Using social venture capital to enable innovation and grow the next generation of digital skills right here in Australia, Kickstart Factory’s aims are inspired by truly extraordinary Australians.
On the last day of 2015, the late Roger “Hicko” Hickman steered his yacht Wild Rose to his 39th Sydney to Hobart. Aboard was a truly blended crew of five women and seven men attempting to repeat in 2015, their win of the Tattersall cup in 2014. It was not meant to be, but it would be Roger’s last Sydney to Hobart yacht race.
You’re never going to win a Rolex Sydney to Hobart…not normally just turning up for the day, you’ve got to build and grow and learn as a team, get your boat right, get your team right, get your processes right, it’s just like a business.
Roger Hickman, OAM 1954 – 2016
His death 2 months later had a profound impact on the sailing community, not least those who sailed with him regularly. Hicko was revered for his ability to bring people together, a true sign of leadership.
He’s remembered as one of the most successful helmsman in Australian Ocean Racing, and in 2017 he was posthumously awarded an Order of Australia Medal for service to sailing. His outstanding contributions went well beyond the podium, after the disastrous 1998 race, he headed the CYCA investigation committee.
Out of that he wrote a new curriculum for the Safety and Sea Survival course that has since been adopted worldwide. He was also an accomplished business person bringing his talent to get the best out of people from the oceans to the corporate world. Through Kickstart Factory we plan to ensure that Roger’s legacy will live on forever, not just through the stories of racing legend, but also through the Australian business spirit & skills development supported by our fund. His desire to increase his own knowledge and to develop high performing teams was only matched by zest for life…something we should all take to heart.
We seek out start-ups that are building true innovation in Australia and desire to develop that innovation onshore for commercial success on a global scale. Given our fund is based on continuing Roger’s desire to assist others to achieve their dreams and to ensure Australia retains innovation that starts here to grow here.
Sandy shared his vision for bringing peoples dreams alive, continues on where he left off. Kickstart-Factory was her idea, having helped to build his memorial video. After being part of the many interviews in that video, she realised how many people on the water and in business, who claimed Roger was a turning point in their lives. He had helped so many to change their lives both on and off the water.
Sandy requested and was given the right to donate a perpetual trophy in Rogers name for the Bluewater Championship. This was the championship that Roger loved to win. It accumulates triple points for the Sydney to Hobart and you can still win this trophy even if you don’t win the Sydney to Hobart as it accumulates points over six races. The CYCA board and Sailing committee through the assistance of Noel Cornish gave the approval for the trophy.
Two great Australian glass artisans Kathy and Ben Edols have built the glass trophy of a crashing wave. The whole trophy will rest on a Tasmanian wooden base carved in Tasmanian blackwood by Ron Bugg another highly skilled artisan in wood carvings. The trophy is for the bow person on the yacht that wins the Bluewater Championship.
No yacht would ever leave Sydney Harbour for the ferocious seas in Bass Straight without a fearless bow person, the most taxing position on a yacht and they rarely get recognition. Now they will have their name attached to this race though the perpetual trophy.
Les Hayman, 1946 - 2017
The former SAP Board member and head of HR – a true leader who earned the respect of many colleagues worldwide – died at the age of 71.
Les was a coach, mentor and a friend to many across the globe. Les’s journey with SAP started as Managing Director in Australia and New Zealand in the early 1990’s and then later as SAP APJ President. He then moved to Europe to take the position of Chairman of SAP EMEA and onto his final role where he served as the Ambassador in the Office of the Chief Executive Officer of SAP AG following his retirement from his role as a valued board member.
It was his strong belief that the primary role of a manager is to make people become incredibly successful. This, combined with his passion for people topics, made him take on the challenging role of Global Head of Human Resources for SAP.
As part of his passion for people, Les acted as a mentor, grooming several leaders at SAP and many outside SAP. He believed in youth and entrepreneurs, I was lucky to be one of those entrepreneurs that Les believed in. I took a deeply complex question to Tom James and Les Hayman; both on my advisory board. Tom and I thought up ten or twelve possible scenarios and Les joined the call and in just one statement, the complex situation had been sorted. Tom laughed and said the wise one has spoken.
Life with Les, was always that way, he cut through problems and got to the point in minutes. He was always there to encourage and he shared his other protégés success with you as he was so proud of each and every one of us.
