The number one online real estate company, REA Group, released a remarkable set of numbers last week … again.
It was another triumphant day for the chief financial officer of REA, Jenny Macdonald, who, along with CEO Greg Ellis, reported a 24% lift in net profit for the half year ($51.6 million) compared to the previous half-year result ($41.4 million).
REA owns the dominant online real estate site in Australia, Realestate.com.au, and in recent years has expanded into four European sites and one in Hong Kong.
Despite worldwide problems in the real estate market, REA has delivered growth in revenue and net profit for the past five years. Revenue for the half to December 31 2012 was up 20% to $161.4 million. Revenue for the last full year, 2011-12, was $277.6 million, up from $238.4 million the previous year.
From advice to decision-making
Macdonald joined in March 2011 to find herself, for the first time in her 17-year career, with 50% representation of women in the executive suite.
“I am 47 and I started in chartered accounting as one of two females out of 35 students,” she says. “I have tended to be mainly the only female or one of two in any executive team. It is great to see a balance.” The other REA executive women are Kathy Briggs, REA’s general counsel; Lisa Hickson, head of brand, communications and insights; and Simone Carroll, head of human resources.
Macdonald joined the big four accounting firm KPMG for the first eight years of her working life, providing advice to companies across a wide array of sectors, including manufacturing, retail and mining. Then she decided to become a decision-maker, and moved into corporate roles.
Like many modern CFOs, Macdonald’s role includes making a contribution to all aspects of business strategy. “I have always seen it as a commercial role; you won’t last if you just produce the numbers. The numbers are just the measurement of how you do the business. The CFO has to be able to influence and contribute, talk the language and understand where the operations people are coming from.” Macdonald has a Masters of Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
Frontline experience
But Macdonald differs from many other CFOs in having direct operational experience: her most recent role was general manager of travel agent, FCm Travel Solutions (NZ). Prior to that, she was CFO at Flight Centre New Zealand. “I thought as CFO I lived and died by the P&L [profit and loss statement], but as an operational manager you sweat blood. I had a good financial person, so I could leave it – sometimes you hang on to things you know – and it was a great learning about myself, about sales, business development, account managing. By default, I hadn’t had that much experience of how to really run a business.”
The digital world of online real estate is a future-focused one, an aspect of her REA role that Macdonald enjoys. “I am now incredibly lucky to work in the digital space, a great, fast-changing industry where you have to look forward. And when you are the number one player, you help to shape the market.”
She travels the globe twice a year to liaise with the financial teams in Europe and Hong Kong. “I like to give the CEO as much information as I can. You get a feel for how the countries are going. On the streets of Milan it was a bit less busy last time I was there [although] Milan is in a bit of a bubble, compared to the rest of Italy. Europe is tough. And in terms of any connection, face-to-face is best.”
Within the executive leadership team, Macdonald’s time is fairly evenly spread between her peers. “Perhaps I spend more time with general manager of strategy [Paul Simos]; we overlap a little and we really need to be talking and communicating.”
As a team, the executive meets every fortnight for half a day, and goes off site every quarter to review and look at ongoing strategy. “There is a great deal of communication through the team.”
“I sometimes wonder why people like to work where there isn’t a lot of challenge, where everyone has same thought process. To my mind, if they don’t change that, their company is going to die. The digital world is changing rapidly, and you have to get over that resistance. To continue to thrive, you need different ideas and different ways of thinking.”
On 50% representation of women in the C-suite
“If I was to define why diversity is important, it is the different experiences, thought-processes and ideas. In my experience, going from one or two women to 50:50 is a positive. To me, it is a worry that we don’t have as many women on boards. When people say I can’t find [them], I feel like saying let me give you a list. There is a resistance. Where it starts to change is when you get true leaders who understand it.”
Macdonald says the executive team is very collaborative. “In terms of developing an idea, I could go to any one of my team; we challenge and disagree, but when you are challenged, people will ask why – they want to understand.”
Could this be because it contains so many women, I suggest? “It could be,” Macdonald surmises. “My female peers … are very good as questioning and wanting to explore and understand. Subconsciously, that is what might have helped the collaboration.”
Macdonald cites her background at an all-girls school, PLC, and the influence of her sister as factors supporting her career ambitions. “Their thought-process was always to do what you want to do; there were never any barriers.” Early leaders who were “low ego” helped her excel, she says. She took opportunities as she saw them because she wanted “to learn as much as I could”.
At REA, Macdonald feels the support of director, Kathleen Conlon, who is the only woman on the company’s board. “I wasn’t interested in getting up the ranks for title or power, but I would like to influence and contribute, and to be challenged; that is more my motivation for taking opportunities.”
On sponsors and mentors
Macdonald says there is a lot more support for women: mentors – who provide career support and encouragement – and/or sponsors – who put forward a name for promotion. And she encourages women to support each other – something that women can feel uncertain about. “I know we talk about sponsors and mentors, but we need to be more ‘out there’ about helping women achieve and develop as a gender. Helping other women achieve can feel a bit precarious, as can trying to mentor or help people, what with all the office politics.
“I am mentoring someone internally, but I am loath to just do that only for women. I have had staff come to me and I put in half an hour for feedback and how I see the business. It is about relationships and developing those.”
Of her own ambitions, Macdonald is clear that she would like a tilt at the top job one day. “I would like to think I have the ability and opportunity to think that the CEO role is in my view. It is a bit of a lonely role, and I would like to make sure it is with the right company.
“I have just done the Australian Institute of Company Directors graduate program. At some point, I would like to think about a board role. I think that is a really interesting one, being in management and a board member.
“With a CEO role, you are ‘on’ 24/7, and you have to manage that in terms of your health and you are travelling a lot away from family. Boards are more flexible.”