What made the choice all the more odd was that he had no career plan post-PwC. The digital start-uper had spent nearly five years climbing the corporate ranks in Melbourne, but the Australian could not be tempted to stay. Could I have my last pay check, please?
“I prefer to work on the upfront part of strategy, to solve the root causes of issues,” says Michael, with an Adelaide accent and an infectious laugh.
In a smaller Australian market, management consulting firms go after big clients, latching employees onto projects for several months at a time “That just wasn’t my cup of tea,” he says. “I like to do the upfront work, but my skillset is not in the large-scale, change projects.”
Michael, who made his mark as an analyst for a leading technology and software company but is still clinging to his digital roots, shows no sign of wanting to leave Australian shores. Small market it may be, yet MBA graduates love a challenge.
But Silicon Valley this aint. With a CV dotted with tech and small-scale start-ups, and an entrepreneurship and new ventures MBA specialisation to boot, Michael makes for an unlikely careers coach.
For a tech-mad former consultant who holds a b-school degree from one of Asia-Pac’s most revered institutions, Melbourne also makes for an unlikely start-up destination. And he knows it.
“Is at as mature as the US market? No. Its early stages and Australia is trying to find its way,” quips Michael. “Silicon Valley, all these little hubs that have been around for so many years – they hunt for talent. Venture capitalists are waiting to see ideas,” he adds.
But there are benefits to being Down Under, and not just the climate. “It forces Australian start-ups to look and act globally, which is critical going forward.”
Yet the entrepreneur has been Melbourne-based for much of his career. Aside from a four-year stint in Scotland, and some time spent in Bangalore, India and Sydney, there has been little movement.
He argues that in Australia, a big business limitation is that people don’t move around much between states. But over the past five years the start-up scene has been emerging.
We are not there yet, but it hasn’t dented his ambitions, which have seen him jump from the corporate bandwagon and into the virtual unknown.
At Melbourne Business School, he says, entrepreneurs are very much in the minority. So is entrepreneurship lacking at b-schools? “Everyone was focused on big business, so that's definitely a big opportunity I see in the market,” he says.
It’s why he did an exchange at the Kellogg School of Management in Chicago: "I did as many of the entrepreneurship modules as they offered. It was fantastic to get that knowledge.”
But spending a year at the Melbourne was far from unhelpful. “MBS has broadened my perspective, and [helped me] to better work with businesses. It’s given me some of the core foundations needed to run a business.”
He took traditional modules like accounting and put an entrepreneurial spin on them. “I did that with a lot of my subjects. I made sure I could get what I want from a corporate innovation setting,” he adds. “That’s how I’ve tried to get the most out of my MBA.”
Michael launched Howcanwe? in June 2012, alongside his MBA. The boutique advisory firm helps businesses formulate strategy and unlock innovation. The start-up, which was self-funded, has two official employees.
Michael mostly works with SMEs but has had “positive” talks with larger companies. Services range from digital design to employee training.
Like many modern start-upers, digital is a big part of Michael’s offering. But that’s just another buzzterm. “I find people get caught up. It’s not a fad, but it’s the whole idea of ‘digital, digital, digital’. It’s the same as using technology.”
From his Melbourne base, Michael is putting digital strategies in place. For him, it’s all about improving productivity through tech – but the principle has been the same since the desktop computer was first invented, he says.
It comes naturally to him. He got swept up in the tech craze at a young age - including a stint as a web programmer - because back then, he thought it was “cool”.
He is applying his own advice to Howcanwe?, however, and is re-hashing his start-up-strategy. He wants to leverage the “unique” Australian market while still trying to unlock firms’ potential on a bigger scale – although he can’t tell me much more than that.
Until MBS, he was something of a digital-only expert. He worked as a curriculum consultant at Deakin University, identifying a niche of topics within digital literacy. At PwC, he developed a study on the impact of digital disruption for a leading Australian bank.
Before that he set-up his first company, Uiom Group, to “utilize the power of the digital age”. The firm developed web and digital strategies for a bevy of other businesses for about four years. Through his career, Michael has worked with countless companies on the topic of digital innovation.
His current start-up is helping other SMEs grow into the digital age. He still has a passion for all things tech, and has a clear vision for the cyber side of his career.
“For me it’s all about how you use tech to interact and improve productivity. The principle is the same as when the initial desktop computer was invented. And now the question is: how do we use [the same strategy] with tablets or mobile phones?” asks Michael.
“People say they want to be digital but don’t really know what that means. I’m about unlocking potential.”
He may have been trying to ignite the online revolution for years, but Michael isn’t done yet.
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