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A MAGAZINE FOR BUSINESS AND ALUMNI
review
CURTIN BUSINESS SCHOOL
CURTIN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY WESTERN AUSTRALIA
JUNE 2008
Regional leadership
Enabling social change across Asia Pacific
Truly international
Taking Curtin Business School to the next level
Valuing the workplace
Retaining staff without the dollars

PROFESSOR DUNCAN BENTLEY
EDITORIAL
Local efforts, global effects
When I arrived to take up my position
at CBS as Pro Vice-Chancellor earlier
this year, I knew I was joining many talented
people who are involved in a range of
projects, across Australia and around
the world.
In this issue, you can read about the ten
million dollar AusAID leadership project,
led by Janet Sutherland. This project is a
milestone for CBS and Curtin – its largest
government contract was won in open tender
in competition with the cream of Australia’s
business schools. Winning our first
nation-wide executive education project
confirms our front-runner status in leadership
training. It demonstrates the seamless
collaboration across CBS (between GSB,
Executive Education and Consultancy),
across Curtin (the Centre for International
Health and the International Office) and with
third parties (Australian Experiential Learning
Centre and TeamWorks) – an essential
attribute as CBS takes its place in the front
rank of the region’s innovative business
schools. Winning and successfully executing
this project is a tribute to many talented and
committed people across the university.
Another example of CBS working at the
global level is a story about alumni member
Trevor Goddard, now working at Curtin’s
School of Occupational Therapy. Trevor
coordinates a program placing Curtin health
care students in positions within less
developed countries such as Africa, Ukraine,
and China.
A story highlighting the practical outcomes
of our work is that of Tony Travaglione from
the School of Management, helping drive
an innovative ARC project involving one the
State’s biggest agencies, Main Roads WA.
Tony and the Main Roads leadership team
have successfully introduced a values based
management initiative, helping staff re-think
the way they approach their work.
Finally, I would like to say how delighted
I am to join the CBS team. I believe the
quality of our people and the excellent
reputation of CBS form a solid foundation for
us to take the school to the next level within
the region and indeed – as these stories
show – to all corners of the globe.
Professor Duncan Bentley
Pro Vice-Chancellor
Curtin Business School
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inreview
JUNE 2008
cover story
4 Regional leadership
Enabling social change across the Asia Pacific
features
6 Valuing the workplace
Adopting the right corporate values
8 Truly international
The next level for Curtin Business School
10 The business of inclusion
Encouraging greater participation in society
regulars
2 Editorial
Pro Vice-Chancellor Duncan Bentley
3 Business brief
9 Class notes – profiling successful Curtin alumni
Corporate and compassionate – how professional and personal
development go hand-in-hand
11 Business perspective by Dr Martin Brueckner
Going green? Ignorance is not always bliss
business.curtin.edu.au
Curtin’s AusAID Leadership
success is attributed to
collaboration between
staff across CBS and the
University. Read more
on page 5.
AN INTEGRAL TRIO WHO WORKED TIRELESSLY
ON THE TENDER ARE (PICTURED L TO R)
MARGARET McCABE (DIRECTOR OF EXECUTIVE
DEVELOPMENT, GSB), HELEN VERHOEFF (MANAGER
OF CONSULTANCY COORDINATION UNIT, CBS),
JANET SUTHERLAND (PROGRAM MANAGER,
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM).
CURTIN BUSINESS SCHOOL REVIEW WELCOMES YOUR COMMENTS AND CONTRIBUTIONS.
CONTACT ANGELA GIRARDI, DEVELOPMENT AND MARKETING, CURTIN BUSINESS SCHOOL,
CURTIN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, GPO BOX U1987 PERTH WA 6845.
TELEPHONE: +61 8 9266 4129 EMAIL: a.girardi@curtin.edu.au
COVER AND CONTENTS PHOTOGRAPHY ADRIAN LAMBERT ACORN PHOTO AGENCY

Leading lecturers online
Leading academics from
around the world are now able
to deliver lectures to Curtin
Business School students from
their home country, thanks to
Voice Over Internet Protocol
(VOIP) technology.
Recently, third year
management students sat in
their lecture room in Perth and
listened intently as guest lecturer,
Professor Jörn Mundt, presented
a lecture on European tourism
policy from Germany.
Professor Mundt, sitting
behind his computer at the
University of Cooperative
Education in Ravensburg, could
see the students as he was
talking to them and the Curtin
students, in turn, were able to
ask him questions.
School of Management
lecturer, Dr Christof Pforr,
recently introduced this unique
way of inviting guests into the
classroom using the familiar
VOIP product, Skype.
