DCN May Edition 2019

INDUSTRY PROFILE
Making milestones
After a quarter of a century running a stand-alone business, father and daughter team
Bill and Janice O’Connor reflect on the nature of business and some cultural changes
along the way. By David Sexton
THE YEAR WAS 1993.
decided to buy their Melbourne operation
Bill Clinton was inaugurated as US when the Swedes decided to exit the local
President, Paul Keating’s ALP won a famous market. “Unfortunately for them, some
victory over John Hewson’s Coalition and of the business they bought, particularly
Australia retained the Ashes in England. in New South Wales, they just couldn’t
Meanwhile, Bill O’Connor established manage it,” he recalls. “After four years
Allied Seafreight Logistics (or ASF) in the the Swedes came back and things had hit
western suburbs of Melbourne.
rock bottom.”
“It has all gone by in the blink of an
So Bill moved to buy the ASG Melbourne
eye,” Bill says over a cup of coffee with operation, rebranding it as ASF Allied
DCN. Now mostly retired (he works one Seafreight and General. Before going out
day a week, allowing plenty of time for on his own, he sounded out the market.
golfing and fishing), Bill reflected on the “So we approached local businesses to see
past quarter of a century and back even if they would continue to support us and
further to his decision to move from
they said ‘yes’, if the rates were good, and
Ireland to Australia in the early 1980s. In the service was good,” he says. A good
Ireland he had a background in trucking, relationship was struck with the old ASG
first as a driver and later as a manager. who basically agreed to vendor finance for
Bill took a job with Mayne Nickless (“a the first year.
brilliant company to work for”) and then
when that business shifted from transport A FAMILY OPERATION
he was headhunted by the Swedish freight Bill reflects upon the change of culture
forwarder ASG to run its Melbourne
from an international corporate to a family
operations and build a land transport business. “It was all about creating a team.
division.
When we were ASG, there wasn’t much of a
Bill helped build up ASG’s Australian team around,” he says.
business for several years, then later
“So it was about getting the message
Janice and Bill O’Connor at their Laverton premises in Melbourne’s west
across that the only way we’re going to
do this as a standalone business is by
everybody understanding their part and
the importance of the work that they
were doing.”
The family aspect of ASF was enhanced
with Bill’s daughter Janice and wife Marie
coming on board.
“There’s no doubt we had to change the
culture of the business and it was around
that time that mum and I both came on
board,” Janice O’Connor recalls.
A MAN’S WORLD?
Janice O’Connor’s story is interesting in
itself, being one of those tough women who
forged a career in the world of logistics,
a field traditionally dominated by blokes.
“For me at the start, you’d go to a client’s
warehouse and you’d still see the nudie
calendars,” she says.
“You see just how the industry has
changed over the years. I think I always had
to prove myself a bit more, not only being
the boss’s daughter, but then also being a
female and gaining the respect that I don’t
have to drive a truck or use a forklift to
be able to successfully manage a logistics
business.”
Janice notes attitudes have changed,
particularly during the past 10 years.
“So that has been extra-challenging but
also very rewarding. Having the support
and dad’s faith in me to be able to do it was
a big thing,” she says.
“It is a tough industry but it actually can
pay quite well. You can learn something
from the ground up without necessarily
having a formal degree.”
Bill notes his daughter put in a lot of
time in her studies and post graduate
qualifications. He is proud to have created
a business that provides flexibility, allowing
mothers to balance work and family.
“Because we are a family business, we’ve
always encouraged that and developed
people like that,” he says.
David Sexton
60 May 2019
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