Leader of Leaders Interview - Maxine Horne

Maxine Horne is the co-founder and CEO of Vita Group, one of Australia's leading consultative sales organisations. In 1995, she established Fone Zone, one of Australia's first mobile phone stores and has gone on to lead Vita as a publicly listed company. In 2016, Maxine’s success story was featured in the book, ‘Think Smart, Run Hard’, by Australian journalist Madonna King, which tells her journey from Britain’s working-class neighbourhoods to Australia’s largest corporate boardrooms. With many life and business lessons learnt along the way, Maxine shares some of her insights with us in this interview.

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1. What do you love best about what you do?

The people. I started the business back in 1995 and I soon learnt that people leave their manager rather than the company. I believe that if you can build a company that focuses on its people, and looks after them, you will ultimately be successful in business.

I personally get a buzz from people growing and moving on because of that growth. I am very proud if I have had a positive impact on someone’s life. To be a good leader, you must be a good person, and that’s what I try to be. I’m aware of the positive impact my mentor (Tricia Mittens) has had on my life (both personally as well as professionally) and I know if it wasn’t for her, I would not be where I am today. The impact that we, as leaders, have on each other can be profound.

2. What’s your purpose - your WHY?

In some ways, my ‘why’ has changed over the years but it has always related to people. When I came to Australia, I saw something I could build. I’d always worked in startup businesses – I like to build businesses, and I think I’ve proved that you can build a great business by focusing on your people. I want to leave a legacy. I want to look back, smile and say “I had something to do with that” and “In some small way, I’ve helped others achieve their potential”. I believe in harnessing the passion of people. So, my ‘why’ is all connected with enabling people to improve themselves and reach their goals, whatever they may be. By doing that, the company they work in also grows.

3. How would you describe your Leadership Style?

My leadership style has evolved over the years. I still see everything as black or white–, I struggle with grey, but over the years I’ve learnt to deal with grey and compromise a lot more than I used to. Having said that I can still be very blunt! I am quite forthright so you will always know where you stand. I guess I take the view that people don’t wake up and go to work to intentionally do a bad job. There’s a reason they are not performing as you want them to and generally it’s because they have a poor leader or poor systems or processes to deal with. My job as a person’s leader - first and foremost - is to set clear expectations and to let them know if they are not meeting expectations. It’s important to do this in a constructive way: I will talk to the person honestly, but also with empathy, with the aim of understanding why this team member isn’t performing as they should. Is it skill, will, systems or processes? Or indeed is their leader not coaching or guiding them?  

I have a saying that ‘You condone what you walk past’. I will have the conversation with people that others might hesitate over. I will go to stores and if they are not clean, I will pick up a rag and clean, and talk to the team about how important it is that our stores are clean. I am encouraging, I like to challenge and inspire people to be better. You need to know how you lead yourself.

As the company becomes larger, we need to hold onto the core values of the business and look after each other like a family. I don’t micro-manage, and I think that’s the key. My philosophy is, ‘Give your people purpose; develop them into masters; and then provide them with the autonomy to get on with the job’. If they get off track, then it is important to get them back on track, but otherwise, let them do what they are good at.

4. What does Leadership mean to you?

For me it’s about inspiring others to be great. Leadership is a very selfless role and leaders should be getting a buzz out of how successful their team members are. Leadership is about ‘we’ as opposed to ‘I’, and it’s about achieving greatness through others. 

5. Why does Leadership matter?

It’s simple - you don’t achieve your goals without your people and good leadership enables you to get the best out of your people. Leadership is key – it’s about building high-performing teams and shaping the way that teams work together.

6. Key achievements and successes - any come to mind?

The first thing that comes to mind is turning a small business into a publicly listed company. 

There are movements that really matter to me. Like moving from the Fone Zone brand into running Telstra stores. Over a period of three and a half years, we were able to execute our strategy and transform the business.

 I also think of the closure of the Next Byte business. It came to a point in time when we knew we could not compete with the Apple stores. At the time, we had 260 employees in this channel and we needed to think about the people and their redundancies, which was all happening around Christmas time. We were upfront and transparent, and we told them what was happening prior to Christmas, because I felt that they had a right to know the facts and it was important to us that they didn’t over-commit themselves financially during this time. It was a proud moment for me when everyone voluntarily stayed and worked through Christmas despite knowing what was coming. We managed to redeploy over half of these people to other roles within Vita, and worked with the others to ensure that they had the best possible outcomes with future employment elsewhere.

I believe in the law of reciprocity: you have to give if you want to receive. All businesses go through ups and downs and it is how you handle the downs that determine your future. 

7. Who has made a difference in your career?

I honestly believe that every person has at least five mentors (personal or professional) in their life. I name Tricia Mittens as one. She was my leader at Mercury Communications in the UK as the National Sales Manager. Her predecessor had placed a black cross against my name (meaning I should be let go) but she chose to ignore this and make up her own mind about me instead. She saw something in me that no one else saw (not even myself at the time). She took me under her wing, gave me a sense of purpose, supported me to develop mastery and then gave me enough autonomy to demonstrate the skills I had learnt. She has had a tremendous influence on me.

Vita Group’s chairman, Dick Simpson, has also been very instrumental in showing me a different way to operate. He advises and supports me. He is a huge advocate of mine but at the same time he will pull me up if he thinks I’m out of order - he won’t let me get away with anything, and as was Tricia, he has been an amazing influence.

8. What are your strengths and unique talents?

I am smart and I learn quickly. I have an exceptional EQ (emotional quotient) - and I can quickly get to the heart of people. I am very intuitive. I am also good at ‘painting the picture’ of the future for the people around me. I am also collaborative and I love to brainstorm with my team.

I have the ability to think very big picture but I can also dive deep down into the detail. I have confidence in myself and my people. I am good at letting people own their decisions and their accountability – not micro-managing. I’m passionate about what I do. Oh, and I am also a very talented shoe shopper.

9. What does the future hold for you?

Career: I am very set on proving that Vita Group is not a one-hit wonder and that we are more than a mobile phone retailer. There is a lot of room for growth yet, and for taking our core competencies into other categories. One example is our recent expansion into the male athleisure market by launching our own brand, SQDAthletica. We saw a gap in the market and we’ve leveraged it by creating a brand that’s all about inspiring men to be ‘fit for life’. 

My goal is to make the Vita Group business worth $1billion.

Personal: I am a corporate ambassador for Act for Kids and I’m very passionate about it. I’m very proactive about future generations, their education and their mental health – i.e. our children’s mental health.

We’ve recently launched the Vita Foundation, which is the philanthropic arm of Vita Group aimed at inspiring our people to support a wide range of charities, profit-for-purpose organisations, and community organisations. We do this through payroll giving, peer-to-peer fundraising, and volunteering. Act for Kids is our hero charity and to date, we have donated more than half a million dollars to charities, including $360,000 to Act for Kids.

10. Key Learning in your Career

Read my book! My key business learning is that the collective effort and wisdom of the team is better than the individual. I started my business when I had a baby and thought I could do it all. I soon learnt that I needed to surround myself with people who can help, with people who were better than me! I learnt that you must have faith in your people.

I also learnt the value of controlling my emotions, which at time was (and if I’m honest still is) difficult.

11. What would you say to your younger self?

 That fire in your belly is a really good thing. Never lose it, but please learn to control it. 

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