With over 30 years in business, in the UK and overseas Gaynor Gravestock has extensive business experience you can trust.
For the first 20 business years she covered most areas of a business, including Marketing, HR, IT and Finance. For the last 11 years she has specialised in being a generalist (a slight oxymoron?), holding senior and board level positions as well as providing management consulting for SMEs. She has delivered business growth, turnaround and transformation, and has a track record in identifying creative business solutions to deliver service differentiation and premium pricing, rather than discounting, in volatile markets.
A real people person, Gaynor energises others with contagious enthusiasm and actively involves them in developing ideas and implementing solutions. She is passionate about making a difference and working with local business owners to help them achieve the full potential of their business, while creating more time to do the things they enjoy doing.
As a management consultant Gaynor places a particular focus on the organisation as a whole. She demonstrates an excellent understanding of business strategy and leadership, supported by postgraduate business qualifications from a leading university.
With a love of art, history and being outdoors, and having lived most of her life in Australia, she has now settled in Shrewsbury and enjoys exploring what Shropshire and the rest of the UK have to offer, at least when she isn’t tending her beautiful walled garden. Gaynor is married to Fred and they have five grown up daughters, some living locally and others overseas.
What drives Gaynor?
- A passion for business – understanding its complexities and how each business is unique
- A thirst for knowledge –it’s about understanding why something might work . . . and why it might not
- Service excellence – if it’s worth doing then it’s worth doing properly . . . then it’s more satisfying
- Standing out from the crowd – never one to conform, Gaynor looks for different possibilities
- To be the best – no matter how great, we can always improve
- For the greater good – mindful of our impact on others and our corporate social responsibility
- Helping others – that’s where the real passion comes from
- The whole is greater than the sum of the parts (provided the parts are working together) – a fascination with and an ability to keep her eyes on all of the parts and make sure they work in synergy.
Education
Master of Business (Marketing) The University of Queensland
Including business strategy; entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity; strategic marketing; communication management; organisational behaviour; strategic management of HR and innovation; managing diversity; and stakeholder management.
Bachelor of Arts (Art History double major) The University of Queensland
Never underestimate the power of an arts degree. Established a love of learning, and lead to intense research, in depth analysis, comprehension of complex theories, creative thinking, and understanding the potency of environmental influence.
Interests
Family, reading, art, history, gardening, walking and lifelong learning.
Track Record
Gaynor has sector experience across many industries, including professional services, IT, advertising, web development, corporate design, media, education, social care, health and retail.
Achievements
- Delivered results focused business strategy inspiring cultural change, driving corporate and business-level strategy, accountability, KPI management, quality driven policy and processes and stakeholder management. Increased turnover by 50%.
- Transformed brand proposition to increase profitability resulting in higher returns and higher occupancy compared with competitors; 10% increase in fees within a year; 72% increase in customer base.
- Organisation development and transformation resulting in introduction of a learning culture, innovative problem solving, empowerment, service excellence, and career development pathways. Attracted improved standard of staff; increased staff retention by 15%; reduced absence by 5%; managers confident to deal with staffing issues.
- Established 21st century IT solutions resulting in a scalable infrastructure catering to future growth. Identified, evaluated and project managed implementation of an integrated IT solution that delivered effective and secure electronic communications to over 20 sites.
- Enhanced Corporate Governance ensured best practice included ethical requirements as well as legislative requirements. Company Secretary for 4 Dunedin companies.
- Transformed financial loss into profitable business and established objectives, accountability, and KPI management. Increased word-of-mouth referrals by 20%.
- Transformed culture from lethargic reactivity, to one of energy, ideas, participation and ownership resulting in highly committed team and proactive introduction of new income generating technologies.
Recognition
- Elected Board Member of Internet Industry Association (IIA), Australia. Improved industry standards and access for disadvantaged people. Introduced corporate governance.
- Elected Chair of Digital Bridge Virtual Task force. Led a virtual taskforce; delivered a plan for web site accessibility; invited to join other virtual task forces and presented as keynote speaker at national conference (Australian Financial Review).
- Member of Golden Key International Honour Society. High academic achievement recognised in both degrees; resulting in two invitations to join this prestigious society.
- Innovative research results. Research proved information false in many encyclopaedias.
- BAD (Brisbane Art Directors) Award nomination. Creative input into film enhancement and production technique resulted in nomination for Brisbane Art Directors Award.
Board Memberships
The Internet Industry Association, Director of the Board, 2001-2003
The Internet Industry Association, Chair, Digital Bridge National Task Force, 2001-2005
New Horizons (Child Care) Holdings Ltd, Company Secretary, 2006-2008
Synergy & Strategy Limited, Director, 2009-present