Top 100 CEO Interviews
Issue No. 37 - October/November 2007
Extra effort pays off
Two years into a major realignment of the business, Extrastaff joint MD Declan Rowan is pleased with progress. In a staff-starved environment the result wasn’t a forgone conclusion.
“The 2006-07 financial year was an excellent result for Extrastaff with net revenue growing by 30% over the previous year,” Declan says.
“In addition to this we saw the growth of our branch network through opening our own and franchisee-owned offices, the commencement of our Extrastaff Health division and expansion across the Tasman with our acquisition of Extrastaff NZ.”
Extrastaff looks like a young company but it has been in the Rowan family’s hands for some time and the company is older still.
It was founded in Melbourne in 1965, known as Slade Personnel, and specialised in recruiting office support staff.
Slade operated for more than 20 years until UK-based multinational acquired it in 1987. It became Brook Street and the name Extrastaff was introduced as a service. The firm widened its offering to industrial staff.
In 1990 the Rowan family bought in and headquarters moved to Adelaide, setting up under the Rowan Recruitment Group umbrella with Extrastaff still an owned brand. The offering was upgraded again to include senior executive, finance and accounting, engineering and technical and IT recruitment.
Current joint MDs Declan Rowan and his older brother Piers Rowan acquired ownership in 2005 and applied the Extrastaff brand name to the entire company, adding health staff to the traditional talent pool.
Given the spread of interests in that pool, Declan is wise to keep an open-door policy.
“I would consider my management approach to be consultative in the sense that I do not assume I have all the answers,” he says.
“This style filters throughout the organisation and creates an environment where people are empowered to make decisions and seek improvements in areas under their control.”