He had a great story he would tell “In the Olympics, the best you can get for a sport where the decision would be made by judges, was 94%. They reserve 2% for never having been seen before, 2% for delivery and 2% for risk. Based on that theory, you can be the best at whatever you do, but that is not good enough, you need to take risks to deliver better and faster and you have to be first to market if you are small.
He would have loved his first team he is patron for, as they get up every day and love what they are doing, Sheryl only met Les through his videoed interviews and it hit her “How can people go through life, not loving what they do at work”. That means you are only enjoying 30% of your life.
Even after he left SAP, we continued to learn from Les via his blog. Weekly, he wrote on leadership and people topics, offering a wealth of knowledge for anyone curious to learn about how to be a good leader, great father and husband and a valued friend.
This blog is a great read and it will take you many months to read and absorb it all.
Les was my mentor and if you think about it, we knew one another since 1996, some of his ideas became my rules for living my life.
I asked Victoria if she could help write this section and she said she was not brave enough. I did not understand her answer until I started to read his blog and the many thoughts from people over the last thirty years after they had heard of his death. There was too much for me to condense into one page.
It was at that time I decided that the only way forward was to turn to the master and let people read his blog to gain a better insight and to use his interviews here to share with you why Les is one of legends to continue with helping youth and entrepreneurs through Kickstart-Factory.
Les stated that in a company there is a way to measure how they will drive innovation. If they keep punishing people for failing, people stop trying so hard and they stop trying new things. If you have a culture where you stop people trying new things and allowing them to make mistakes, then you kill innovation.
One of the things Les found fascinating was that for the first time ever, there are four generations are in play in the business world. The baby boomers are people born just after the war, Les and myself fall into that category, then there are the generation X’s, ones who were born 65 to 85. In the 80’s we had a couple of recessions, so the generation that followed the baby boomers were just a little more conservative. But those are the people who represent 70% to 80% of the current workforce.
The Gen Y’s are coming in and they have a totally different view of work and life and soon we will start to see the Millennials coming into the workforce.
These four generations are totally different. When the baby boomers went to work, they were told what to do and how to do it. Gen X’s were told what to do and they were given opportunity to decide how they would do it, and yet the Gen X’s are quite conservative and now having to manage Gen Y people who want to know “Why should they do it”, “Where does it fit in”, “why is it important” and “how long should they focus on it”. Gen Y people are not committed to a company, they are committed to a profession or a role. They want to work like mad for two years doing something exciting and challenging, then they want to take six months off and go and climb Mount Everest or sail round the world before they come back and do something else that is really interesting.
The problem is to be able to manage all of these changing expectations. Technology is the only thing that gives you that base of capability of being able to manage different expectations; different ways at looking at work. Technology lets you take away all of the dross; all of the record keeping; all of the statutory and legal requirements and only technology can do that.
Les also believed that people are the only sustainable competitive advantage. Products by themselves can be replicated overnight. People; having people who are committed, who know what they are doing; who are driven and self-motivated and excited about being with the company; that cannot be replicated easily by a competitor. But you do need people who want to be there, they are people who get up on a cold wet Monday morning at 6:00 o’clock and say “Wow thank God the weekend is over; and I can go back to work”. People who work for five days so they can live for two on the weekend that means that 70% of their life is meaningless. Being able to weld those two together where people see work; meaningful work; where they can contribute; where they can be challenged; where they can learn; where they work with great people; where they feel they can do something worthwhile. If you can develop that in your people you have a competitive advantage.
I felt I should give a tribute to the love of Les’s life, the woman who went without in the early days so that the man she cherished, could be given every opportunity to succeed.
Les and Victoria started their lives separately but both were born in New Zealand, with some stints in Australia, the US, Singapore and Bordeaux in France finally settling in Bristol UK; they truly could call themselves citizens of the world.
The love of his life and muse; Victoria agreed to this gypsy life but it was a life where Les’s working world was always in powerful positions and required him to move from country to country to be able to take up the posts.
One common thread has run through their lives and that is no matter how busy they were they have always had time for others, no matter what their station in life.
It was their children who described them as heading up a disfunctional family; as it was the parents who ran away from home.
Victoria has agreed to continue her supportive role and she will now work with us, to choose the projects that deserve the funding and energy that Les would have given them.
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