Craig Hingston is the President of the Cumberland Business Chamber in Western Sydney, as well as a member of the Greater Western Sydney Regional Advisory Council. He talked to AMT about the outlook for manufacturers in New South Wales and the challenges they’re facing.
AMT: Tell us firstly about the Cumberland Business Chamber and its membership.
Craig Hingston: Cumberland Business Chamber was formed 30 years ago in the Smithfield-Wetherill Park region of western Sydney, which is home to the largest industrial business park in the Southern Hemisphere. This is a strategic hub representing a board cross-section of the manufacturing and engineering sector. There are over 20,000 people employed here and many of these businesses have been here for decades.
Because we are an industrial-centric chamber, as opposed to a strictly geographical one, we attract people from all over Sydney. Our members range from CEOs and management at multinational corporations to owners of SMEs and micro-enterprises. They represent manufacturing and the many sectors which support it.
Our purpose is to encourage and stimulate business growth. We are advocates for ‘Support Australian Industry. Buy Australian Products.’
AMT: What sort of services and projects does the Chamber engage in on behalf of its members?
CH: Our role is to educate, equip and inspire business leaders. We provide a number of member benefits that we call ‘The Four Pillars’. The first is Leadership. We provide an informal and friendly forum where business leaders can meet, share experiences and be motivated.
The second pillar is Knowledge. This includes providing practical business building expertise and industry information. For example, our guest speakers have included the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), AusIndustry, Western Sydney Airport, and Telstra on the NBN roll out. Our members present Ten Talks on a variety of topics – we have learned about new mandatory hearing tests, exporting to China, developing business apps, and overcoming major challenges.
The third pillar is Connections, and we are in contact with local councils, state government politicians and industry bodies. We advocate on behalf of our members on issues ranging from illegal parking of trucks, flawed infrastructure upgrades and abandoned waste, to alleviating traffic congestion. We use our media connections to raise the profile of what our members are doing.
Our calendar includes ‘After Fives’, Cumberland Womens Network breakfasts, Business Over Beer and other networking opportunities. And we identify member-to-member and external sales opportunities for our membership.
The fourth pillar is Inspiration. It can be lonely at the top for business leaders and this is why the Chamber places so much emphasis on providing a positive environment for likeminded people. We believe these benefits combine to deliver a competitive advantage for our members.
AMT: What does your role as President entail?
CH: I am an Ambassador for the Chamber promoting our capabilities and vision to local businesses. I educate them about how a business chamber can cost-effectively contribute to the growth of their enterprise. This is where I discover how well they are performing in the current economic climate.
I am a point of contact for our various stakeholders and for those business people enquiring about us. I sit on a number of panels and committees where I learn about changes in industry and technology and pass that information back to the members. I lead a great executive team who share the desire for us to be ‘the voice for Western Sydney’. They are always coming up with new and exciting ways to deliver more benefits to our members, and I lead and encourage our members at our events. You are doing something every day.
AMT: And what are the objectives of the Greater Western Sydney Regional Advisory Council?
CH: This is where I learn about the future journey of Western Sydney at the ‘helicopter level’. We are in direct contact with the NSW Business Chamber Council and are presented with big picture plans, such as the development of Sydney’s second and third CBDs at Parramatta and Liverpool, the Western Sydney Airport, light rail links and freight inter-modals. We look into business activity, skills shortages, business precincts for med-tech and aerospace, and so on. This information is vital to Chamber members for their forward planning and investment decision-making.
I have recently become a member of the Federal Government’s Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre (AMGC) for the same reason, to be fully informed about the transformation to Industry 4.0 and how we can get as many manufacturers onboard as possible.
AMT: You’ve got quite a wide-ranging perspective on manufacturing in Western Sydney and throughout NSW, both in these roles and in your other job as Director of Your Image Marketing & Media. What’s your view on the current state of manufacturing in the state?
CH: I am always excited when I meet or hear of cutting-edge companies embracing new technology and methodologies, and pushing the envelope. We certainly have our champions. This is very encouraging, however the reality from my perspective is that they are in the minority. Most industrial companies I meet in our region are somewhere between ‘Doing okay’ and ‘Finding things a bit tough’.
There is incremental growth, a new customer here and there, but I don’t see much dramatic improvement. Business owners tend to be hopeful about the future rather than optimistic or strongly confident. It is very concerning.
