His CV is impressive. Starting as a cadet at 17, he cut his teeth on the shop floor and quickly rose through the ranks into retail management. McInnes has had stints with Grace Bros, Black and Decker and in senior management with the Coles Myer Group. He was also one of the founders of Officeworks. In 1997 he graduated from Melbourne University with his MBA and was appointed Marketing Director of David Jones in the same year. In 2003, at the age of 37, he became CEO. McInnes also has a keen interest in rugby and is one of the directors of the Sydney Roosters.
Mark attributes his success to eight factors. McInnes considers these values - passion, humility, education, application, concentrating on the job you are in, pragmatism, value creation, timing and luck - to be essential to the success of anyone who wants to take a similar path.
According to McInnes, an important starting point is having passion for what you do. Mark is quite vocal about his passion for retail, which might explain his dedication to his current role. In an interview with journalist Steven Dow[i], he admitted to putting in long hours and countless weekends in the first 12 to 18 months on the job. Even now there are times where a six day week is commonplace. Working such gruelling hours can take its toll and many people burn out. Yet Mark maintains his enthusiasm for the retail business and preaches the merits of working in the industry he loves. However, at a recent address at the ARA Victoria Retail in Style Awards, he stressed that passion is merely the starting point, and there are many other factors necessary to realise your career objectives.
Firstly, if you plan to realise your goals, leave your ego at the door. That's Mark's advice. No matter what your position is in the corporate hierarchy, McInnes says it's important to be humble. Humility is a principle close to his heart, as he has raised the subject a number of times in magazine and newspaper interviews. During his speech at the ARA Victoria Awards, McInnes advised young retailers that they were no smarter, more equipped or necessarily better at their jobs because they had won their awards; nor should they expect wage increases. He emphasised the importance of being self-aware, introspective and self-critical; learning from mistakes; and interacting with everyone regardless of title within the company.
In his opinion, it is important to earn the respect of your peers. Rather than using your position to influence colleagues, McInnes believes it is better to persuade them through discussion. By relating to people at all levels within a company and getting them to believe in you, organisational change is possible. McInnes stressed that the ability to achieve organisational change is paramount to achieving long term career goals.
He also encouraged aspiring retailers to seek advice when in doubt and never to presume they know it all. There is always something to learn and McInnes said that he still gleans his MBA notes or textbooks and consults some of his former lecturers when necessary. He also credited his education with expanding his horizons beyond his immediate experience. McInnes maintains that his MBA from Melbourne University changed the way he thought about applying himself to business. It also enabled him to have discussions with people in fields he'd never had access to. He said that experience alone is simply not enough - the right level of education is vital.
Conversely, Mark believes education on its own is inadequate. In his view, it is important to apply what you have learnt to the job you are doing to build valuable experience. Mark advised young retailers not to get frustrated by upper management who may not see things from their perspective, as the next generation can't possibly implement theories or understand the practicalities of applying their theories without adequate experience.
McInnes places a lot of weight on building experience. In an interview with Ross Honeywill[ii] from the Centre for Customer Strategy in 2005, McInnes emphasised the value of learning the retail business from the ground up and working within it at an operational level. Because retail is an instinctive business, he believes it is crucial to have a feel for maximising your supplier base, space and staff. The only way to understand that is by doing it. Over the course of his career, Mark has worked across the full spectrum of the retail sector including Marketing, Merchandising, Stores, Supply Chain, Logistics, Strategic Planning, Operations and Advertising.
McInnes is also a firm advocate of maximising your experience before taking on a new challenge. In a number of speeches and interviews, he has stressed the importance of remaining focused on the job at hand rather the one desired. Although ambition is good, he argues that it is extremely annoying when people persistently talk about other jobs when they haven't fully maximised their current role. His maxim is, "The job you do today will get you the job you want tomorrow". If you demonstrate your value to a company through what you are doing, you will naturally progress through the ranks because the company will see the benefit of giving you more responsibility.
As more responsibility is handed over, your decisions will begin to have wider ramifications. For this reason, McInnes believes pragmatism is vital. He reasons that as a leader, you have an obligation to consider all of the consequences of your decisions, because your choices affect the wellbeing of your company and the people in it. All people in positions of leadership need to take risks from time to time, but in his opinion, there is a fine line between bravery and stupidity. Regardless of the size of the task, pragmatically assessing the details of implementation could mean the difference between success and failure. He says that you may think you have a great idea, but if you don't know how to or simply cannot implement that idea, then chances are the idea is flawed.
On the other hand, good ideas that can be implemented can create real value and in Mark's view, the real measure of good management is through value creation. By value creation, he means creating sustainable cash and profit for the business. From his perspective, the ability to improve the cash earnings of a business gauges your ability as a manager. Mark uses this gauge when assessing the viability of future leaders within his company.
He adds that putting yourself in a position where people will look at the value you are creating and wonder whether expanding your role will benefit them, will inevitably lead to opportunities for career expansion and a pay rise.
Mark's recent track record illustrates this point quite well. In little over three years, 41 year old McInnes has managed to transform the entire David Jones empire from an ailing liability to cash cow. When he started, the company's market capitalisation was worth less than its net assets. Now it is valued at between $1 billion and $1.2 billion. McInnis's hard work and talent have rewarded him handsomely. Between 2004 and 2005 his pay packet rose to $5.5 million.
McInnes concedes there is an element of timing and luck when it comes to success and this shouldn't be underestimated. He uses the analogy of Olympic Speed Skater, Steven Bradbury.
At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Bradbury was the slowest qualifier in speed skating. Knowing he was the slowest skater in the race, Bradbury had a strategy of remaining at the back of the pack in case some of the pack had a fall. With his strategy in place, Bradbury applied himself to the task at hand, and, with a stroke of luck, all the other contestants fell over. Bradbury, who was at the back of the pack, was the only man standing and he went on to win the race and a gold medal for Australia.
In Mark's case, he believes he wouldn't have been appointed CEO of David Jones had the company not been floundering in 2003. He said it was a stroke of luck and the right timing that gave him the window of opportunity he needed. He also thought that luck and timing may have played a role in the appointment of many other CEOs such as Channel Nine's Eddie McGuire.
Though McInnes has had a few strokes of fortune throughout his career, he has continued to retain his philosophy of humility and has operated from the principle of demonstrating rather than telling. This is probably the core message he imparts to those who want to follow a similar path in the retail industry. McInnes said at the beginning of his address to the ARA that he loves retail and he believes it is a dynamic and fulfilling industry. What is also evident is that retail is an industry that is full of promise and possibilities. Mark McInnes rapid rise to the top is testament to that.
[i] Chief Concerns: Mark McInnes. Steven Dow (2006)
[ii] One of the Lucky Ones. A conversation between Mark McInnis and Ross Honeywill (28/09/05)
