Finding success out of the comfort zone

AUTHOR: Lachlan Colquhoun   DATE: 03.05.06   ISSUE 1, 2006

“Mum used to work in a factory and would give me bucket loads of these ‘rejected’ stickers for free,” he says.

“So I guess I always had an entrepreneurial spirit, but I never had the opportunity because up until recently I was in my comfort zone.”

Harb’s business, Sydney based InConsult, was recently named in BRW’s Upstarts list of Australia’s fastest growing businesses – a listing which is the culmination of five years hard work for the AGSM alumnus, who graduated with an MBA (Executive) in 2000.

A chartered accountant by profession, Harb had a successful career in internal audit for a multi-national insurance company when he began his MBA, and had moved on to a chief executive position, but a combination of circumstance and his own ambition soon put him on the road to starting his own business.

"I decided to change the rules of risk management consulting. I was going to differentiate myself by offering an end to end service, vertically integrated, and that would be the basis of our value proposition."

Photo: Tony Harb

“I just couldn’t see myself going anywhere, because I was chief executive of a business unit of an international company that I had just turned around and I had things I wanted to do, and it was going well.

“But politics became involved in that organisation and I was in the middle of it and also on the wrong side of it, so I left the organisation after all.”

In making the move to set up his own business, Harb says the AGSM education helped give him the skills and the confidence to make the leap.

”The MBA gave me the confidence to back myself and take a risk, I thought that the worst thing that could happen was that I’d end up back in another full-time job,” he says.

Harb’s decision came at a major turning point in recent Australian business history – the $5 billion HIH insurance collapse which focussed business leaders on issues of corporate governance and risk management.

“With my background in audit and finance control, I found that there was suddenly a great demand for risk management consulting, and we picked up a number of big multi-national clients and then started to develop the business from there,” he says.

Originally, Harb’s plan was to do general business consulting, but soon he realised that a niche existed for a specialist risk management consultancy.

He then developed a new model for InConsult as a risk management specialist providing consulting, training, technology and recruitment.

“Based on the principles of Game Theory learned in the MBA, I decided to change the rules of risk management consulting. I was going to differentiate myself by offering an end to end service, vertically integrated, and that would be the basis of our value proposition,” says Harb.

“I decided that I would build a relationship with the person in the organisation who is the chief risk officer, and be that person’s best friend.

“He might want to recruit someone, he might need some consulting from time to time, he might need someone trained or he might even want to buy a system – and I can help with all of those things.”

With his business partner, Harb and InConsult have developed their own proprietary risk management technology system called Guardian, which integrates risk, compliance, audit and incident management on the one platform.

“We’ve just done a major implementation for a global US company and we’ve been totally focussed on that, because our success there will help establish our reputation and lead to more work…especially in the US,” he says.

Harb’s plan was to do general business consulting, but soon he realised that a niche existed for a specialist risk management consultancy.

While InConsult’s headcount is currently small at only six, Harb says that the recruitment side of the business has up to 400 risk management professionals on its database, so that if he wins a large contract he has access to the necessary resources.

In terms of growing the business, InConsult recently formed a strategic alliance with a mid-tier accounting firm, BKR Walker Wayland, which has member offices around with the world, with a view to developing that company’s integrated risk and internal audit offering.

Harb also has plans to grow InConsult offshore, and is looking to form a network of risk specialists who can work under the InConsult brand around the world.

“One of the things I really enjoyed at AGSM was meeting new people from many industries and disciplines. It really opened my eyes to what is out there and today, I still keep in regular contact with a dozen or so people,” says Harb.

“I like the freedom of running my own agenda. It gives me more control over my work and my lifestyle, and now with this success I have absolutely no fear.

“I have so many opportunities and that keeps me inspired. There’s no going back now.”