Women in industry: an interview with Carolyn Creswell

It’s an unfortunate fact that women who are highly successful in their fields are often asked to comment on gender in their industry. While their male counterparts are questioned about the state of the industry and business decisions, female business owners and CEOs are quizzed about how they manage to juggle a career and children.

It’s also an unfortunate fact that these women are well-placed to comment on gender balance in industry. Since women continue to be underrepresented in senior positions across a number of industries, being in the minority gender but at the top of their fields gives these women a unique perspective on gender balance.

Until women are fairly represented in a range of industries and senior positions, it may be the case that women will continue to be treated as representatives for their gender first and their company second.

Founder of Carman’s Fine Foods Carolyn Creswell is adamant that her gender ought not to affect the way she is perceived as a business owner and parent. “No one would challenge if I was a man that I could be a great parent and I could work,” Creswell said, speaking with WNIFT&M shortly after being announced as the Telstra Victorian Business Woman of the Year for 2012.

“In Australia we have this real feeling that a woman can’t work and be a good parent, and I challenge that you can,” Creswell said. “I’m a big advocate for saying that you can have a career and you can be a great mother.”

She makes a good point. The thing is, Creswell’s personal life is interesting - and may just have shaped the type of business operator she has become. WNIFT&M asked Creswell the standard questions about gender in the food industry but also gained some insight into the approach of a highly successful operator.

Carolyn Creswell, founder of Carman’s Fine Foods.

The backstory

The story of Carman’s Fine Foods is a small business owner’s dream. In 1992, at the age of 18, Creswell paid $1000 for a half-share in a tiny business that supplied homemade muesli to Melbourne cafes and delis. Twenty years on, Carman’s supplies all major Australian supermarkets and exports to 32 countries around the world.

With no business qualifications, no business mentor and four children under the age of eight, Creswell’s career path has differed significantly from that of many of her peers. But that may just be the key to her success.

“I guess I’ve always challenged the status quo,” Creswell said. Refusing to do things a particular way just because everyone else does has paid off for Creswell, as has her commitment to treating everyone with dignity and respect.

Whether it be avoiding the use of additives, using ingredients in their most natural form or being the first Australian company to use sulfite-free apricots, Creswell has stuck to her guns and stayed true to her original aim of producing good quality, nutritious food.

Small but significant allowances like flexible working hours and leave to attend children’s school activities - as well as a kids’ room with a bed and computer for sick days and holidays - have fostered a positive and supportive work environment with low staff turnover.

“It’s not like it’s rocket science, what we do here,” Creswell said. “I personally believe that if people are treated with respect and they’re empowered and given all the tools they need to do the best job they can, then they will give as much as they can back to the business.

“It actually pays for itself, the way we operate here,” Creswell said. “It’s not like we’re doing anything expensive or complicated - we certainly aren’t.”

The dreaded gender question

WNIFT&M asked Creswell the obligatory gender questions, such as whether the gender balance has changed in Creswell’s 20 years in the industry. “Oh, absolutely,” Creswell said. “There are certainly more women in the industry, and certainly in the more senior positions, than there were 20 years ago.”

Gender relations have also improved since then, Creswell says. She recounted the story of an unsavoury packaging supplier in the early ‘90s shutting her in an office plastered with nudie calendars and asking her when she was going to start having an affair with him. “I was just horrified,” she said.

“Maybe now because I’m older and stronger it doesn’t happen so much,” Creswell said. “But it was shocking in the early days.”

She does, however, note an ever-present assumption that her children would prefer to have her at home full-time - and that she would rather be there. “I don’t aspire to be home all day, every day,” Creswell said. “I actually love going to work and my kids are so proud of me. And I think that’s great - it’s great to be a role model.”

Creswell makes no bones about the fact that she’s not the one who washes the floors at home but says she’s still very engaged with her children. “It’s not the number of hours that you’re with them, but the quality of time that you spend,” she concluded.

Export

While Creswell’s views on women in industry and work-life balance are illuminating, so too are her business approaches. WNIFT&M spoke with Creswell about exporting, food trends and ethical business.

Creswell says the move to supplying supermarkets was more difficult than the move to exporting due to the dramatic increase in volume the business had to generate. In contrast, Creswell says, “Export’s been a slow burner; we’ve been doing it for 10 years.”

But exporting has presented its own unique set of hurdles. Currency fluctuations, quarantine procedures, changing restrictions and country-specific idiosyncrasies have all posed challenges. Despite this, Creswell says exporting is “challenging but it is extremely exciting and rewarding”.

The Asian market is quite different to anything Creswell had previously experienced. “A lot of it’s building relationships and trust and mutual respect,” Creswell said. “It’s not just about whether your product’s any good and how much it costs.”

While technology may make exporting easier than it was 20 years ago, Creswell says the diversity of markets across the globe is still challenging. “When you’re dealing with 32 countries, you can’t have sound knowledge of each market,” Creswell said. “So we operate entirely differently in America than, say, the UK and it’s about building up that model that’s going to work for the business.”

Food trends

“We try not to be too on-trend,” Creswell said. “We want to make sure there’s enough of a market. After all, we are a supermarket supplier, so we want to do something that’s going to be popular with the mainstream.”

Given the recent growth in gluten-free products, Carman’s has added several gluten-free options to its range. Creswell is insistent that any Carman’s product that caters to a specific food intolerance shouldn’t be a compromise. “If we’re going to do it, it’s still got to taste fantastic,” Creswell said. “I really challenge the idea that it has to be a compromise.

“Like with our gluten-free cereal - we know that more than half the people who buy it are not coeliacs. They just buy it because they like it. But that’s the aim of whatever we do.”

Ethical business

The term “respect” crops up frequently in Creswell’s conversation; in fact, it seems to be a common thread through the entire Carman’s business. The company’s mission statement includes phrases like “having integrity in everything we do” and “working with pride, passion and optimism in a fun and respectful environment”.

Creswell supports the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation and Bowel Cancer Australia. While many companies are now very vocal about their social and environmental initiatives, Creswell is the kind of operator who acts rather than just talks.

She gives her time to the Kitchen Garden Foundation not because it’s fashionable or a convenient charitable organisation for a food processor to be linked with, but because she strongly believes in its philosophy. “I do it because I passionately believe in the program,” she said.

Carman’s donates money as well as time to the bowel cancer cause, and whenever she speaks in public Creswell works the topic into her speech to raise awareness. But she doesn’t draw attention to her work. “We just put that on our packaging and I talk about it,” she said simply.

“It’s more than just trying to tick off some social responsibility,” she said. “If you have a care in everything you do then you make decisions because you think that’s the right thing.

“I think it gives your brand integrity, but it’s hard to do that if you don’t genuinely believe in the cause.”

Advice for small business

Asked what advice she’d offer to a small business looking to expand in the way Carman’s has, Creswell said, “Have a crystal clear vision of where you’re heading and refer to that every day. Know what and what you don’t do.”

She also offers some practical advice: “Say you’ve got 200 customers and to have a good scale you need 1000. Well, that would mean every week you need to pick up 10 new customers. That means you need to approach 50, because the conversion rate will take it down from 50 to 10. And then break it down from there. Every day you need to approach 10 new customers.”

Don’t worry so much about the long-term, she says, but ask instead where you want to be in the next few years and what you can do that’s within your power and financial means to set you on the path to the big picture. “And then just plug away at it, doing what you need to do every day.”