to absorb change. And that was amazing. The humble leadership, obviously, from good to great. And then there's another one, it's not really a book, but I think I believe in is that individual leadership. You know, some people will tell your, well, I'm not a team leader, or I'm not a manager, so I don't have to lead. But first, if you want to be a team leader, you need to act like a team leader. If you don't act like a teammate, and nobody's gonna say, oh, JB would be a good team leader one day, I can see, I can see does it now. So you've got to act for the next level up that you want to be. But also, you know, if, for example, then there would be only one CEO at the top trying to pull the whole organization, as if you believe in individual leadership. Everybody would be thinking, Okay, it's not going to come on the podcast. But what good looks like it looks up here. Got my hand up here. But the situation now is down here, the gap between what it could look like and what it looks like now. That's the opportunity for that individual leadership. You can say, Oh, you know, this is rubbish. You know, I can't believe

JB Naudet

15:00

People are doing it like that, you know, should be like this and have a whinge and do nothing. But that doesn't help anybody, it's actually makes it worse. But if you could go, Well, what can I do to help? Oh, I can see it's between my team and not really my team's work or with this team. They're the two teams together. Let's have a chat about It's okay, how can we aspire to push up that line? So for me, that individual leadership, and it's not just that work on a personal level in your community, you can see things are not right. Well, if everybody you know, had more of that, and I certainly need to have more of that everybody is more of that he would make the world a better place, you know, in the certainly the community in the workplace,

Richard Holmes

15:33

Jjust listening to you then JB mean, what can I do to help this perception out there that to be a leader, you've got to be confident, you've got to have charisma, and you've got to be more extroverted. But I don't think that's necessarily the case, you can be quite reserved, quite introverted. But it's just about asking the right questions. And then having that self awareness. And in talking about self awareness, again, listening to you mean that you come across like a self awareguy, even the early days isn't one thing reflecting back, but you wish you would have known at the start of your career?

JB Naudet

16:01

There's one thing which, you know, when we were doing a lot of leadership per se, like, there's only one person responsible for career, there's certainly a lot of people that will help you. And you know, hopefully, they will see something in you and believe in you. And I'm very fortunate that, you know, I was lucky to have those people that saw something in me when I was a young, you know, assistant accountant and an accountant. And whatever I was, this was something in me, but at the end of the day, you're the person that is responsible for grade, don't think somebody else's, don't wait for your managers, all you haven't done anything, do something for yourself, because it's about you. So invest in yourself, like I said, you know, lucky with companies, I've worked for the send me to leadership courses, and etc. Invest in your networks, Todd, sometimes to remember to do that, take some time out. And for me, one thing that is important, I've always lived that is that work life balance, if you push so hard, at the detriment of the rest of your life, whether it's your health, your family, or your friends, or whatever, your your mental health, you know, back to being authentic, compromising your values. Now, it's your your soul, right, your heart, it's not sustainable. So I think I think it's very important to have a good work life balance, so that you can sustain the demand that you need to do to do a career, you know, reading that from a book, you want to be career, you want to be job, guess what, there's a lot of work, there's a lot of stress, there's a lot of pressure, you know, you can't just have one without the other. 

Richard Holmes

17:24

That's great JP. I read something a couple of years ago, and I've tried to practice it in my life where it was something quite simple, like you are 100% responsible for your life, no one else's. And when you realize it's on your terms, like you direct the outcomes of your life. And I think a lot of people think that it's, it should be presented on a plate. But you've got to go out and get it yourself. Right? When you realize that it's, it sounds so simple, isn't it, but you are responsible for your career and direction you take. 

