Case Study: Tony Gillies

How do you get your people to keep doing their best work in an industry undergoing rapid change?

This is the ever-present challenge facing Tony Gillies, Editor-in-Chief of national news agency, Australian Associated Press (AAP), and his main motivation for completing the Advanced Management Program. Supplying news to all Australian media outlets, AAP has to perform to tight ‘24/7/365' deadlines, while at the same time pioneering the next frontier of news content and delivery.

Successful performance, he says, hinges on the motivation, skill and agility of his people and their resilience in meeting the new demands of a fast changing media landscape.

His 240-strong division, with teams working across 15 locations, creates and supplies news and images to all traditional broadcast and print media outlets as well as their online brands and digital news services. All up, the agency delivers an estimated 4500 stories, pictures, video and data files to media customers daily, covering real-time news, sport entertainment and business news.

He says the main challenges are to ensure creativity, productivity and operational efficiencies in an industry "under extreme pressure" to reinvent for the future while improving performance for the here and now.

"Technological, social and economic trends which are driving new demands for the news mean that we have to perform faster and more efficiently for our customers while also being more forward thinking," he says.

"For me, the AMP provided a framework for understanding the issues confronting enterprises and anticipating the opportunities that can accompany change," he says. It also provided insights into the tactical skills required to adjust operations and enhance business systems.

Significantly, he says, the program highlights the issues of leading people through any change and assists in developing self awareness as a manager and leader. "I have been managing people for about 20 years but this program helped me deconstruct the people issues critical to our operations and future performance," he says.

"For example, in our industry we do have to be mindful of striking the right balance between the need for maintaining individual creativity with the company's need to achieve continued operational efficiencies.

"The program has made me think more deeply than in the past about ways to keep people motivated and engaged so they can deliver on the company's performance goals."

Delivered in two residential modules, the AMP brings senior executives from all sectors in Australia, Asia and New Zealand together at Melbourne Business School's executive learning facility.

The retreat format is designed to give participants the space to concentrate on the operational and strategic issues confronting their organisations, and the opportunity to review their own role and impact.

Participants also gain practical management insights from their peers during the AMP and in the networks that continue long after the program ends.

"Sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with about 30 professionals from all sectors and exchanging ideas, views and experiences is an invaluable part of the program. I didn't necessarily agree with all the views canvassed, but we all benefited from the debate and discussion," says Mr Gillies.

"Overall it was a great experience. The program highlights common management and leadership challenges faced by all industries and emphasises that leadership applies to all careers and industry sectors."