Decision Making for Growth - Helen Lennie, Sales & Marketing Director, Signature Prints

On Friday 4 April 2008 we kicked off the DSRD Women in Manufacturing Network breakfast series in style, courtesy of a fascinatingly-honest presentation by Helen Lennie, the Sales and Marketing Director, and co-owner of Signature Prints.  Signature Prints is a hand-printing company specialising in luxury fabrics and wallpapers from the design libraries to which it owns the rights, most notably, the collection of the iconic Australian wallpaper manufacturer, Florence Broadhurst.  Against the backdrop of a montage of the designer wallpaper, furnishings and gorgeous bags in the collection itself, Helen spoke about some of the memorable and difficult milestones faced during the 10 years she has been with the company, and married to the founder, David Lennie.  While David is the passionate and “blue sky” visionary, Helen is the dynamo realising the dreams they share for the business.

Helen spoke candidly about some of the critical decisions they made for growth during the past 10 years.  One of the most crucial was deciding to take new premises requiring them to go from cottage industry to a small business with inherited staff and inherited product lines.  Another turning point was the decision to leave the fashion industry which caused a huge dent in their cash flow but enabled them the time and space to envision how they would bring the Broadhurst collection to life.  Helen also shared her experiences in managing some difficult staff, and their decision to make a cultural change to the business to ensure that they retained the decision-making authority as owners, but also ensured that their young staff were given the opportunities to grow within the business.  Now, they hire for talent and potential, rather than expertise, and take their team to Expos and on overseas trips to open their eyes to the industry and markets they compete in.  In operations, they have turned a number of cost centres into profit centres, including now charging for tours of their factory premises and collection, and also charging for fabric samples to interested customers, rather than providing them free of charge to a range of media and other promoters.

Importantly, Helen and David are still making important decisions for growth, the most pressing of which is how to grow from the current stage to a medium-sized business - including how to licence some of their product range for specific high end products, how to grow and manage better their overseas presence and how to preserve the Broadhurst collection in digital format as the ongoing income stream for the business.  They both acknowledged that they have grown up with their business, but have not lost their passion for what they do.

Helen was an inspiring and entertaining first speaker to lead our breakfast seminar series for 2008.  The next breakfast seminar will be held in July - look out for updates and booking information on the website over the coming weeks.

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