“Through Skype, the lecture
business brief
CURTIN BUSINESS SCHOOL PARTNERS WITH THE OAKTREE FOUNDATION
TO END CHILD SLAVERY AND POVERTY OVERSEAS
is delivered over the Internet
using video-conference facilities.
A voice link and web cam image
are relayed from a computer
in the Perth classroom to a
computer where the guest
speaker is located.
“This technology opens up
new and exciting ways to
deliver up-to-date information;
we definitely intend to invite
more leading academics from
around the world to speak to
our students.”
For more information call
Dr Christof Pforr, Senior Lecturer
in Tourism Management on
+61 8 9266 7743 or email
C.Pforr@curtin.edu.au
Students join poverty fight
Curtin Business School’s new
partnership with Australia’s first
entirely youth-run aid organisation,
the Oaktree Foundation,
will provide opportunities for
students to apply their skills in a
social context.
Oaktree’s mission is to
empower developing communities
through education. Over the past
four years it has raised more than
$1 million for development
projects and provided educational
opportunities for young people in
South Africa, Ghana, East Timor,
Papua New Guinea, India and
the Philippines. As well as its
fundraising activities, it mobilises
volunteers to work on various
projects and runs campaigns to
increase public awareness of
poverty issues.
CBS students will be able to
volunteer their skills in areas
such as marketing, public
relations, design, legal and
finance or as young entrepreneurs
committed to developing
Oaktree’s corporate strategy.
CBS Pro Vice-Chancellor,
Professor Duncan Bentley, said
that the partnership supported
Curtin’s commitment to enhancing
the student experience through
first-hand opportunities.
“This partnership will provide
Curtin students with the
opportunity to further develop their
business skills and will give them
a greater sense of purpose
outside their academic studies,”
he said. “It will assist CBS in
developing the next generation
of forward-thinking leaders and
entrepreneurs. Capturing the
students’ attention in this area is
a strong investment in the future.”
More information on The
Oaktree Foundation is available at
www.theoaktree.org
Training boost for ICT industry
A new agreement between
Curtin and the Australian
Computer Society (ACS) will help
meet the increasing demand for
highly skilled professionals in the
information and communications
technology (ICT) industry.
The Articulation Agreement
enables ACS students who have
completed its Computer
Professional Education program
to transfer to Curtin’s School of
Information Systems to attain an
internationally-recognised masters
or postgraduate degree by gaining
credit for the subjects they have
already completed through
the ACS.
“The ACS and the School
of Information Systems both
work towards the same goals:
the education and professional
development of ICT professionals
and, more broadly, the
development of the ICT industry
in Australia,” explains Head of the
School of Information Systems,
Dr Vanessa Chang.
“ACS membership requires
high qualification and experience
standards. This agreement
therefore ensures students of
exceptional ability, which is crucial,
as it allows the School of
Information Systems to continue
delivering degree programs at a
very high level.
“This will go a long way towards
further developing the ICT industry
in Western Australia.”
For more information email
Peter Dell: P.Dell@curtin.edu.au
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WRITTEN BY TONY MALKOVIC
COVER STORY
Regional leadership
Would-be leaders from countries across
the Asia-Pacific region gathered in
Canberra recently to undertake the first
stage of their Curtin-run Leadership
Development Program.
The 130 high-achieving participants –
all recipients of AusAID Australian Leadership
Awards Scholarships – are being supported
by the Federal Government to undertake
postgraduate study in Australia with the
view to increasing their capacity to influence
social and economic reform in the region. The
Leadership Development Program, offered
as part of the scholarship, complements their
academic studies with the opportunity to
realise their full leadership potential.
Curtin recently competed against 26
other Australian universities to win the
$10 million, four-year contract to run the
leadership program.
According to program manager Janet
Sutherland from Curtin’s Graduate School of
Business (GSB), the scholars have already
proved they have the ability to make a
difference; the leadership program is
designed to hone their existing leadership
skills and enhance their understanding of
the challenges they face at national, regional
and global levels.
“The program aims to develop these
individuals to be more effective leaders and to
create a network across countries and across
the region that links very strongly to Australia,”
she explains.
“It consists of four parts: the introductory
conference in Canberra; a residential
workshop; and two optional modules focusing
on leadership coaching and an internship
in Australia.
“The internship program can be with
government, business, not-for-profit or
academia. They can either go in and be an
observer and ‘shadow’ a key leader in an
organisation for a minimum period of one
week, or work in an organisation on a
discrete research project. And a third option
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CURTIN AND CBS IS HELPING AUSTRALIA FORGE STRONGER TIES WITH
THE NEXT GENERATION OF LEADERS IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION.
is to be embedded in an organisation as
an employee.”