AMT: What are the key challenges facing the sector there, and what are the real opportunities?
CH: Key challenges include: a difficulty in progressing systems, procedures and technology to the ‘advanced manufacturing’ level; a lack of confidence in the future of the market place brought on by State and Federal Government decisions; difficulties in being able to commercialise new innovations; big increases in operating costs; government red tape; and of course overseas competition.
From what I have seen, the benefits of Industry 4.0 are not properly understood. There is real confusion about the characteristics of advanced manufacturing and the steps required to attain it. Business owners need this evolutionary change spelt out in simple language with explicit details of how to start out, what to do next, how long it will take, and what is required – for example, business mentoring, additional finance, training, new technology, and so on. I am hopeful that the AMGC will be instrumental in fixing this.
The topic of finance seems to be a sore point. We have had AusIndustry, Austrade, PWC and a business grant specialist speak at the Chamber on how to secure government grants and rebates. However those who went down this path eventually gave up because of the high cost of consultants and how difficult it was to complete the approval process.
Rhetoric coming out of Canberra only makes matters worse. We see high-level promotion of initiatives which mention automation, robotics, simulation and so on, but it is not reaching the audience. Industry is encouraged to collaborate with educational institutions for product development and commercialisation of new ideas, yet the institutions are reluctant to partner unless they have control of the intellectual property. We are told about millions of taxpayer dollars available for SMEs, but the documentation turns them away. We have the business community asking for a reduction in government red tape and lowering of company tax and payroll tax, but it falls on deaf ears. On top of this, the industrial community, which consumes a lot of energy is being hit hard with huge spikes in energy costs – and there doesn’t seem to be any relief in sight.
In short, the industrial community has low expectations of being assisted by the politicians. What this has done is foster a reluctance to change across the sector. There is a real hesitance to step out. A lack of confidence. Our State Government has to take the blame for some of this. They awarded a $2.3bn contract for 500 double-decker railway carriages to an overseas consortium instead of supporting onshore businesses. They are also importing 100km of steel train tracks from Spain rather than using local product. You can’t take revenue and business confidence away from the local market and still expect it to take risks in the interests of growth.
My own clients who possess the fortitude to ‘have a go’ have embraced change and experienced the benefits such as winning global customers. I want this success for everyone in our region, but it is going to take a lot of work to sit down with them, win their trust and guide them forward.
AMT: Tell us a little bit about your background and how you got involved in these roles.
CH: I grew up in a family with both parents involved in design, branding and advertising. I always knew I would end up in a marketing-communications role – this has been a lifelong passion – but firstly I went into journalism. This gave me my interest in the media, which continues to this day.
After a stint in marketing for a few multinationals I launched Your Image Marketing and Media in 1992. I provide clients with strategies to build their brand and market presence, copy writing, public relations, and graphic design and web development via my Creative Director. I help them look for unique points of difference and present the right messaging to market. This includes copy for their online and offline sales and marketing and technical materials, their customer case studies, and magazine editorial.
My love for engineering and manufacturing began when I was very young through my grandfather, who was an engineer. I became curious about how products function and how they are made. To this day you will find me watching videos or reading about all types of components. Last Christmas I got the workshop manual of the Ferrari 312T and a book about how Colin Chapman pioneered ground effect cars in Formula One. I am about to join a team working on a new type of jet aircraft.
I have a huge respect for engineers and product developers. As a good friend of mine said: “Everything we touch and use from the time we get up in the morning came from the mind of an engineer.” They are very clever people and, for some, self-promotion and communication is not a strong point, so I have made a career out of speaking of their achievements on their behalf and helping them attract more customers. I want to see them succeed. I want Australia to be revered as the number-one supplier of new ideas to the world.
This is why I am involved in the Chamber and those organisations. In some small way I want to contribute to us becoming more competitive on the global stage. My mentor, Dr Michael Myers OAM, who is the founder of Re-Engineering Australia Foundation and a Fellow of Engineers Australia, birthed that desire in me many years ago and it drives me every day.
AMT: What’s the most rewarding aspect of your work?
CH: Definitely the journey. I have had the privilege of working alongside a number of companies every month over the past six to seven years. My longest client relationship is 14 years. I get so much satisfaction out of being involved in the planning and execution of change, contributing to improvements, seeing clients progressing step by step and reaching their goals.