PUFFLING POWER FLEXER: THOUGHT LEADERSHIP INTERVIEW SERIES

ALEX FREUDMANN

Managing Director, Dan Murphys

Alex Freudmann took the reins at Dan Murphys only months before 2020 served up one of the biggest global and workplace challenges of all time. Alex shared his thoughts and insights with Puffling on leading by example, his commitment to building inclusive cultures, innovating in tough times and the future of work.

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How do you think your industry and business has changed this year as a result of COVID?

The Dan Murphy’s brand is really special and is just one of those amazing brands which is fortunate to have had a bit of magic dust sprinkled on top. Dan’s is loved for many reasons. It has such a strong sense of its true north, an authentic culture and a clear sense of what the brand means from the perspective of customers and their drinks discovery. COVID brought forward a new perspective of customer needs and focus, centred on safety and innovation — it was a little unexpected for us to manage this but to the credit of all our teams, people just naturally worked successfully in a virtual environment.

Our teams got behind creating their own culture and developed sessions during COVID to engage with their teams and peers. Organically we were seeing things like group exercise sessions form and people creating squads themselves to work remotely on joint initiatives and solve new and old problems.

When COVID first hit we really had no idea of what it would mean. We got together as a leadership and tried to work out what the implications would be. Straight away, all these great ideas started to flow and people stepped outside of their day jobs and made things happen. For example, we were one of the first retailers to install perspex screens on our registers and to roll-out contactless pick up — we could see the halo this created in our customer experience for responding to the situation and offering new ways of serving.

How have you and your leadership team dealt with working more flexibly this year?

We were a relatively newly formed exec team when we all found ourselves together in the crisis, which really accelerated the bonding of the team but also made us escalate productivity. We were forced to put new rhythms in place. Rather than our regular, structured meetings we shifted to short daily check-ins which were more relevant to the moment, and fluid. I put ground rules in place early on — the camera needs to be on and disturbances from kids, pets and life were welcome and expected. Seeing people’s faces was important and enabling people to feel more real and not have to put up false fronts was valuable.

Our Care Committee (formed of volunteer team members) became more important than ever — they generated ideas around looking after people. For example, the committee suggested that every morning the Dan Murphy’s team diaries be blocked between 8–9:30, so that no one had to respond or send emails or attend meetings. Some needed time to exercise or catch up on emails, while many needed to organise home schooling. Some needed it to sort their family schedules or tag team. Then once we were in lockdown, Thursday was extended for a half a day of blocked calendars — and this has been such a success that we’re likely to keep this in place.

You are based in Melbourne so have had to navigate a very substantial period of lockdown. What are you most proud of managing through in such a tough time and can you share some of the positives / wins that have perhaps been unexpected?

Peer support in the leadership team and across all of our teams in maintaining perspective was really amazing. We empowered our people to take leave and support leave if they needed it — not formal, it was about trusting and judgement to do the right thing, to genuinely look after people.

We did check ins. Lots of them.

I felt very strongly about putting mental health first and the business was successful in part because our people were put first and had the space and support to get their work done.

We instigated a ‘take two days, get one day free’ leave allowance bonus to encourage time away from the business, to recharge and refresh. There were many small but important initiatives that have launched that have made us an even better and stronger organisation with a stronger culture.

What has been your approach to leadership during 2020 — how have you adapted your style or shifted focus ?

I’m definitely now a calmer leader — the worse the crisis got the calmer I became. I’ve had some great coaches through my career and I put these learnings into practice. Perspective for me also came from having a family, being real, calling it as it is. I was conscious of always keeping things real in stand ups. Not every day was a good one, particularly as news of the infection spread escalated, and this was important to continue to acknowledge.

I am now much more future focused. Dan Murphy’s is also now a much better digital business — we have started to roll out agile working and it is creating excitement from within the teams as our people embrace learning and doing things differently. As an Endeavour Group, we have doubled down on our efforts in digital — sprints are fantastic in driving achievement.

With the current focus on remote work or hybrid models of returning to work in the future, what are your tips for other leaders in building culture and community when full teams of people aren’t necessarily together in physical spaces each day?

Without wanting to sound too cliched, I don’t have the answers — the teams have the answers. I just guide that process. People look to leaders for what is expected and what happens around them. Does their boss have the camera on, is the leadership team sharing that they have had a hard week — these real conversations are important and as leaders, we need to make the choice to set a new frame of reference in times of crisis.

Give your crystal ball a polish for us. What do you think will be the top 2 or 3 predictions for for the new future of work?

Organisations need new frameworks. Flex is here to stay and will absolutely support a better workplace and a more productive one — fact.

Through COVID, we are more in touch with our customers than ever before. Customer centric led businesses are the only way forward.

Alex shared his insights with Puffling’s Lija Wilson.

If you’re interested in more on Puffling or being featured in a future interview profile, connect with Lija here.