The scholarship recipients travelled from
25 different countries across the Asia-Pacific
region to meet at the introductory Canberra
conference, from Iraq and Afghanistan in the
west right across to Papua New Guinea in
the east. Disciplinary interests were also quite
diverse, with participants including a
paediatrician from Indonesia examining the
effects of malaria on pregnant women;
another Indonesian woman examining
sustainability issues for coastal communities;
and a doctor from Bhutan investigating the
effects of that country’s world-first national
ban on the sale of cigarettes.
“Not only had they come from afar, some
had put in a mighty big effort just to get
there,” adds Sutherland. “For instance, one
attendee came from the tiny Pacific territory
the lead role in this program,” she recalls.
Sutherland and her colleague Sasi
Paiboonparadorn, who completed a Master
of Business Administration at the GSB as an
international student, work full-time on the
leadership program, and are supported by
academic staff within the Master of
Leadership and Management course.
“We also work in partnership two other
organisations that we have longstanding
relationships with – Teamworks Development
Australia and the Australian Experiential
Learning Centre – and they are really experts
in experiential learning,” explains Sutherland.
She says the AusAID tender attracted very
keen competition.
“Of the 27 universities that were asked to
tender, there was a shortlist of five that were
asked to present in Canberra, and they were
really big guns,” she says.
Curtin and AusAID will learn as much from the scholars as they will learn from us.
of Tokelau, which consists of three coral
atolls totalling 10 square kilometres with a
population of only 1,400.
“In order to get to Australia to take up the
scholarship, she had to catch a boat from
Tokelau to Samoa which only goes every two
weeks – there is no plane from her island.”
Sutherland’s background has its own
international flavour. Originally from South
Africa, she was a teacher and then became
a journalist in Zululand in the lead-up to
1994’s watershed election, the first free
election held after the end of apartheid.
When she moved to Western Australia,
she became involved in the not-for-profit
sector, and studied the Master of Leadership
and Management course at the GSB. Her
masters project took her to the mountains of
Colombia, where she was working with an
organisation that undertakes cross-cultural
exchange programs in some 60 countries.
“At the time, I was the Australian board
member with this organisation and we were
in Colombia discussing the future of the
organisation when I got an email asking
whether I’d be interested in taking on
“They included the Australian Graduate
School of Management, Melbourne Business
School, Monash University, and a consortium
of the University of Western Australia and the
Australian Institute of Management, so we
were in good company.
“However, I think having an established
Master of Leadership and Management
course gave Curtin the edge. In essence, we
were tendering on what is our core business.”
Sutherland is particularly excited by
the opportunities the program offers for
two-way exchange.
“For me, really, it’s the scholars that breathe
life into the program, and I think Curtin and
AusAID will learn as much from the scholars
as they will learn from us. Much of what we
teach is from the Western perspective and
our challenge is finding a leadership style or
practice that is quintessentially Asian-Pacific.”
Contact: Janet Sutherland
Email: Janet.Sutherland@gsb.curtin.edu.au
ADRIAN LAMBERT
L TO R: SASI PAIBOONPARADORN (PROGRAM COORDINATOR, LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM), PROFESSOR
DUNCAN BENTLEY (PRO VICE-CHANCELLOR, CURTIN BUSINESS SCHOOL), FAHMIDA TALEB (AUSTRALIAN
LEADERSHIP AWARDS SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENT), JANET SUTHERLAND, (PROGRAM MANAGER, LEADERSHIP
DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM), PROFESSOR ROB EVANS (DIRECTOR, GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS)
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WRITTEN BY TONY MALKOVIC
FEATURE
Valuing the workplace
COMPANIES STRUGGLING TO RECRUIT AND RETAIN STAFF DURING THE CURRENT SKILLS SHORTAGE
DON’T NECESSARILY NEED FISTFULS OF DOLLARS TO TEMPT WORKERS: FINDING AND ADOPTING
THE RIGHT CORPORATE VALUES CAN BE WHAT MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE.
Professor Tony Travaglione likes explaining
how the introduction of corporate values
needs to be backed by senior management
by citing what happened to giant computer
company IBM.
About five years ago, IBM was in the
doldrums and its CEO decided to realign the
company’s direction by asking its workers to
determine the values it should operate by.
So, in a 72-hour online forum, he invited them
to tell him what they thought the company
should stand for.
“That’s a very extensive exercise when you
have hundreds of thousands of employees
worldwide,” explains Travaglione, who is head
of Curtin’s School of Management and a
member of the University’s Leadership and
Management Development Reference Group.
