Alice Barbery has spent the past 11.5 years with Universal Store in various roles and took the helm as CEO in 2017. Since that time she has a management buyout in 2018 from the original family start-up and in November of 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, lead the way to a successful ASX float. Universal Store has continued to go from strength to strength and currently operates 67 stores including online.

Some words from Alice:

No matter what problem or challenge you face in business, there is only one core answer- PEOPLE. No matter what the issue is ( stock, finance, property, systems etc) someBODY has to fix it. Ideally, it’s a collective group of smart and proactive individuals with a shared mission of overall business success.

Forget the silos. Forget the internal competition. Forget the ego. In safe work environments where great people are motivated to contribute their best efforts, passionate about the best outcomes for the whole, and strive to be better than their last record-breaking result, overcoming challenges is rewarding and motivating. It’s not about if- it’s about how and when.

I look for people who want to be better than good. Here to help. Contribute. People who make it work and care about everyone in the organisation. Feedback is feeding the business and the business sustains the team and so it goes. My firm belief is that we must surround ourselves with the best and the brightest and give them the scope and autonomy they need to surprise themselves and outperform their own expectations.

The question I need to ask myself every day is this…. So, what environment are you creating today Alice?

Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alice-barbery-1b3b37a/
Position: Board member