Warwick Andison

‘Actions speak louder than words’ is a phrase quoted so much it’s almost lost its meaning. Like a lot of snappy, motivational one-liners, it sounds great, and there’s a thoughtful message which is supposed to inspire us, but does anyone really take any notice anymore?

Warwick Andison did. The actions which spoke so loudly and drowned out the words came from his parents.

“My parents were ahead of their time: they decided they wanted a change, so they went into business for themselves. They set up a health food shop and it was one of the first in Sydney,” Warwick recalls.

His father was an accountant; his mother, a dressmaker, and they both worked hard. The hours were long and they realised the financial reward didn’t match their efforts, so they decided to do something about it.

Eventually, “they got to the stage where they said to themselves, ‘we can make more money by running our own business’. They were entrepreneurial before the word even existed.

“But it wasn’t just a simple decision to start a business: they decided to move from Concord West, where both my sister and I were born, to Petersham. The business they started had nothing to do with their backgrounds. Why would you start a health food business in the 1950s?”

That hard-working attitude and desire to succeed enabled the Andisons to send Warwick to Sydney Grammar School and his sister to Presbyterian Ladies College in Croydon.

As a result, Warwick saw his parents in action from an early age, making deliberate and conscious decisions to improve the situation for themselves and their family.

“There’s no doubt that attitude has rubbed off on me,” he adds, although at the time he probably didn’t even realise it.

As a boy Warwick was restless, active, creative and enjoyed construction projects. Admittedly, television or computer games weren’t there to distract him, but you get the sense these may not have mattered, given his focus.

Warwick remembers that “a lot of the stuff I did as a kid I did for fun, like building billy carts and racing them down the street until the wheels fell off, or building cubby houses.”

He clearly remembers one time when “my sister’s girlfriend asked me to build her a cubby house. Actually she asked my sister if I would build it. I still don’t know if she asked because she fancied me or if she really wanted a cubby house, but I built it and had a lot of fun doing it.”

Even Warwick’s love of music and the joy he’s provided for others with it stems from the actions of his parents.

“My parents were both musical, that was instilled in me. We inherited my grandparents’ piano, so I was sent off to learn how to play it, and, again, it was fun.”

The young Warwick not only learnt how to play the piano, he developed a love of music. When you combine that with his fascination for making things, his ‘boy shed’ was soon cluttered with instruments, alongside the billy carts and cubby houses.

The two passions first came together when “I found these two bits of round wood and a longer thinner piece. I nailed the round bits to the long bit, put a couple of nails in them, stretched some rubber bands between the nails and would strum the rubber bands while listening to music on the radio.”

This was the first time Warwick realised the power of his actions. Strumming the rubber bands was so painful to the musical ear of his mother, she bought him a ukulele and a book on how to play it.

“I learnt three chords, and because I had a bit of an idea about music and I had an ear for it, I could virtually play any song I liked on that ukulele.

“Music has remained a big part of my life, in particular folk music, and at university I was part of a jug band with a few mates. We had a tea-chest bass, one guy playing a washboard with thimbles, a couple of guys on harmonicas and me on the guitar.”

Fondly, Warwick recalls, “we played in a wine bar in Crows Nest every weekend. I even got to play once with Gary Shearston, remember him? He had a big hit with ‘I Get A Kick Out Of You’ in the seventies.”

The example set by his parents in their approach to business and their passion for music has taught Warwick two valuable lessons he’s carried throughout his life. While hard work is vital for success, you can’t ignore the pleasures hard work provides.

Proudly, Warwick is able to state that “apart from the business acumen I learnt from Mum and Dad, I also learnt the value of enjoying life. I enjoy my music, I enjoy meeting people, I enjoy my business, I enjoy my life.”

Warwick Andison is the Principal of Intertrade Insurance, a business he started in 1991 which is now one of Sydney’s most trusted life and general insurance brokers for business, strata, property, professional and life insurance.

But just like his parents, the business he runs and the industry he works in today is a far cry from where he began. As he tells it, “I sort of fell into insurance.”

The story begins back at university, a place at which Warwick found himself, because “everybody expected you to go to uni,” but he was never quite sure.

“I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, so after a couple of years at uni I gave it away and joined an importing company dealing in chemicals and raw materials.

“The company was T.C. Denton and there weren’t too many characters like old Tom Denton. He was dealing with the Chinese well before it was popular, and twice a year he’d travel to the Canton Fair to buy goods to import.”

Eventually Warwick became involved on the buying side of the business with Tom and “he was going to take me to China, but unfortunately just prior to the trip he was on holiday in Europe and was killed in a car accident.”

At that point, “the family all arrived on the scene to stake their claim in the company and I realised I had probably gone as far with Denton’s as I was going to go.”

Warwick had seen enough of the importing business to realise there was an opportunity, so he and a business colleague formed a company and began importing some of the chemicals. Then the electronics market opened and the world began to change rapidly.

At the time “electronic calculators were just coming on the scene and were selling for well over a hundred dollars each. We did a deal with a retailer called Farmers, which was later bought out by Grace Bros and we even sold to Gerry Harvey back in the days of Norman Ross Discounts.”