“But IBM’s CEO, Sam Palmisano, was
generally available to take emails from anyone
around the world – people say that’s crazy,
but it happened.”
In the end, there were some 22,000
responses, which the company distilled into
three main values – dedication, innovation,
and trust and personal responsibility –
and IBM became a textbook case study for
values-driven leadership.
It’s about aligning the values of the employee, the organisation and the values of senior leadership.
Travaglione – who is involved in a
three-year $390,000 Australian Research
Council project that is implementing a
values-driven leadership model in one of WA’s
largest public sector agencies, Main Roads
WA (see accompanying story) – says values
can basically serve as a ‘moral compass’
for both organisations and employees.
“When a person finds a company with
similar values – say ‘green’ or environmental
values, or a commitment to work-family
values – they can often see a long-term
future with that company. They see this as
respecting them as individuals, which
translates into trust and support in the
workplace. Such workers are often better
motivated and more loyal to the organisation.
“It’s all about aligning the values of the
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ALLAN MYLES
employee with the values of the organisation
and the values of senior leadership.”
In the current skills shortage, Travaglione
says corporate headhunters often report
feedback similar to the following from
potential employees: “Okay, you want me to
come to Perth, it’s pretty isolated and real
estate prices are high, so what can you offer
me in terms of a work-life balance? I don’t
have that now in London/Johannesburg/
Sydney. Can I have a look at the values
statement of the company that you’re trying
to float me into?”.
“And the first response if they can’t see
that work-life balance in the company’s values
will be ‘sorry, not interested’,” says
Travaglione. “That’s the starting point for
many people now, they’re saying straight out:
‘I’m not making the big move if I don’t have
that as one of the value statements’.”
He says although a values-driven
leadership model needs to start with the full
support of the CEO and the senior leadership
team, it’s up to employees to get involved and
decide what values the organisation stands
for.
“When Main Roads, or IBM, devised its
values, it didn’t come about by four people
sitting in a dark room. It wasn’t done by the
PR department or the marketing department
or the HR department, it started right at the
ground floor and extended all the way up.
It only gets ratified at the top. So people
actually have ownership of this. There’s
none of this ‘we plan to be world-best’;
they’re realistic, because they are working
L TO R: PROFESSOR TONY TRAVAGLIONE
(HEAD OF SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT), JOHN TAYA
(HR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MAIN ROADS WA), MENNO
HENNEVELD (COMMISSIONER OF MAIN ROADS WA)
on the ground.”
“Main Roads is an interesting example.
It went from an organisation with a long,
proud history to the brink of extinction and
was revived to its current status as one of
Western Australia’s best performing public
sector organisations through strong
leadership and values-driven management.”
Now in its third year, the Main Roads
research project is currently focusing on
helping employees and managers incorporate
their agreed and adopted values into their
day-to-day activities and decision-making so
that both behaviour and values are aligned.
Travaglione says that’s not always easy
when, for years, managers might have been
guided by policy statements handed down by
various departments.
“For example, an engineer managing a
project worth millions of dollars might come
up against a situation he or she is not familiar
New approach passes road-test
Main Roads WA has a big job. The
organisation is responsible for the
building and maintenance of roads across
the State – an area that covers one-third
of Australia and includes more than 17,500
kilometres of highways and roads valued
at over $27 billion.
With a key focus on attracting and
retaining staff for the future, the values
adopted by the organisation over the past
few years include: roads matter; working
together; excellence in customer service;
embracing challenge; professionalism;
and family.
Menno Henneveld, the Commissioner of
Main Roads WA, says those values are one
of several key areas that became part of
the agency’s push towards a greater
customer focus.
“When we started, we didn’t really have
a clear idea what we were going to do with
values-based management,” he explains.
“But as a corporate executive, I felt we
needed to move away from the standard
black-and-white guidelines-type approach
to decision-making that we had taken in
the past.
“We found there were circumstances
where the guidelines, rules and standards
didn’t help us in making decisions; that’s
when you need to fall back on values,
which is the concept we tried to get
across to people.”
He says staff were sceptical at first
with. They can’t just pull out a policy manual,
because the solution is not going to be in
there. In terms of managing that project, that
engineer has to have a set of organisational
values that will help steer every decision he
or she makes.”
Travaglione says every executive meeting at
Main Roads is now values-driven. If initiatives
are not linked to the corporate values, there’s
a fair chance they won’t proceed.
“For instance, one initiative required funding
to the occupational health and safety area to
be increased to purchase certain products for
employees. So people thought about it for a
while – for about a whole 10 seconds – and
said: ‘That’s one of our values, don’t worry
about the cost’. And so it just happened.”
