Origin Energy has almost 4000 employees in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific and has more than 3 million customer accounts in Australia and the Pacific.


What is more important, talent or drive?
Drive. If you have the drive, you can gather around you all of the talent that is needed to bring together, and bring out, the right combination of talent and skill that really makes a difference.

On a scale of one to ten, how significant a role does luck play when it comes to success?
Eight. Luck is an important ingredient to success. You find that when you have a great collection of ideas, insight, position, support and funding, the luckier you become.

Which is more critical, the idea or the execution?
Idea. Without that spark of an idea and the capacity to see more than others, you will struggle to be heard. However, you also need good execution. Poor execution of a good idea usually will lead to a poor outcome. Good execution of an average idea will lead you to an average outcome. Who wants to be average?

Is it better to be passionate or objective?
Passionate, but you need both. The benefit of being objective is ensuring the diligence in selecting the paths being pursued and the passion is not wasted. Passion is what moves us forward. It is passion that provides the will to persevere.

What is most and least important? Please rank your priorities.

1. Confidence
   Drive
   Talent
   Relationship skills
   Organisational skills

What one trait has helped you most in business?
Confidence. Having the confidence that you have the drive, talent and relationship skills and organisational skills generates that same confidence in those around you, and then amazing things are possible.

What is the one trait that has hindered you most in business?
The trait that hindered me in the early part of my career was "relationship skills". Women did not have the same acceptance within the informal networks of support that exist inside businesses. The offset to this, of course, is that women are much more visible. So women have no problem being noticed, and are recognised and rewarded when they perform.

What is the hardest lesson you've learned and how did you learn it?
The hardest lesson I learned was that experts work in a deep but very narrow frame, and answer the questions you ask rather than anticipating the questions that you should have asked. So you need to be the systemic thinker to connect the pieces. This was most evident when I was managing the creation of Envestra which had many aspects that were ground breaking.

What is the one piece of advice you would offer other women in business?
Be true to who you are. Be prepared to back your own judgement.

What are the biggest mistakes you see women making in business?
I encourage women to accept that they have an equal right to be there, to recognise the value of their contribution and to not apologise for their difference. The key difference I see between men and women at work is that the men are prepared to demand to be heard and recognised before they have demonstrated their worth. Women wait to be recognised well past the time when their value is clear to everyone around them.