From Lecturer to Entrepreneur

It wasn't a mid-life crisis. It was simply an evolution. Part of a bigger journey to find myself, and to help others discover more about themselves, their businesses, and entrepreneurship. 

I started my working life young. As a 14 year old, I fed neighbourhood cats and dogs for families going on holiday. Lucrative business for a teenager; more so that my costs were zero – I either walked to each client’s house, or arranged the schedule in such a way that Mum would drive me. Certainly earned good holiday money from that – and it was an awesome introduction to entrepreneurship. I did this for several years – until I hit University and realised that I needed more regular income to support my spending. After all, University wasn’t cheap, and there was no free carparking on campus for students.

So, the entrepreneurial bug hit me early. But it wasn’t until after University that I really saw the potential in working for myself. I graduated; I studied post-graduate; I took part-time, and then full-time positions at the University where I studied. Shuffled around a couple of Universities to gain experience. My motto being, “don’t know until you try” – so I just pushed and pushed the envelope and kept volunteering to teach classes and courses that others didn’t want to. By my mid-20’s I had moved up the private sector academic ladder – Senior Lecturer, Programme Manager, Head of Department, Principal. 

Back in the early 2000’s when I was a College Principal

What I learnt along this leg of my journey was deeper management skills. Through pushing myself, being thrown in the deep end, and through surviving when I wanted to give up; I learnt how to read people, deal with situations, liaise with a variety of stakeholders – from students to parents, colleagues, shareholders, government departments, and industry representatives – all in the course of strategising and activating the best possible education solutions for my students. Yes, I was student-centric in my approach to education delivery.

Mid-1990’s with my student who graduated from university

I used to tell students that they were not the client. I still firmly believe this. Their future employers are the client – they are the ones who trust us to deliver, train, empower, and mould students for the workforce and society. I stand by this today. I am still client-centric – but recognise that the client is always broader than the one signing the cheques.

Success in educational leadership led me to consulting. Setting up private colleges for investors; and a few years into this, troubleshooting for existing colleges and institution that needed to improve their standards of delivery and their internal systems. This systems auditing exposure, and I am grateful to two very senior and experienced mentors who taught me a lot, empowered me to delve deeper into the entrepreneurial and managerial process – not only for my own businesses, but for my clients too. I branched out, helping several entrepreneurs conceptualise their business plan, and translate that into reality for them. Many clients later, the troubleshooter in me emerged again, as I worked with entrepreneurs to fine tune their processes, and to understand how to initiate and manage change within their organisation. Some of these clients are still in business, 15 years later, and thriving. Some, as with all business risk, simply couldn’t sustain a long-run business model. Cest la vie.

My Business Partner, Farrell Tan

Life transformation 1 – I moved to Malaysia. Initially a school Principal – the culture shock was phenomenal. I remember being told by my shareholders (yes, private school) in the first month that I work too hard and are trying to initiate too many quality improvements! Shocked, dismayed, and perplexed. I was actually taking it slowly as I wedged myself firmly into my new seat and got to know my teams.

It was an eye opener – but it was great! I got to understand the constantly shifting goal posts that present themselves in the region, and I developed new responses to managing this. I better understood internal change management, as I started working with teams whose vested interests were not in parallel with the organisation. And, I still managed to get a lot accomplished.

Fast forward a couple of years and I was back troubleshooting; back creating new opportunities for institutions, and this time I took a leaf out of my teaching textbook, and developed a far stronger interest in marketing, branding, public relations, and advertising. The final piece of the puzzle was now being unveiled. I had taught marketing for several years (in fact, I probably taught undergraduate I and II Marketing, Consumer Behaviour, Strategy over 20 times); now I was more involved in applying it.

Life transformation 2 – with long-time friend and industry professional, I started Orchan, a boutique Public Relations Agency. Long story short, we did good! Won some awards, worked on an eclectic array of local, regional, and international clients, including some world-class brands, and every day was a learning curve. It is here that I honed my crisis management skills from being internal crisis management to that of external crisis and reputation management. Along with all the other learning opportunities I have had, working with some amazingly accomplished clients, and gaining immeasurable tips, opportunities and experience from them (often way beyond the scope of our PR contract), the journey to Metanoia and beyond was still just that – a journey in motion.

Metanoia evolved from client requests to go deeper than PR. We loved the Metanoia name – the journey of change – something my business partner and I are passionate about; but something too that I have lived from those early teenage days – as each step along the way has been my own personal metanoia – and I’m loving it (sorry Maccas; had to steal your tagline there).

As my metanoia continues, I hope that yours does too, and if we can find a way to work together to enable that, it would be my personal pleasure.

To the journey – may it be fruitful!

Craig J Selby | Craig is a long-time proponent of structured and measured change. His early career saw him teaching marketing and management at a variety of Universities and PTE’s in his native New Zealand, where he quickly climbed the management ladder to head several private sector institutes. Needing to do that little bit extra, Craig formed his own consultancy firm and was engaged by many in the sector as a trouble-shooter - responsible for internal auditing, restructuring and redevelopment of many departments and institutes in order to remain competitive in a highly contested market. This involvement motivated him to branch out and work with other industries - focussing on change and development as a core theme in business survival. When Craig moved to Malaysia, he went back into the Education sector to share his ideas with local private sector educational facilities. In 2009 Craig co-founded Orchan Consulting Asia, an award-winning Public Relations agency. His areas of specialisation are Crisis Management Communications and Change Management.