Fireside Chat: What fuels Lawrence Corbett’s life in and outside work

We took a little road trip with our Chief Operating Officer, Lawrence Corbett, to get to know him? better - exploring how stepping behind the wheel to steer through many different career paths has led him to his role as COO, what he does in his role and what revs him outside work.

AS: What do you do as COO?

LC: I wear many hats.

Firstly, I would like to think that I work as a coach and guardian as I spend? a lot of time with the founders observing how the company ticks, advising on how we can scale as a business and how we can function effectively as a leadership team.

I work closely with Chee Kiong, our head of Finance collaborating? on company planning, as well as the Operations team leading a new project to refine our key priorities, goals and objectives.

Finally, I’m also working with the People and Culture team, especially the Talent Acquisition team, to recruit the best talent to beef up the business, which is critical to our long term success as an organisation.

As COO, it’s important to? know about the people that fuel the business.?

AS: Sounds like you wear many hats. What happens in a day for you?

LC: My calendar has a variety of projects.

Every day presents new challenges and opportunities and I find that I have to switch topics a lot. For example, I spend time on business planning, sponsoring projects, coordinating the leadership team, supporting our relationship with KDDI in Japan, not to mention supporting our M&A team. More recently I have spent a lot of time working with our P&C leaders to structure plans, to progress several important projects and to make sure we are supporting the business as best as possible.

AS: I feel like we could all learn a lot from your career journey. How did you plan for your career growth and can you please share some of your highlights so far and tips for colleagues on career planning and progression?

LC:?I pursued my love of learning and tend to now read lots of books at the same time, which was an excellent development for me, especially when I was thinking about how to improve different skills.?

I completed an MBA some years ago while I was working, which I recommend people to do but it’s hard work on top of a full-time job. While it was challenging, it reminded me that a lot of the problems that we face at work are problems others have encountered.

All you need to do is a bit of research by looking for people (academic or otherwise) who have faced the same dilemmas or opportunities - you’ll find that there are lots of ideas out there. I would encourage anyone facing a particular problem to see who else is facing it and try to benefit from their experience.

I started out my career in finance for a startup company wherein the telecoms business was deregulating. I always had so much interest in taking on more responsibility which led me to becoming the finance controller.? This stint built my skills in building businesses, managing teams, raising finance and working with shareholders, which led me to my first leadership role as a joint CEO for an internet service provider business.

Eventually, I moved to Virgin where I spent a chunk of my career developing skills and leadership in strategy, operations and marketing roles. I had a lot of mentors that helped me grow, gave me a lot of opportunities I wouldn’t have otherwise - such as travelling the world to see how businesses are built in different cultures.?

This experience shaped my views and passion for developing strong organisational cultures and what good businesses look like, as well as the importance of brand and customer promise.

At one point I was working for Virgin's non-profit arm, Virgin Unite. There are a few notable moments. One of them was setting up an NGO called? ‘The Elders’ (www.theelders.org) , which involved public figures, such as Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu and President Carter.

In this project, I was highly involved in helping to set up and incubate the project so that it could operate on its own. At one point, before the Nelson Mandela Museum opened, I was able to go through all his artefacts, including items from his cell while in prison. It was amazing.

Later in my career, I worked as an investor within the Virgin business where we set-up mobile and telco companies around the world. One of the highlights was a satellite investment and getting to sit in a room with a bunch of rocket scientists who worked for NASA. While it was intimidating, I thought of the impact that this project had in making connectivity accessible to those who had no access to it.

That said, there were moments in my career where I worked as a jack of all trades -?knowing about finance, investments and how to start up businesses and going through growth of businesses and a little bit of HR.

The role of a COO varies in different companies and is mostly undefined but my role as COO in Circles.Life has allowed me to dip into other roles that I have done in the past whether it’s launching things or acquiring a company.??

AS: I see you like planning - do you plan how to enjoy or time? Who is Lawrence beyond work?

LC: ?I know that there are some images of cars there but I should start in the right order so I would say, family. ?I have a wife, two kids and a dog, Coco, who moved with me to Singapore. I would describe myself as family-oriented and I have a lot of empathy for people when there are times they need to put family before work.

I’m also a petrol-head and I haven’t quite moved into the electric era. As you can see, I have two cars - one is a Daimler Dart (SP250) from 1963 and the other is a Jaguar XJS from the 1980s. I love old cars, sports cars in particular, and motorbikes.

I love soccer. Liverpool is my team. I’m a crazy football fan and used to play a lot of it when I was younger.

Lastly, I sail. I used to do a lot of sailing and I hope to do some sailing in Singapore.?

Through Lawrence’s lens, we’ve learned that career growth is not always about following a prescribed path in a specific field. Rather, it’s about having the hunger to learn and designing a role that encompasses the variety of lessons each experience offers in and outside of your work.???

Ready to design your career journey with us? We’re looking for individuals who are open to possibilities to learn and grow. Come join us: https://www.circles.life/sg/job-board/