JB Naudet

17.51

And it's empowering, right? is one of the thing also, I keep on rambling on thing that you know, I remember the time but this people that externalize all the time, never their fault. Ah, you know, my manager, again, back to career, I haven't been successful in the job interview or whatever, I didn't get the next role. I didn't do that to you, right. Either you were not ready for it. Maybe your manager is not the best manager. And they'd never had that discussion with you to say, Well, actually, if you want that role, you need to display those things which are not at the moment. So sure, that's an externalization. But bring that conversation with your manager, which really is not a good manager, and then maybe go and work somewhere else, or find another mentor in the place that will help you out or whatever. So don't externalize and blame external factors for you are, like you said, it's about yourself. So it's empowering. It's all about you, you can make things happen. You just have to believe it's on your plate and just do something. 

Richard Holmes

18:46

Think wider in society as well as this victim. It's against me and it's just it's not. It's like push yourself and things happen. You mentioned one of your old managers, Alan Ball from your earlier Thalesdays, I mean, Alan's obviously influential early on in your career. I mean, is there any other people that stand out? Or have you got mentors or people you speak to? 

JB Naudet

19:05

Alan was great, and, you know, he told me some there was three things he told me one was about the work you smart. The second one was, which is a piece of very good advice, which, you know, I was telling somebody the other day, again, he's, you know, when somebody gets angry at something, and they start sending an email, and copying the world, saying, blah, blah, blah, you've done wrong, maybe that you know, that gets you angry, because you haven't done wrong and blah, blah, blah. And so you want to reply and probably add some more people and all that stuff, whatever his advice is, if ever you feel like that, walk away, have a cup of tea, do whatever you need to do even leave the message as draft, go home, come back the next body, remove half or two thirds of the people or even better just pick up the phone and talk to them. And certainly don't send the first thing that you thought of said he was great. There was another guy at Flight Center called David Pakman. He was such a people centric leader. He was absolutely amazed. It's funny.

JB Naudet

20:00

At Flight Center when I worked there, so it was a long time ago right now, when I worked there, they didn't believe in PowerPoints and all these different things when you spoke to your staff, right? So they had get all the leaders, you know, from all the different shops together or whatever, little PowerPoints, because they believe that if you talk without, if you talk from your heart, it was really fantastic. There's other the other leaders, you know, if somebody listens, that is one of my managers, please don't get upset. But there was a lot of other leaders that were great. Konrad Fischer, who got me into j&j. You know, he was a be like a father to me, in Australia, you know, my father and my mother in France. And so he was a bit of a father figure to me, that was fantastic, you know, even helped me when I bought my first house, you know, and then how much do we invest in all that. But there's a course I did at j&j that really impressed me was the corporate athletes Leadership Program, which, again, very lucky that they sent us on. And he was about realizing that, as a person doing a career, we are corporate athletes. So like I said, before, you have to work hard, you have to work for a long time and all that stuff. And they said, life is not a marathon needs to be a series of Sprint's push here, and then you rest up and push here and you rest up, and that's your personal life, and your work life and everything else, you're, you know, go for a run, go for something, whatever. So that was quite amazing. And it was all about managing your energy, rather than managing your time, which I know is a padding that is everywhere now. But at the time, you know, it was, I think, a bit more novel. So for that is saying, you know, they had a triangle that said, you know, to manage your energy, you need to look after your physical health, so sleep to exercise, and then it was your mental health thing, the top of the pyramid was the values, again, make sure that you're not sacrificing your values or whatever, make sure it's aligned with what you do. I lost weight at the time, for example. And I did exercise, I put reminder in my calendar to call my wife at six o'clock at a thing go home. Unfortunately, I didn't do it every time. But you know, distinctive DNA as a reminder, you know, okay, you need to finish up and get home to your family. And then the other one is that they've lost a life mission, they make you develop a life mission. So mine was achieved my potential, and help others achieve their potentials. Back to again, it's all about me, and I want to get to where I can get. And then also the passion of, you know, helping others grow as well. So help others. It's nice to have, in a way a mission

Richard Holmes

22:14

And talking about leadership. I mean, you've had some good leaders with mentors in terms of that self development for yourself. Is that a constant thing for you? Do you constantly like talking about the corporate athlete program at j&j? Is  learning constant thing for you or so if you work for blue chip companies, right, they invest in you, right?

