Managing Director, Investment Banking, Bank of America Merrill Lynch
BCom, LLB (UNSW)

Richard Alcock addressed graduates from the UTS Business School  in the Great Hall, University of Technology, Sydney on Friday 10 May 2013, 10.30am.

Our speaker today is Mr Richard Alcock.

Richard is the current Managing Director of Investment Banking at Merrill Lynch International (Australia) Limited. He holds a number of corporate positions as an Advisor and Non-Executive Director.

Prior to 2007, Richard was a Senior Partner, Head of Governance and Chairman of the Ethics Committee of the law firm Allens Arthur Robinson and was a partner of that firm for 19 years working in Sydney, Jakarta and Singapore.

Richard is also Deputy Chairman of Sydney Children's Hospital Network (Westmead and Randwick), and a Director of Art Exhibitions Australia Limited.

He is a member of the Council of Knox Grammar School, a former Director of Sony Music Entertainment (Australia) Limited and the Australia Indonesia Institute.

It gives me great pleasure to invite Mr Richard Alcock to deliver the occasional address.

Speech

Presiding Vice Chancellor, Faculty Deans, members of the university, distinguished guests, graduates, families and friends. I am honoured to be here to offer a few words of advice, and a few more of encouragement.

As you know, every journey starts with a single step.

The single step you complete today is to graduate with an outstanding education which will keep you in good stead as you enter the workforce. What a great place to be.

You have behind you the UTS brand which is extremely strong. UTS is distinct for its focus on the future, for anticipating emerging themes, and for teaching integrative thinking by applying specialised knowledge in key disciplines and a broader context. Your university is also well known for its engagement with employers and the community ensuring that your education is relevant and current. And of course, UTS is known for securing the spectacular Frank Gehry designed Dr Chau Chak Wing Building.

Professor Roy Green has described the skills UTS has instilled in you as boundary crossing skills. That is a great expression. Think of yourselves as boundary crossing explorers, able to draw on a range of skills to face the obstacles and challenges of commercial life. I have seen these skills in UTS graduates I have employed.

In my role at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, I use boundary crossing skills every day, bringing what I have learnt, particularly in my roles in public health, to the world of investment banking, becoming a better banker as a result. I do not just think about the numbers. My involvement in hospitals, in monitoring surgical waiting lists, and emergency waiting times has allowed me to gain new insights in the funding of public hospitals, to understand better the budgetary challenges and pressures governments face. I also get immense personal satisfaction from working alongside the many dedicated clinicians and health professionals on whom the community relies.

I urge you to seek out opportunities beyond your job, to gain from other experiences, and to develop broader relationships. As I have found, the broader your perspective the more you become capable of learning and solving issues in more creative ways. This is how to put integrative thinking into practice.

So beyond your initial step, how do you apply the UTS brand, and its focus on integrative thinking, to the development of your own personal brand? My advice is simple: no matter how much you read in management text books about the importance of having a personal brand, do not over think how to develop yours. Do not feel you need to embark on a pilgrimage to find it because it will find you in the following ways.

Start with your core personal attributes; these will define you as an employee: hard work and commitment, treating others with respect, being reliable, showing integrity in all that you do, also not being afraid to ask the ‘dumb question’. Be curious and eager to learn.

If you develop a strong sense of self-awareness, your personal brand will develop apace. Identify your strengths early on and how to play to them. Be honest with yourself about your weaknesses. Learn how to work around them, so they do not impede your progress.

Being self aware enables you to learn, and keep learning throughout your career.

People who develop self awareness can embrace feedback fully, however confronting the feedback may first appear. This means seeking feedback, and acting on it.

Many years ago I received feedback that I did not give as much work to female colleagues as I did to male colleagues. I was taken aback by this, actually quite shocked, for I believed it to be inaccurate. However, I took that feedback to heart and have since worked conscientiously to address unconscious bias, by me and my colleagues. Earlier this year I received a Bank of America Global Diversity and Inclusion Award for the promotion of women.