Travaglione says a value-driven leadership
model – when implemented properly – has
tangible results: recruitment costs are less,
retention costs are less, job satisfaction is
and felt a values-based management
approach was a bit ‘touchy-feely’. But not
any more.
“The most pleasing thing is that
employees talk about it,” he says. “I know
of organisations where a lot of fuss has
been made about values and they’re put
in a picture frame on the wall, and that’s
the end of it. But we wanted people to
think about the values and how they
affected their everyday decision-making.”
We needed to move away from
the standard black-and-white
guidelines-type approach to
decision-making that we had
taken in the past.
That approach has caught on to the
extent that values are used in the agency’s
selection processes and in its performance
management of staff. They are also
embedded in its business model.
And it seems to be working. Main
Roads has recently won several awards
for its efforts, including the ‘Employer of
Choice’ (public sector category), ‘Best
Graduate Intake’ and ‘Best HR Strategic
Plan’ prizes in the 2007 Australian
HR Awards.
It also picked up a national ‘Excellence
in People Management’ award from the
Australian Human Resources Institute.
higher, and there’s more stability in terms of
leadership in the overall organisation.
“‘I actually enjoy going to work’ is the
average response you’ll get from Main Roads
employees, because they know what they’re
doing sits comfortably with their values,” he
explains. “So, at the end of the day, you’ve
got people staying at Main Roads, earning
maybe half of what they could be earning in
the mining sector, because the values
alignment is there.
“Moving from a ‘corporate governance’ to
a ‘corporate integrity’ approach is quite
leading-edge. I think the Main Roads example
will be followed with interest by other public
sector organisations as community and
government expectations change.”
Contact: Professor Tony Travaglione
Email: T.Travaglione@curtin.edu.au
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WRITTEN BY TONY MALKOVIC
FEATURE
Truly international
HE’S AN INTERNATIONAL EXPERT IN BUSINESS, TAXATION AND ACCOUNTING
WITH EXPERIENCE STRETCHING OVER THREE CONTINENTS, AS WELL AS BEING A DISTINGUISHED ACADEMIC…
MEET THE NEW PRO VICE-CHANCELLOR OF CURTIN BUSINESS SCHOOL.
Professor Duncan Bentley has been
Pro Vice-Chancellor at Curtin Business
School for only a matter of months and is still
settling into the job, but already he’s clear
about what’s important for business students:
international experience.
“We’ve got to realise we live in a global
environment,” he says. “One of the critical
changes I think we will see is that graduates
will need experience internationally, either
on exchange or work experience, so they can
better understand and relate to other cultures.
“Breaking down those cultural barriers will
allow business to occur. At the moment,
being a student in a vibrant multicultural
campus is seen as enough, but employers
will ask for more.”
Bentley says it doesn’t matter if you’re
studying business in Australia or the wider
south-east Asia region, you need that
broader outlook.
“Curtin Business School is far better
placed to provide it, because it is so
international, than most other business
schools in the region.”
The new CBS head was born in Kenya,
spent time in Botswana, South Africa and
Zimbabwe. An accountant and international
tax expert, he consulted in London and
Sydney with two of the world’s largest
chartered accounting firms before becoming
Dean of Law and Pro Vice-Chancellor at
Bond University in Queensland.
He says coming to Australia was a
no-brainer: “When Zimbabwe fell apart, my
wife and I went to the UK but it was cold and
wet, so we opened the map and looked for
somewhere that was warm and democratic.
And Australia looked the best bet.”
Bentley says his interest in law was shaped
by his time in Africa.
“I grew up in different African countries, and
the rule of law is not observed with any great
reverence there,” he explains. “That gave
me a passion for justice and the importance
of the rule of law to any state.”
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While at Bond University, he published two
books on taxpayers’ rights. The latest has
been hailed as a guide to best practice in
international tax administration, and is set to
help developing countries and transitional
economies such as those in Eastern Europe.
He says that Australia has one of the best
charters of taxpayers’ rights of all countries
but there is always room to improve. For
instance, he says tax authorities do not need
a warrant to search your premises if they
believe you are evading tax. In effect, murder
suspects get a better deal and have more
protection of their rights than Australian
taxpayers. He argues that the better the
Tax Office treats taxpayers, the more tax
is gathered.
“All the research shows that the more
the Tax Office puts in to making the whole
tax-paying experience seamless, transparent,
fair and simple, the more revenue they collect
and the less trouble they have with
taxpayers,” he explains.
As CBS’ new chief, he says he wants to
help the School further develop its
confidence, so that it can realise its goal of
being a leading international business school.
