Reggie Cabal has been at Orix for nearly 6 years. Orix Australia and New Zealand is a wholly owned subsidiary of Orix Group, a diversified financial services company based in Tokyo, Japan. They operate in roughly 37 countries and in Australia-New Zealand. He lived and worked in Silicon Valley for 20 years.
TS: Thinking about the world of small business, how do you think organisations have been creating more value in the world in 2020 and helping them to really survive and thrive?
RC: I think the starting point for me is that 98 per cent of all businesses in Australia are considered small businesses, and there are some interesting facts around that: 35 per cent of small businesses constitute the gross domestic profit in the country, and hire 44 per cent of the entire workforce.
Then the other thing is that 35 per cent are run by women. So as a block, or as a demographic, small businesses have a lot of weight and merit. The ability to recognise that is critical. But the other point here is that obviously there are different types of small businesses.
So the value proposition that you can create for them really needs to cut across many different industries, and the value component needs to be consistent for all of them.
TS: What's the key message that you are truly passionate about that Australian businesses should be adopting?
RC: Adaptability and flexibility. I think what the pandemic really highlighted for a lot of industries is, firstly, our ability to adapt to the situation becomes paramount, and secondly the ability to be flexible in how we adapt, and try different things. Those are key things, I think that in any organisation, whether large or small, becomes very critical.
TS: Can you give one example of something particularly at Orix, that you have had to adapt to suit your customers needs here?
RC: The thing that keeps coming into my head, is providing a bespoke solution. There's a rush to provide an out-of-the-box solution for many clients. And yet the reality is, I believe a lot more clients would appreciate being able to be a part of that solution making also. Yes, you're creating a solution for them, but that element of it is about listening to them, and then coming up with a solution that truly is bespoke, that's got elements of uniqueness, and that's applicable to their own challenges.
That's not to say that out-of-the-box solutions are not applicable. I think it's always about finding the right balance of listening and making sure we understand all the elements that are very unique to them, then being able to address those, and then having a foundation that says, ‘okay, well, the best practices, incorporate these items into that’. And when we do that, we come up with a better outcome.
TS: Regional Australia has had huge growth opportunities, something which has been amplified and accelerated by this year's pandemic, obviously, coming off the back of some terrible trading conditions over the last couple of years. What opportunities do you recognise in regional Australia that we can really support?
RC: There are elements of regional Australia that are underserviced. And so it's a matter of how do we actually get the goods and services? That may be in conventional channels in terms of how we distribute them, or through digital ways.
But in regional Australia, certainly, there are opportunities in terms of whether you're a small business or a mid-sized business in terms of how you actually get your goods and services out there. It's about distribution channels, or finding the right way to get those goods and services out there.
You can't assume that people in regional Australia will understand the same things that we practice in the metro areas. So there's a sense of being adaptable, and there's also an education element that comes up so we understand some of the challenges and regional stresses and then come up with a solution that really caters and listens to the environment in that ecosystem.
Interested in learning more? Listen to our entire conversation with Reggie Cabal at the TradeSquare podcast, TSQ here.
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