Carolyn
Creswell

Speaker Profile

Carman's founder Carolyn Creswell is living proof that you can run a successful business and still have a genuine work-life balance.

Carolyn has managed to grow Carman's to become the number one selling muesli brand on Australian supermarket shelves, while at the same time maintaining a great relationship with her husband and raising four kids under eight!

Being a mother to William (seven), Lily (five), Oliver (two) and Grace (one), Carolyn understands the need to produce nourishing foods that she feels good about feeding to her own children and to the children of her customers within Australia and around the world.

Carolyn says the key to achieving true work-life balance is to live in the moment. 'When I'm working at Carman's I am 110% focused on the job at hand. I mainly work with other mums and we all give it our best while we're here so that we can get out of the door at 5 o'clock (or earlier if we're doing the school run). When I'm at home with Pete and the kids I am completely focused on my family. The BlackBerry is set aside and we'll begin preparing dinner, doing homework, bath-time and cuddles. Each night we all sit around the dinner table and talk about our day and then we go for a walk. I make sure that when I'm at home my family has my complete attention.'

Carolyn's commitment to a healthy work-life balance is reflected at the Carman's office where her employees, many being mums working flexible hours, can take time out of the office to attend their kids sports days and special assemblies. Carman's even has a kids' room complete with a single bed, TV and computer for employees' children who might be ill or on school holidays.

At lunch time everyone eats together at a big communal table and the conversations range from customer interaction and company strategy to the latest happenings in staff's lives. Each day, the team does the quiz from the paper, and on Friday's Carolyn shouts everyone lunch. Staff who have less than ten emails to action in their inbox can leave early on a Friday afternoon.

Carman's warm environment ensures a truly enjoyable place to work and a low staff turnover - no one has ever quit! Carolyn explains: 'Sometimes the smallest things like providing a kid's room, creating habits like eating lunch together or taking five minutes out of our day to do the quiz, can make the biggest difference.'

Carolyn's way of running Carman's has achieved recognition across a number of awards including her being named the 2007 Ernst & Young 'Young Entrepreneur of the Year'and also a finalist of the 2008 Telstra Business Woman of the Year Awards, the 2008 Veuve Clicquot Award and the 2009 InStyle Women of Style Awards. Carolyn is also a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She is an active member of two boards - the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, together with Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen Garden Foundation which works to get kids into the garden and the kitchen, so they appreciate the origins of fresh food.

Carolyn's passion for healthy food made from real ingredients that don't need to be hidden in fine print has cemented Carman's reputation as a food brand customers around the world can trust to be not only natural and healthy, but delicious.

2012 is an exciting year for Carman's. 'The growth Carman's is experiencing has been astounding. Someone told me that right now, every two seconds someone, somewhere in the world buys a Carman's product which I find to be an unbelievable testament to the team's achievements. I want to ensure that the company's structure supports this growth, and that Carman's core values and culture are not compromised. I believe the journey we are on is only just beginning, and I'm so excited to see how the next few years unfold,' explains Carolyn.

Travels from Victoria