He points out that CBS already has an
excellent reputation, with accomplishments
such as its online MBA course being ranked
the best in Australia and fourth in the world.
“We’ve got tremendous staff at CBS who
have done incredible things in a number of
different areas,” he says. “And, over the next
It doesn’t matter if you’re studying business in Australia or south-east Asia, you need that broader outlook.
ADRIAN LAMBERT
PROFESSOR DUNCAN BENTLEY
few years, we shouldn’t look at ourselves as
being just a WA business school, or even an
Australian one; we should look at ourselves
within our region as one of the leading
business schools so that others see us as
such, and interact at that level.
“That doesn’t mean we ignore our roots,
or our community, because it’s engagement
in that local community that gives us our
personality. Indeed, it’s the strength of our
deep roots in our WA environment and
experience in sectors such as services,
tourism and resources which have given CBS
its strong presence on the world stage.
“Over the next decade the WA economy
faces a period of great change. CBS will
make a major contribution to shaping thinking
on how WA will develop.”
Bentley says he sees his role as helping
facilitate CBS’ transition to the next level.
“I like to consult widely with people in an
organisation, discover what the passion and
vision is and draw that together to create a
unified focus,” he says.
“The real challenge is not to be diverted but
to concentrate on our strategic goals – that is
how we can make a difference.”
Contact: Professor Duncan Bentley
Email: D.Bentley@curtin.edu.au
WRITTEN BY PATRICK CORNISH
TANYA PINTO
Corporate and compassionate
From Curtin’s busy campus to the crowded
streets of Calcutta, Tanya Pinto has
packed a lot of experience and achievement
into the past decade.
In 1998, she was completing her first-class
honours thesis for a Bachelor of Arts in Mass
Communication, hoping her major subjects
of journalism, marketing and public relations
would be the launchpad for a career.
That certainly happened: her thesis
attracted the highest grade from the School
of Marketing that year and she is now based
in Dallas as an account director with the
United States’ largest independent advertising
agency, The Richards Group, launching
consumer brands such as Skybus Airlines.
But when packing her bags to return to her
parents in Texas, she was also very glad to
reflect on her time at Curtin as administrator
for cbsplus, Curtin Business School’s
professional and personal development
program for students. The experience
certainly helped strengthen her appreciation
of other cultures and perspectives.
“I spent lots of time with international
students,” she recalls. “Among my
memorable tasks was organising a camp for
cbsplus students, from places such as
classnotes
CURTIN BUSINESS SCHOOL GRADUATE TANYA PINTO HELPS STREET CHILDREN IN INDIA
Malaysia and Singapore, covering everything
from career goals to canoeing. They were
thrilled to see kangaroos in the wild.”
Offering people fresh visions is a Pinto
priority. In 2006, she founded a charity to help
needy children in India, Baal Dan (meaning
‘child’ and ‘to donate’ in Hindi). Despite her
demanding career, she spends part of every
year – including precious holiday time –
in a country where millions could use a hand.
“Baal Dan helps some children living on
pavements with their families and with no
option but to beg. Others are runaways living
at railway stations. First and foremost,
all these children need food. Then comes
medical attention, hygienic living space and
clothing. Education is next...”
Three years ago Pinto, who was born in
India, decided to take a break from the
American pace of life and her commercial
deadlines to learn first-hand about her family
heritage and culture.
“Helping children was my aim, and partly
because I had a relative in Calcutta, I headed
for Mother Teresa’s orphanage. For many
years I had the book Mother Teresa: In My
Own Words by my bedside and loved reading
it. On our website (www.baaldan.com) is her
quote: ‘We cannot do great things on this
Earth – only small things with great love.’
“Mother Teresa’s wisdom inspires me so
much. During that stay in 2005 I was
struck by how smart and friendly many street
children were. One day I took three boys
aged about eight to the latest Harry Potter
movie. For almost three hours they were
swept up in magic, dragons and adventure.”
Before going to India this year, Pinto spent
many hours addressing potential and existing
donors, and service organisations such as
Rotary, on Baal Dan’s activities and need for
volunteers and material support. One of her
happiest visits was to a Dallas primary school.
Despite her demanding career,
she spends part of every year –
including precious holiday time –
in a country where millions
could use a hand.
“After giving a talk on India and reading
the class a story, I was so touched to
discover they had made picture books for
me to give the children in India. This was
their personal way of contributing.”
As an advertisement for cbsplus,
Pinto would surely be hard to beat. Liz
Prendergast-Jones, manager of its programs
for the last nine years, says the broadening
of students’ horizons is a major aim.
“In our management team of about 30,
there are 14 nationalities,” she says.
