Winning With Wider Horizons

AUTHOR: Deborah Tarrant   DATE: 01.09.05   ISSUE 2, 2005

Winning Best Performer in courses such as Statistics for Managers and the economically-focussed Managers, Markets and Prices was a significant achievement, but not beyond probability for an Australian-trained accountant with a strong background in international banking and finance.

Perhaps testament to the transforming effect of the MBA program, McAvoy also topped the Marketing Principles course. “I don’t really know how that happened,” he jokes in hindsight. “I am interested in marketing…because no matter what sort of business you are in, you’re always going to be involved in selling goods or services. Maybe I tried harder in that subject because I didn’t have the background for it.”

“Doing the MBA in Hong Kong provided the benefits of working with people from wide-ranging professional backgrounds, as well as different cultural backgrounds." Bradley Scott McAvoy

Today McAvoy is a senior manager of the Transaction Services division of KPMG in Brisbane, delivering financial due diligence for mergers and acquisitions and capital raisings, a role that utilises many of the skills he acquired through the MBA program. Transaction services are provided for companies, effectively as a form of due diligence on potential acquisitions in a wide range of industries, analysing and highlighting any potential problems or risks.

“The MBA program was very practically based with case studies. There’s a lot I learned in the course that I now use day-to-day,” he says. Project and time management skills have proved particularly relevant in his latest role with multiple projects on the go simultaneously.

Originally from Queensland, McAvoy made a working stopover in Hong Kong in 2002 on his way home from a four-year stint in the UK. His decision to undertake an MBA through AGSM’s Hong Kong program came down to seizing the moment, when he realised his new role as Associate Director finance and Operations for Circus Capital, a fast-growing Hong Kong-based investment fund manager founded in 1999, would extend beyond an initially planned one-year time frame.

"I’d built my technical skills in the accounting and finance industry, but it stopped there. I wanted to develop my career further and to differentiate myself.”

“I’d started to move away from straight accounting and more into the operational side of managing investment funds,” says McAvoy who has a Bachelor of Business from Central Queensland University, a graduate diploma in Applied Finance and Investment from the Securities Institute, along with his CA (Chartered Accountancy qualification). His previous roles – first up at KPMG auditing with predominantly banking and finance clients, and subsequently in London and on the tax haven Channel Island of Guernsey for fund manager Credit Suisse and a small Bermudan-based offshore Bank of Butterfield –had pure accounting focuses.

In Hong Kong, McAvoy needed to perform in the formative stages of a young entrepreneurial company that was rapidly requiring more structure. “I had a lot of responsibility, and reported directly to the company’s two owners.” He saw staff numbers grow from five to 12 in almost three years. (By the time he left, Circus Capital had US$200 million under management.)

An MBA had always been part of his career plan, and McAvoy reflects he was at a crossroads when he began. “I’d been in industry for almost 10 years. I’d built my technical skills in the accounting and finance industry, but it stopped there. There wasn’t the opportunity to learn broader skills in accounting. I wanted to develop my career further and to differentiate myself.”

With the plan also to return to Brisbane, McAvoy could see the need to widen his industry scope beyond banking and finance and, perhaps, to switch career paths.

The result was a broadening, not only of his skills set, but also his networks. “Doing the MBA in Hong Kong provided the benefits of working with people from wide-ranging professional backgrounds, as well as different cultural backgrounds. There was real diversity. I found myself among people who were doing MBAs for various reasons. Students came from across Asia and we worked collaboratively in teams,” he says.

“The MBA program was very practically based with case studies. There’s a lot I learned in the course that I now use day-to-day.”

“Because of the way the course was structured – with AGSM lecturers flying in to deliver classes in concentrated timeframes – there was a good opportunity to get to know people, build relationships and work closely together,” he reports. Exposure to these people and their disparate views enhanced the experience. He enjoyed this networking aspect, not least, he points out because he was working in a small company at the time. A total of 40 MBA students graduated from the AGSM Hong Kong program in June.

With business increasing regionally, another benefit McAvoy found was in the course’s emphasis on Asia generally. “We did a lot on China. It wasn’t Australian topics rolled out to another location, but tailored specifically for the Hong Kong market, which was valuable.”

While he opted not to stay in Hong Kong after graduation, but to bring his young family back to settle in Australia, McAvoy says he can see an ongoing application for his insight into Asian business operations and practices. Within KPMG, where he rejoined shortly after his return, ties within the Asia-Pacific rim are growing as increasing numbers of local companies are expanding their reach within the region.

Where to from here? McAvoy remains uncertain. Possibly his own business or consultancy, he muses. “I’m keeping my options open.”