JB Naudet

22:30

So as I went up the ranks, I was fortunate to go to many leadership programs. And again, you can go there and be skeptical and not take it on, or you can really embrace them. And I did get quite passionate about these things. And I did and took stuff home. And you know, so you get a lot of those programs. I also read, so I read novels, you know, allows me to switch off. But I also, you know, I'll go Okay, I've read now a few novels that let's go and read one of those either leadership book, or Freakonomics or things like that. It's something that just gets your mind a bit going, you know, and then thinking or the world is flat, and all these books, but it's funny, when you get to director level, there's a lot less of those and your your leaders who are now either senior directors or VPS, they somehow spend less time coaching you. And I remember having this discussion with, with somebody, you know, in HR at j&j. And I said, Yes, that's right. You know, by then they expect you to have picked up all the right management routine, all right, you know, concepts of leadership. And then now it's even more on yourself less hand-holding, with more you on yourself to find the right mentors, you know, you trust also you've built a relationship with so you can have a sounding board when you know, you're faced with a difficult situation, and you need to talk to somebody and get some help. Yeah, it's different. I really noticed that that change and listening to your story, JP, I mean, you've had a very successful career, you've worked some great companies, Have you made any mistakes? Or have you had any failures, don't talk about the failures that we don't talk about the failures and other important things. If you don't have a good career and groys is be vulnerable, right? So admit, you know, when you've done things, I mean, there's one roll, I didn't start Well, the roll, it was a big jump, it was a new role. And I my start was not what it is. I knew about the 90 day, the first 90 day and I read the book and all that stuff, I didn't apply to then go back through the steps and really built a plan before I started working and all that stuff. So I think the really being conscious about your first 90 days, which will help to get to a it's a speed to add value. Basically, it's also about having early wins, that basically just brings confidence. If you just start and you have some early wins, people, practice goes great, you know, their mind is made up until you really suffer. If you don't get early wins. You know this question mark, if there's a little bit of a full bad start, it's really hard to then turn it around because that first impressions and when you're younger, right, I remember hearing people say, you know

JB Naudet

25:00

Don't expect anything from you first like three months, learn, just learn, don't worry, but just learn, do your work, learn, once you learn it, you've dug deep, you're gonna start really adding really a lot of value, you know, I don't have that expectation straightaway, just let people settle down. But when you get to senior positions, when your leadership team and all that stuff, there's none of that, you've got to provide that strategic insight, you've got to build a relationship with everybody very, very quickly and start adding value so that people go by the other people don't have time on that leadership team or the CEO, or whatever they just don't have time to, for you to grow into the role or whatever they are under pressure to deliver and, you know, turn around a business or whatever. So that was not pleasant, not starting. Well, Rob, but I've learned a lot from it. And it's great.

Richard Holmes

25:43

And I think you kind of need to have that experience to reflect and learn from it. And

JB Naudet

25:47

that's actually it's a bit quickly, Nessa Sullivan, who was the CFO at Coca Cola Australia, when she interviewed me for when I joined Coca Cola material. That's one question she asked me, she said, Have you ever failed in your life? And I didn't? I don't think so I you know, because you go through your career and school when Well, you knew when Well, you know, and your career starts, and you just keep going up and up? And I'm like, No, you know, I don't think I have it's you. So it's a shame. If you do fail, then you learn so much more.

Richard Holmes

26:16

in finance, it's still a governance compliance. Trade, if you will. So failure is not, not not well regarded. Yeah, correct. Finance, but I think it's probably more of just what you learn what you do differently. I mean, majority people I'm speaking to have they fail, has something drastically happened because of that. Actually, not? No, it hasn't. It's just more of an expectation management. I think it's just learning how you do differently.