A further impetus to the business came when “the Japanese company I was dealing with was so impressed with our success, they introduced me to another company which had playing cards, roulette wheels and dice games – things that could be sold in stationery departments.

“That company was Nintendo.”

The import business was booming until Warwick took a gamble on fold-up, polypropylene, two-man dinghies. “The price of calculators had plummeted to ten dollars and I could get two thousand of these dinghies for ten dollars each.”

Warwick clearly remembers the day the truck arrived. “This guy in a blue singlet and shorts walks into the office and says ‘guys, I’ve got your boats, where do you want ‘em?’ I looked out the window and his truck was double parked on the Pacific Highway in the middle of Crows Nest. We brought some into the office and the rest we packed into friends’ garages.”

The remainder of that story gets a little depressing as Warwick and his business partner managed to sell just five hundred dinghies and were forced to liquidate the company.

The two partners “made an arrangement to pay off the debt over a couple of years and that’s when a friend, who had sold me life insurance said, ‘do you want to make some extra money?’”

That was 1972 and it marked Warwick Andison’s transformation into an insurance salesman. As he wryly comments, “I became the Man from Prudential,” to quote an advertising campaign of the day.

Initially his idea was to make enough money from selling insurance to pay off his debts in order to return to importing. A strange thing happened, however: Warwick Andison actually enjoyed selling insurance.

The realisation hit that “I didn’t have to carry stock, I didn’t have to worry about trends, I didn’t have to worry about changes in the currency situation, and everybody needs insurance.”

He sold insurance for a short while, then moved into management. The industry then started to change with a range of new products on the market such as term life insurance, non-cancellable income protection and superannuation.

Warwick then took a step that would have made his parents proud. He returned home one afternoon and “I told my wife I’m ditching the secure income with the company car and going back out into the field to live on commission only.

“She was worried given our son was just six months old. I said it would be tough for a while but in the long run we’d be better off.”

While Warwick’s decision didn’t involve a move to a new suburb or into a business no-one knew about, it did mean he had to refinance the home loan, the third bedroom became his office, and he downgraded to a car that cost just five hundred dollars, an Austin 1800.

On reflection, he says he was fortunate that “from a very early age I saw my parents take a gamble and not only start their own business, but be successful at it. Obviously that has rubbed off on me.”

Intertrade Insurance Services has been running for over thirty years, now has a thousand clients, and Warwick has never been more inspired.

Happily for Warwick, “one thing which really excites me is meeting new people and being able to help them. If there’s one thing I could say to help anyone it would be that nothing is impossible, you just have to dare to dream.

“Whatever you want to achieve is possible: the only thing limiting you is the power of thought and the power of setting a goal.”

Importantly, though, Warwick quickly adds “don’t forget to have fun along the way. It’s a key ingredient in the success of this business. The staff here probably spend more time with each other than they do with their families, so it has to be enjoyable.

“They enjoy coming to work. We have fun here! Of course this is a business, and there’s work to do, but we do it in a ‘family’ environment, even to the extent of utilising our courtyard space for regular lunchtime barbecues.”

Warwick credits his parents for much of his success, but not because of what they told him to do, but what they showed by example. It’s a trait he’s now paying forward.

His three sons have all worked for him at various times. “The youngest, Jeremy, came here straight out of school. It’s been a great feeling to mentor him. Along with a couple of other young guys who’ve been with me a long time, he’s part of the succession plan of this business.”

Warwick’s idea is “to pass on my knowledge, help them develop the business, and see the business grow. Jeremy is now a director of the company.

“I have no intention of retiring, but I see my role over the next ten years as more of a mentor and getting a kick out of seeing them continue something that I started.”

The legacy of Warwick’s parents also will be his legacy: ensuring actions speak louder than words.

ADVICE

Many aspects are essential to being successful in business, but one thing Warwick Andison believes gets overlooked far too often is networking and the power of referrals.

As he notes, “I’ve spent an arm and a leg on advertising across all formats with no great result. I’ve realised that instead of trying to present our story and our business to the outside world in the hope of the right people coming along, it’s better to actually choose those we want to align with. We don’t need to chase people.”

Twenty years ago Warwick joined the local branch of networking group, Business Networking International (BNI), and believes it’s been a key factor in the growth and success of his business.

As he explains it, “BNI is a worldwide forum where you join a local chapter. Each chapter has only one of each industry/occupation and we help each other by referring business to each other. There’s a strong element of trust within the group and we’re accountable to each other for the work we do, both for them and their referrals.”

BNI’s slogan is ‘Givers Gain’ and Warwick is a firm believer in the power of that to help grow not only a business, but also the businessman.

As he sums up, “by helping others with referrals for business and friendships, you get it back in return. I think it’s a great way of helping people, making great friends and growing your business.”

Warwick values the exposure through BNI so highly, he’s passed on his place in his chapter to his son. The bonus is that “it’s really helped him develop as a person. It’s taught him how to stand up and deliver a small presentation each week on our business and the sort of business we’re looking for. He’s learnt how to liaise with people of all ages.”