Family values drive business success

I am very proud to have been honoured with the Curtin University Faculty of Business and Law Professional Achievement Award for 2018.

I have always valued the knowledge I gathered at Curtin. Without it, the career I so much enjoy wouldn’t have happened. Every day on my way into campus I’d pass a sign that said “look ever forward” and those words still resonate for me today.

I’m proud to be recognised within an alumni community of 230,000 graduates and because I am privileged to work with the very best communications people in Perth on a daily basis. Any success I have in the business world is a direct reflection of the people around me.

Cannings Purple was a team of two when we started in 2004. We now number 38 – 19 of whom are female.

We began with a focus very much on investor relations. That’s still a core part of our business but now we also operate in crisis management, government relations, corporate communications, media strategy, design and digital and our own bespoke content creation.

Cannings Purple Managing Director Warrick Hazeldine (fourth from left), with his fellow Curtin Alumni Award winners and the university’s Vice-Chancellor Deborah Terry.

We have a clear purpose – to start and shape conversations that matter, to help clients create positive impacts for their communities – and we set out each day to learn something new.  We value courage and hard work and we live to create trends, not follow them.

But most of all we value family … and I’m lucky enough to have two of them: a very supportive team at home and also the team we’ve grown at Cannings Purple.

I often say to new employees “welcome to the family” and I really mean that. Flexible work is a cornerstone of the Cannings Purple philosophy and when I look around our office and see colleagues who have been with me for five, seven or 10 years, I think we’ve succeeded in creating a happy environment.

This award, which I will treasure always, is shared with both of my families.

• Find out more about Cannings Purple family