JN

JB Naudet

26:40

I mean, you've got to learn an event, you know, I mean, it's more failures all the time. Like, for example, you have a conversation with a stakeholder and you know, it didn't go well. So you've just got to reflect right there. So another thing another person told me that a country and his name is he was the HR director at Coca Cola material, great guy. And he, he was a bridge player, he said to me, he said, he talked about being a bridge player, right? He said, there's a lot of good bridge plays. But to become a great bridge player, you know, you see them after the tournament, they'll all sit at the bar of the hotel. And they'll be talking about, because they all have the same hands. For each of the games, apparently, I don't know which bear, but they said they'll talk about each of the hands. And what they should have done better Moment of Reflection to think what could I have done the importance of self reflection, and I was talking to other leaders, I remembered Coca Cola amatil at the time, and they said, Yeah, that one guy was taking the ferry to work. And that was his time in the ferry, he would ever think about the previous day, and you can do it daily, you can do it weekly, but he was ever think about, okay, what interactions did I have that was not an optimal? What type of work, you know, did I do that probably, I could have done better, whatever, and then put some actions in place to either best contact that person and smooth it over and approach it a different way, find another way to influence them, or whatever. So you need to have that time to reflect. And it's small, little bits, right? The companies

Richard Holmes

27:57

you work for are quite renowned for having great cultures, what does culture mean to you?

JB Naudet

28:01

culture is culture. So you can't just I guess we're gonna have a new culture. It has happened, culture is really defined and influenced by the actions of senior leaders, you can say whatever you want to say, in those town halls or whatever. I mean, it's important that you say the right thing. But you've got to back it up with actions, right. So for example, we say we believe in people we believe, or equalitarian, you know, then if there's a senior leader, or even a middle management or whatever, who is not like that at all, and he's just an absolute dictator, burns people, as he tries to be successful, that person gets promoted, then that's just talk, you just value that success of, you know, being, you know, servant leader, and all these different thing in getting people with you when you go forward. Right. So I think that drives a lot of the culture, and then obviously, then is everybody in their actions back to that individual leadership, if you get, I think, some form of good culture where people have got values that are aligned with the values of the company, they will want to go over and beyond, they would want to show that individual leadership, people might actually talk to somebody else and say, Hey, you know, that's not quite you know, how we do things around a bit in a positive, we're not in a, you know, I've never done this like that and be resistance to change. It's more about saying, you know, now, you know, you should consult more or this or whatever, just to match the culture. Remember to have fun, because the culture has fun in it or whatever. So yeah,

Richard Holmes

29:25

it's all about the people, isn't it? You have the right leader in place, the right people leader, and the rest falls into place. It's sometimes Emily sounds so simple, but a lot of companies get that wrong, you know,

JB Naudet

29:34

as a leadership team, whether it was a finance leadership team or a bar leadership team, and we looked at Okay, how do we improve the engagement of our people, one of the first thing we did is start investing in the people leaders, the you know, and I was managing managers and other my peers, manage managers, we just invested in them. Then we set expectations and we also did performance management, the old adage of, you know, if you join a company, but you leave a manager, right, so Be over the wrong manager just really ruins your day, if you have a manager that is not a change leader, when things start to happen, instead of just having a say at the right level, but then absorb the change and then pass on positive change down below, if they just let it go straight through them in just complained to their people, as I don't know what these guys are doing, you know, certainly wouldn't have done that. And you know, just find a previous way and you basically stopping anybody below you to have any chance to bind to the change, which obviously needs to happen so that, you know, the whole organization moves forward, it's so important,

Richard Holmes

30:35

knowing what you know, now, what would you tell your younger self?

