Remember 'Total Quality Management'? It's helped Alison Monroe become a CEO - Women's Agenda

Remember ‘Total Quality Management’? It’s helped Alison Monroe become a CEO

Alison Monroe became an expert in management by teaching it. At 23, she toured the United States training more than 1000 Marriott employees in the art of ‘Total Quality Management’.

Needless to say, she quickly overcame any fears of public speaking and learnt a lot about the management system that was big in the 1990s and centres on continually improving product and service delivery. “I had to have the confidence to stand up in front of large room of people. I had to get over any hesitation, any fears, and just get out there,” she tells Women’s Agenda. “It was a good lesson in stretching yourself, something I always advise people do.” 

Monroe, who grew up and studied in the UK, accepted the training position while on a gap year. Originally planning a career in hospitality, the experience became the turning point that saw her realise the potential in people – should those people be given the opportunity.

Now CEO of Sageco, an organisation offering change management and transitional services, Monroe speaks publicly and passionately about supporting the ageing workforce.

Last year, she was named the 2014 Agenda Setter at the NAB Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards, acknowledged for the work she’s achieved in helping to remove barriers to employment participation for older workers.

She gained considerable experience offering transition services after work with a global management firm helping staff move on after the Sydney Olympics. When  2500 were left out of a job following the closing ceremony, Monroe helped establish the processes and procedures that would assist them in finding new opportunities.  

In 2004, she co-founded Sageco, believing the ‘one size fits all’ approach to transition services wasn’t meeting the diverse needs of the workforce. “We have 57 year olds being made redundant and we have 27 year olds being made redundant. The 57 year old is obviously in a very different place and needing a very different level of support,” she says. “I was passionate about trying to rectify that, to fulfill that gap and help organisations realise they need to respond to the aging workforce and bring in a new perspective.

Sageco was acquired in 2013, seeing Monroe take on a general manager position in its new parent company before later being appointed CEO. Since then, she led a major strategy integrating three business into one, and rebranding the combined entity back to Sageco. She manages around 70 people and says she offers a unique leadership perspective – having been an entrepreneur, the employee of major corporates and now a CEO.

“The challenges is around how you maintain that entrepreneurial spirit – especially with a board, shareholders and leading a major team,” she says. “But you can still have that passion. I would love for every team member to feel they are an owner. That’s where you get passionate people – create the flexible work environment and ensure every person is working how they want to work.”

Monroe says her interest in diversity particularly across different age groups started with that early experience in the United States. She was delivering the training to a diverse range of groups, everyone from hotel managers to hotel cleaners. I had to be able to adapt and mirror to my audience, that instilled in me a passion for diversity and that diverse groups bring such rich experiences into the room.

Now, she looks for diversity in her own team acknowledging people have different ways of working, a wide range of ambitions, and perform best with personalised employment contracts.

As for becoming an expert in Total Quality Management she likes to recount the experience so much that one of her own managers has to tell her enough. It was twenty years ago, but Im still carrying that experience, she say. Its little things, like answering the phone in three rings, the way you greet a client at the door. Its the stuff that when youve worked in hospitality, just becomes a bit of your DNA.

The short facts on Alison Monroes story

Born. South Hampton, UK.

Raised. South Hampton, Uk. My father was an executive with IBM so we also spent some time in the US.

What and who do you lead? CEO of Sageco, now managing around 70 people across the country.

Qualifications. BSc (Hons), Hotel Management and Business, Oxford Brookes University

High school ambition. To become a policewoman. I ended up doing a business degree with hotel management. I liked the world of hotels.

How do you stay informed? I get things from a variety of places. I read Women’s Agenda, I like that it’s short sharp and to the point. I read a lot of company director materials and HR publications. I like Collective Magazine, especially for my entrepreneurial appetite.  

An average day in the life… involves trying to balance the needs of my 12-year-old daughter with being a single working mum. I always make sure she is and feels like the most important thing. At work I’m meeting client and staff needs but what I’ve learnt from my Sageco journey is that I also need to look after my own needs.

How do you manage your wellbeing? I like to run on the beach, catch up with friends for a drink, and have a massage once a month. I have learnt that being sacrificial (when it comes to wellbeing) does not help anyone! As somebody has previously told me, even if it’s doing one small thing for yourself every day, it’ll help.

Advice to your 18-year-old self. Take risks, even when opportunities feel like they are out of your depth. Grasp those opportunities, the steepest learning curves are always the best. You don’t have to have all the answers, you just need to know who does. Also, keep up those relationships with informal mentors! Find those relationships, people are generous. They want to help and support.

×

Stay Smart! Get Savvy!

Get Women’s Agenda in your inbox