“Among our regular projects are arranging
an Aussie Rules match to mix locals
and overseas students, underlining the
importance of business in sport; helping
with English classes for new arrivals at
Kent Street High; and an international
business dinner each semester for which
cbsplus students must invite and host
guest speakers on doing business in their
country. Last year we had Italian and
Middle Eastern dinners.”
This evening in India, Tanya Pinto is likely
to be relaxing after a very busy day, reading
a book and listening to Debussy on her
iPod. Tomorrow morning she’ll switch from
classical to an inspiring modern favourite by
U2, ‘Beautiful Day’, which could easily be
her theme song.
The Baal Dan charity provides aid
to homeless and orphan children
in Calcutta, India, that are in need
of food, clothing, shelter and
education. For further information,
please visit www.baaldan.com
review JUNE 2008 CURTIN BUSINESS SCHOOL
9

WRITTEN BY PATRICK CORNISH
FEATURE
The business of inclusion
AS A CURTIN BUSINESS SCHOOL GRADUATE AND EMPLOYEE AND FORMER PARALYMPIAN GUIDE, TREVOR GODDARD
UNDERSTANDS THE MANY BENEFITS OF ENCOURAGING GREATER PARTICIPATION IN SOCIETY.
The Olympic Games motto – ‘faster, higher,
stronger’ – might have inspired many
world-breaking athletic records, but for
Paralympian guide runner Trevor Goddard
it was the experience, rather than the
outcome, that mattered most.
At Barcelona in 1992 and Atlanta four
years later, he was selected as a staff member
for the Australian Paralympic team, giving
guidance to visually impaired athletes. He
considered the experience an essential part
of his education and all-round citizenship.
Goddard graduated from Curtin Business
School with a Bachelor of Commerce in health
service management in 1997, having already
completed an occupational therapy degree,
and believes that his grasp of these two
disciplines was ‘better, firmer, stronger’ for his
experiences with athletes at the pinnacle of
their sports.
Students undertake overseas placements not just to gain clinical experience, but also to give something back.
“They already had the power for the
performance; they simply required the
partnership with a guide runner to not only
excel on the track but support all their
preparations as well.”
Today, as the Director of International
Relations for Curtin’s School of Occupational
Therapy, his approach to work is not dissimilar
to the role he played at the two Paralympics:
for students heading towards health service
careers, he offers encouragement and a
gentle nudge in the right direction.
Specifically, he coordinates an international
service learning program – nationally-awarded
and recognised – that places occupational
therapy, physiotherapy, speech pathology
and pharmacy students in developing
healthcare services outside Australia.
“China was our first service project.
India and South Africa followed, and the
Ukraine is the most recent addition. After
our address to an Asia-Pacific Occupational
Therapy conference in Hong Kong last year,
Brunel University in London was impressed
and is sending students to join us in China
in August.”
10 review JUNE 2008 CURTIN BUSINESS SCHOOL
THOMASZ MACHNIK
Goddard says the term ‘service learning’
means that Curtin students undertake
overseas placements not just to gain clinical
experience, but also to give something back.
“They learn while providing service of direct
benefit to the host organisations, which might
be short of staff, expertise, funding and
resources,” he explains. “The students leave
something tangible behind. For example,
one group compiled a manual profiling of
every child at the Shanghai BoAi Children’s
Rehabilitation Centre, which will be helpful to
any international volunteer who goes there.
“The ultimate aim is to do ourselves out of
a job – it’s simply capacity building. But I’m
also proud that our students are prepared
to go even further than giving their time and
energy overseas; some put their pay from
part-time jobs towards the projects.”
Goddard says his two undergraduate
degrees have allowed him to see both ends
of the rehabilitation spectrum: social inclusion
that enables people to achieve potential, and
the underpinning business model that respects
social, economic and environmental issues.
“My main interest is the process, rather
TREVOR GODDARD AND STUDENTS FROM THE SCHOOL OF OCCUPATIONAL
THERAPY’S INTERNATIONAL SERVICE LEARNING PROGRAM
than simply the outcome,” he says. “The
process is allowing everybody, with or without
disabilities, to see rehabilitation and community
participation as a universal concern.”
Goddard has completed a Master of
International Studies at Curtin looking at how
companies can invest in local community
partnerships.
“The China link in the program was forged
during my master studies,” elaborates
Goddard. I got to know the project director
of a World Health Organisation program,
based in Hong Kong, working on rehabilitation
schemes throughout China. The Shanghai
Rotary Club was providing wheelchairs to
people with disabilities such as cerebral palsy
to help make them more mobile. But what
was also important was that society at large
could now engage with them as they
participated in everyday things such as work,
shopping and leisure activities. And the local
business community could see the benefits,
both socially and economically.
