Mark Dowling is an accomplished senior executive and non-executive director. He has served for-profit and non-profit organisations in Australia and overseas, in sectors ranging from heavy engineering to academic research. This solid in-field experience is grounded by engineering (BEng (Hons), MEng), business (MBA) and governance (GAICD) qualifications.

Mark’s career began in his teens, “on the tools” in a nonferrous foundry. After graduation Mark served as a professional engineer before moving up to sales and sales team management, then executive management and ultimately, to the Boardroom.

At his core, Mark is part strategist, part salesman, part manager. This manifests as a passion for business development, particularly in industries that impact the wellbeing of regional workers and communities. Decades spent serving global sugar - a mature industry - ingrained a discipline of lean management and cost control on the one hand, and appreciation for the upside of new markets, coproducts and byproducts on the other.

Mark defines business development as "a collection of activities focused on identifying, developing and implementing growth opportunities that align with, or are tangential to, the organisation’s core mission". He sees these activities falling naturally into four major elements; sales, marketing, relationship management, and strategy. His perspective, summarised:

• Sales. The sales team has a product or service to sell, and their chances are maximised when they offer (i) a quality product, that (ii) does what the prospect wants it to do, at (iii) a price they can afford to pay. This requires systematic prospecting of a correctly targeted market.

• Marketing. Marketing succeeds when the prospect accepts as fact that "they would be crazy to work with anyone else". This requires filtering of an uninterested market to locate the few active and interested prospects that the sales team can work with.

• Relationships. Different organisations can share a common goal. Strong business relationships can provide leads, increase credibility, and give access to a wider range of complementary product or services.

• Strategy. Growth must be at a rate that is both sustainable by the organisation and achievable within the business environment. The business development function is by nature responsive to the dynamics of the market, and can inform executive management when a disconnect between the organisation and its market is likely.

Mark has successfully used this perspective of business development over the last three decades, varying the mix to suit each situation. Most recently, he filled a regional role with Uttam Group, a large and successful engineer/ procure/ construct (EPC) multinational. This role emphasised relationships and strategy. Immediately prior, Mark served Australia’s Sugar Research Institute as its Chief Executive after initially connecting with the organisation in a business development role. This role utilised all four elements and included some less commonly used ones; product development, human resources, formal research, and outsourced services. Business development is, by nature, bespoke.

Currently, Mark serves on the Board of a medical technology organisation bringing a unique DNA-based diagnostics solution to market. He is actively assisting the organisation with their business and growth strategies.

What Mark brings to the table:

• Skills, knowledge and experience. Mark’s work emphasises business-to-business operations alongside divisional and P&L responsibilities at senior and executive levels. Mark administers his businesses with professionalism and calm:

  • Responsive to operational risk
  • Reports to the Board as and when appropriate
  • Hires and fires personnel with sensitivity
  • Fosters and grows stakeholder relationships
  • Creates and implements strategic plans
  • Gets involved in the sales process when necessary
  • Manages tasks as if they were projects
  • Adapts to the distractions that characterise an executive’s typical day
  • Unfazed by unexpected initiatives, projects, travel, meetings, and roadblocks.

• Business strategy and business development expertise. Mark founded and continues to operate his own business. He establishes regional operations in Australia and New Zealand for Silicon Valley companies. He reinvigorates ailing organisations and restructures others to thrive in the dynamic business environment that’s the 21st century. Mark’s strategic and business development successes are up there with the best.

• Stakeholder relationships. A common element of Mark’s recent roles is achieving balance in the often conflicting expectations of stakeholders in the business. He recognises the value of formal and informal links with community groups, Government, suppliers, service providers, customers, and the market generally. All this against a backdrop of always moving towards the organisation’s vision and mission.

• Analyse and assess. As a necessary component of his senior executive responsibilities, Mark has developed a comprehensive understanding of the subtleties of financial statements. He gauges business performance against agreed objectives and recognises when governance practices, legislative compliance or risk management may have drifted and need to be realigned.

• On short notice Mark took a short-term executive role at Entellect Solutions to help correct a number of operational and people/ culture issues that threatened a proposed private equity stake. These actions were successful and the investment proceeded to completion. Prior to his engagement as Interim Managing Director, Mark was working with the Entellect executive team as advisor and mentor.

• At both Inktomi and CrossWorlds Software, Mark established and managed the Australia/ New Zealand subsidiaries of their Silicon Valley parents. Both local operations achieved commercial success before their global acquisition by Yahoo! and IBM respectively.

• At Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), Mark managed business and technology alliances with the Australian subsidiaries of SAP, IBM, Peoplesoft, Hewlett-Packard, and Salesforce. In this role he was part of a global team of alliance managers. Although these relationships were strategic for all parties, the daily workload emphasised a tactical focus.

• At SRI, Mark increased Membership engagement through product/ service line rationalisation, new research and technology updates, and a series of new industry training programmes (designed for audiences ranging from factory floor personnel through to qualified technologists and management). Significantly, he also oversaw the renewal of a strategic agreement between SRI and a major Australian university that was core to both organisations' business models.

• At Uttam, Mark restructured and managed executive business relationships with major sugar manufacturers in Indonesia, Thailand, Brazil, Colombia and Guatemala. Some long-standing issues were corrected and significant new business won from existing and new clients.