Mentors can help shape a personal brand. I do recommend you actively seek out mentors. I have been fortunate to have had really good mentors. Finding a good mentor, however, may take many years and of course some very successful people never have mentors.

In the absence of a mentor, let me make some suggestions. Look for someone whose approach you can replicate in some way. The person may be a UTS alumnus, a family friend, someone more senior where you work, or even someone you observe through the media. Learn from watching them. Also learn from those who do not do a good job and ask yourself, what makes them ineffective?

In this way, you can have hundred of mentors and hone your personal brand.

Finally, make sure the values of your employer, whether a corporation, a government department or a community organisation are a good match for your personal values. Think about the people you work with as their reputations will affect your personal brand.

As you become comfortable with your personal brand, communicate its essence in all that you do, deliberately and confidently. As your career evolves, so too will your brand – always take responsibility for it, be proud of it and protect it.

When you are ready for your next steps, go global!

I urge you to seek out any opportunities to work overseas, particularly in different cultures. Early career in country experience will position you well for later opportunities where overseas experience is a significant plus - particularly experience in Asia.

As our Prime Minister said in October last year, on the release of the Asian Century White Paper:

It is not enough to rely on luck, our future will be determined by the choices we make and how we engage with the region we live in. We must build on our strengths and take active steps to shape our future.

In the late 80s, I was fortunate to be posted to Jakarta to work for an Indonesian law firm for four years. In the mid 90s, after I had returned to Sydney, I continued to work in South East Asia on a fly in fly out basis. My family and I experienced many different cultures and learnt a great deal.

My experiences working and living in Asia have helped me enormously, now that I work in a global organisation with significant engagement in Asia. It is routine for me to be working on a project with colleagues from several countries in Asia. Over 40% of all mergers and acquisitions in Australia are now ‘cross border’. Investment flows, both equity and debt, are much more regional. In all our lines of business, we have extensive communication with colleagues in Asia including performance evaluation, as part of our peer review. How effectively I engage cross culturally is part of my own performance review.

The Bank of America recently launched a new global marketing campaign which states simply, we’re better when we’re connected. It a simple statement which captures what we as a nation need to do. In this century, the region in which we live will become home to most of the world’s middle class and the world’s largest producers and consumers of goods and services. How will you make the most of the opportunities ahead?

In conclusion let me make a couple of observations about resilience.

Getting your first job, or the job you really want can be tough. You might have to wait for it, or accept something different to what you hoped for. Perhaps your first job will be something less than you hoped for, or your dream job may disappear unexpectedly one day. Think of the many investment bankers who confronted these challenges in the GFC. Chances are your resilience and determination will be tested at some stage in your career.

How resilient and determined you are in the face of adversity will influence your career. Do not worry if your first job, or your next job, is not exactly what you want, or you find yourself between jobs at some stage of your career. Your career will last many decades, and you will have many different roles. Be flexible and take an open minded approach to new opportunities. Be disciplined about self- assessing your career path on a regular basis to avoid becoming stale or getting stuck in a career rut. I loved my career as a lawyer, but at age 49 I walked away from what was a very comfortable and established career to become an investment banker, just before the GFC. Great timing! Seven years later I have never looked back. I relish the change, even with the volatility and uncertainty life as an investment banker brings.

Remember, even the most successful people suffer significant career adversity. Think of J.K. Rowling, unemployed, on welfare, writing away for years in the Edinburgh café, only to be rejected many times before a publisher agreed to publish her first book. Think of John Howard, in 1989, dumped as leader by his own party for six years before winning back the leadership, later to become one of our longest running prime ministers. Think of Steve Jobs, aged 30, fired as CEO of Apple and publicly humiliated, only later to describe his sacking as the best thing that could have ever happened .. freeing him to enter one of the most creative periods of his life.

Everyone of us will face a career setback that slows our progress or causes us to change course. Stay resilient, stay determined, and of course stay in touch with your former colleagues from UTS.

Congratulations on your graduation. You have so much ahead. I am sure you will have great futures.