Kyle Thoms is a business development, marketing and project management professional who recently joined Sustineo’s team as Executive Manager – Business Development. Our Research Assistant Will Harris sat down with Kyle to get his thoughts and insights on his work and what it’s like being a part of the Sustineo team.
From: Canberra, born and raised!
Favourite Fruit: Mangoes – growing up in Canberra I’d hang out all year for summerfruit season. Being summer, mango-time has always had that positive association with sun, surf and holidays. What’s not to like! I was also really fascinated as a kid by that technique of slicing the flesh into a grid pattern and popping out the cubes ready to eat...early signs of my love of innovation and problem-solving.
Someone you’d like to meet: I’m going to cheat here and name a few:
- Out of morbid fascination I wouldn’t mind catching up with Malcolm Turnbull right now and get the scoop before his memoirs come out this Christmas.
- Though not really practical, I’d love to meet Albert Einstein. Surely exposure to such a brilliant mind would rub off a little, right? I’d also want to thank him for his contributions to advancing science and our understanding of humanity.
- Once we got past the language barrier I think Leonardo DaVinci would be fascinating too. Getting to understand the thought process leading to his brand of innovative thinking would be the chance of lifetime.
- I’ll throw Dr Seuss and Bill Bryson in there too. I admire their insights on the human condition, humour and turn of phrase.
Interesting fact about you: I have travelled to Europe and represented Australia at World Cup level in the sport of hair modelling! It’s a long story…
What drew you to Sustineo?
I’ve been involved with various organisations over the years of differing flavours and sizes. Though each has taught me something, I’ve always derived the greatest satisfaction from working with small, agile and highly cohesive organisations with genuine passion for what they do, genuine commitment to their stakeholders and genuine growth ambitions.
Colleagues suggested I talk to Sustineo because of its fine reputation and what they saw as a strong and progressive business ethos. My due diligence confirmed all I had heard and more.
What is your role at Sustineo?
My title says Executive Manager, Business Development, but in reality this encompasses operational oversight of communications, marketing, relationship building as well as classic market analysis and business development. Sustineo sets high standards for itself in delivery of client services, epitomised by its renowned methodological and analytical rigour, and quality management standard accreditation. Harnessing the team’s diversity and strong creative culture there really is a lot to work with.
Having the capacity to eat a lot of cake I’ve also found to be an important expectation of the role.
As Executive Manager of Business Development, what keeps you busy day to day?
Apart from eating cake…
It’s still early days but building a clear understanding of the myriad skills and capabilities of the team and how this matches with client needs is obviously key. Allied to this is improving awareness and recognition of the Sustineo brand in new markets and building a better understanding of our full range of services and competitive advantage among existing clients.
Beyond this, I see that supporting the establishment and promotion of Sustineo’s alliance partners is important. As an example, the joint initiative of Proper Business Consulting delivering indigenous Australian consulting capability as a Supply Nation registered business and team of experts.
What do you think of the team culture?
Its healthy and authentic. Too often you see in business contradictions between espoused culture and modelled behaviours. But everything Sustineo says about its culture and values is what I have experienced personally since arriving. There is integrity, teamwork and passion in what we do, a dedication to the highest standards and intellectual rigour, all without a hint of arrogance. I’ve also been really impressed by Sustineo’s unswerving commitment to ethical business conduct, genuine interest in building client and partner capability, and sharp focus on delivering real and lasting community benefits through our work.
What do you look forward to most as you take on this new role?
Helping Sustineo grow its reputation and client base. I’m really excited for others to see what I see in the business. This is starting to happen with Sustineo being nominated as a finalist in three categories of the ACT Chief Minister’s Export Awards. However, there are a lot of organisations across Australia and the Asia-Pacific region who haven’t worked with our great team or don’t fully understand all the ways we can help, whether through research, or our technical evaluation, design and advisory services.
Parting Thoughts?
Einstein is quoted as saying: “Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value”. I think this is a great ethos in business and in life and one I see every day at Sustineo. The wisdom of these words, of course, is that in creating value for others, success in an inevitable by-product.
Further information
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook for more posts like this. Find Kyle at LinkedIn or contact him at Kyle.Thoms@Sustineo .com.au or on +61 (0)418 500 661 to talk about his work.