JB Naudet

30:41

Like the thing I guess, I said before, about, you know, be authentic to yourself, start jobs, well, look at your 90 day plan and start well, learning from this, this work hard, be authentic, be positive, as well, you know, I read somewhere I remember it was a video about this fish market in the US or whatever, you know, they just basically deal with fish all day and selfish, you know, which could be pretty drab job. And these guys were having such a good time. And there's a we've got a you know, we've got a card on the left and then coming up in the throw the cord. And you know, it's just a lot of fun, right? So they made it fun for the customers and for themselves. And I think in that one, he just talks about, you have a choice. Every morning, when you wake up, you have a choice how you want to be for that day, I go and have a shower, I put music on it, that's my time to go for Oh my God, I'm tired. I don't want to get up to Alright, let's go we're in today, my choices. And the positive, let's go for the day. So you choose how you again, it's back to there's no external factors, you know, there's two people, exactly the same things happening to them, they will respond very differently from it. You know, somebody might go, Oh, my God, I can't This is horrible, life is horrible. And other person would go, you know, I'm not going to let it ruin the rest of my you know, if I go for work is bad. I'm not going to let it impact home. And you know, build some resilience, I'm great. And and I'm just going to go, I'm just going to be positive like that. There was another thing I heard about anything you would like the tennis about the between the points, the great tennis players, they great, not what they do during a point is between the points. So you have a point you do a bad shot? Is it going to let you derail for the next, you know, two games or whatever? Are you going to be able to just go You know what, let's move on to the next point. And next point, I'm back to being focused on what's my strategy, I'm just going to try and he did long the analogy was, you know, work, you finish work and you're like, are crazy, you know, all the stress all that stuff. And then you come home, how are you going to be are you going to bring all that chaos and that stuff in your head when you bring home. That's not what your wife and your children want. They want dad or my husband to be dedicated to them excited, positive, happy energy, because often you spend so much energy at work. So back to that energy management I spoke before. And they said the story of this guy who would normally come home early when he came home and read the newspaper or whatever, not be fully present for his kids. And then he had a project and he kept working late, a few days in a row and you started to feel really guilty and and then on the way home that one night, the CD that played in his car was the kids music. You know, instead of turning it off, he actually laid it on. He let it let it playing and any it made me think about his kids. And he called his wife and I think it was close to 8pm or something because I said please keep the kids up. You know, I'm really keen, I'm sorry, I'm coming home late. And he came home in he was in the right mood rumble with this kid as he put him into bed and whatever I you know, read his story. And he only had 20 minutes with them rather than hours, right? And then Nikita is about to fall asleep makes me tear up when I tell a story without dad can you come home late more often, because he really enjoyed like he was there. And it's not about being restricted for three hours he was being present for that 20 minutes. He was what they wanted to try. And again, catch yourself up and let the worries of work, do whatever you need, whether it's you know, on the way home, read a book about something different actually read about fantasy, magicians and stuff or whatever just changes me completely, you know, like, boom, okay, now I'm not the same welder. You forget your work worries and stuff. So that story really resonated

Richard Holmes

34:09

with a lot of power by being present. It's hard. It sounds so easy, doesn't it? The President JP, what makes you happy. I mean, you're a happy guy, you'll always be that way. But what what makes you happy.

JB Naudet

34:18

At the end of the day, it's my wife and my children. And you know, they make me happy and seeing them happy, you know, makes me happy to my mission, I want to achieve my potential. So you know, I want to do a good Joe, I want to keep growing as a person, I want to keep growing as my career and all that stuff. But I want them also to achieve their potential and every seat works well with kids, right? You don't want to give them the right values and you push them not too much, etc. But you know, my wife as well and etc. I want my team to be happy. I want my team to you know, to be motivated and things like that, because then you know, it all feels good, right? That's one of my big motivators at work is that social aspect and everything and so I want to grow myself but I want to help others. people grow. And sometimes it means I have maybe more robust discussion, because I'm doing it for them. I'm not. I mean, I'm not I don't enjoy having robust conversation with people. But I feel like if I, if they hear it, then they've got a chance to do something about it. And then to help them get there. But so growing, helping other peoples grow, you know, when I see somebody that was struggling, coach them, and then they're going, fantastic. Korea just makes me so happy. I like achieving things with others, again, team type of thing rather than on my own. So that's what makes me happy. So be I think

Richard Holmes

35:31

just in terms of your story and listening to you today. I think you've I think you've been a great guest. And look, we'll have to we'll have to have you on the podcast again. later date. I'm sure. I'm sure we can organize that. You've been great.