“Duty of care is a win-win for all concerned.”
Contact: Trevor Goddard
Email: T.Goddard@curtin.edu.au

WRITTEN BY DR MARTIN BRUECKNER
BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE
Going green... or bust?
ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES ARE ALREADY AFFECTING BUSINESS AS WE KNOW IT, CAUSING MAJOR HEADACHES
FOR COMPANIES. IN FUTURE, ACTIVE ADAPTATION TO THESE CHANGES WILL BECOME CORE BUSINESS.
THERE IS NO BUSINESS CASE, HOWEVER, FOR CONTINUED IGNORANCE.
Confusion reigns supreme among
Australian businesses. What is all this
environmental talk about and why should we
care now? Not too long ago, the environment
was chiefly the domain of social fringes with
alarmist scientists and pot-smoking hippies
making an awful lot of noise about the
protection of Mother Earth; certainly a mob
with rather limited boardroom respectability.
Politically, in the past, the environment
was largely perceived as an expedient tool in
Australia readily deployed when marginal
seats and swinging votes needed capturing
during state and federal elections. In times
of big business and small government,
companies did not need to worry since,
after all, ‘growth or else’ was the order of the
day. This seems to have changed somewhat.
Inconvenient truths about the environmental
state of play have started to infiltrate the
homes of unsuspecting, hard-working
Australian families, subversively changing
public sentiment towards the environment.
Australian mainstream media metamorphosed
overnight to become the vocal crusader for
environmental causes. These days, the
carbon police are now out to get those
enjoying atmospherically counterproductive
lifestyles, which until recently represented the
elusive golden pot at the end of the rainbow
for aspirational battlers.
Of course, we have heard it all before.
Over 30 years ago, we were already being
told that resources would run out, the planet
would turn toxic as humanity drowned in its
waste and ran out of living space. And?
Nothing happened. We are still here and the
air still smells fresh, albeit things are a little
warmer. But, apparently, the future will be a
lot warmer because of the way we have been
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doing business and the lifestyles we have
worked hard to get accustomed to.
Polemics and cynicism aside, the science
of environmental change is out of the bag and
is finally having traction both socially and
politically. The business environment has
changed as a result, and early movers in the
business world have started to seize the
moment, capitalising on going ‘green’.
They are busy future-proofing their brand and
shareholder value against environmental and
regulatory shocks while the competition looks
on in bewilderment. The likes of Stern,
Garnaut and company make a compelling
case – using the universal language of
economics – that business as usual will not
only cost the planet but, even worse, put
GDP under acute threat. This challenges
dearly-held conventional wisdoms, and it
seems that what we did not want to know
may come to hurt us after all.
Where does that leave Australian
businesses and many of our business
students eager to have a go in the real world?
Bill Clinton suggested last year, when
promoting the Carbon Disclosure Project,that
the colour of America’s future will be that of
the US Dollar. The same applies to Australia’s
future despite its admittedly more colourful
currency. Business will either go green or be
forced to make costly adjustments once
regulation starts to bite. Environmental
markets evolve quickly, and businesses need
to evolve with them. Carbon, for instance,
is well poised to become our new unit of
account, and companies’ carbon exposure
is likely to affect their future competitiveness
and attractiveness to investors.
Business graduates, in this regard, require
the tools to anticipate and effectively manage
THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN REVIEW DO NOT
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NECESSARILY REFLECT THOSE OF CURTIN UNIVERSITY OTHER PERSON FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE
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EXPRESS OR IMPLIED AS TO THE ACCURACY OR
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this evolution. Also, a better understanding
is needed of business-environment relations
and the way society as a whole responds
to changes in environmental systems.
As uncomfortable as the environmental
outlook may be, we need to know and be
open to these messages as a blinkered
approach is likely to prove maladaptive
and costly. Where to from here? Start with
bringing your own cup when buying a coffee
on campus to reap the economic benefits
(a $0.30 discount) of a widely unknown
waste reduction strategy already in place.
See, ecology and economics can go hand
in hand… we just need to know about it.
Contact: Dr Martin Brueckner
Email: m.brueckner@curtin.edu.au
Business as usual will not only cost the planet but, even worse, put GDP under acute threat.
Guest
columnist
Dr Martin Brueckner recently joined
the School of Management at Curtin
Business School as a lecturer on
environmental issues in business.
His teaching and research interests
are in the areas of sustainability
management, environmental policy
and corporate social responsibility
as well as social and environmental
justice issues.
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review JUNE 2008 CURTIN BUSINESS SCHOOL
11

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