In this episode we chat with the amazing Tim Reed , the President of the Business Council Of Australia, the peak body for business in Australia. The BCA comprises of the CEO’s of more than 100 of the top companies, who employ over 1 million Australian workers, including all 4 of the big banks, the major mining companies and supermarkets and the big tech players such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft.

He is also MD of private equity firm Potentia Capital, the only Australian private equity fund focused exclusively on investments in software, tech-enabled services and technology businesses. Potentia has recently raised $350m in a fund focussed on software investments in the $50-$200m enterprise value sector.

In this wide-ranging chat, we discuss the what kind of businesses Potentia is investing in and how gut feel plays an important role in the investment decision-making process . We also discuss terrain-based business strategy versus trajectory-based strategy and the challenges that Covid has presented the economy. Finally, Tim’ BCA role means he meets some of Australia’s best leaders, so we discuss what are the traits that he sees as critical to good leadership in 2020.  

Smart Dust is produced and edited by Daresay, the content specialists: https://daresay.com.au/ 

Hosted by Douglas Nicol, Strategy Partner, The Works: https://theworksagency.com.au/ 

And Nick Abrahams, Global Head of Strategy and Innovation, Norton Rose Fulbright: https://www.nortonrosefulbright.com/en-au/people/120114