Kym Williams, Founder and Managing Director of BRS and easyconsult

BRS is an advisory firm passionate about culture, leadership, commercial and high performance. Their vision is to be the leading niche management advisory firm in Australia for the government, infrastructure and resources industries.

Their services include leadership, team and culture, commercial and procurement, organisation and process improvement, project governance and collaborative contracting.

easyconsult (www.easyconsult.com.au) has been designed to take the pain out of setting up, systemising and managing your business allowing you to spend more time with clients and on projects.

Previous experience:

General Manager of South Australia and Western Australia for an international engineering and environmental firm involved in significant projects across Australia

Senior management roles in local government, across two large metropolitan councils in Adelaide in a range of commercial and governance portfolios

Working in a Big Four accounting firm and State Government as a financial auditor.

Honors & Awards

In-Business Fast Movers Competition

(BRS was awarded the fastest growing company in South Australia in 2012 averaging over 205% annual growth for the last three years.)

Start up Smart Awards (2011 and 2013)

(BRS finished in the top 25 fastest growing companies in Australia for 2011 and 2013)

Telstra Business Awards (2012 and 2013)

(Finalist in the Telstra Business Awards – Small Business category for South Australia)

Top 40 under 40 CPA Business Leaders 2013 ( for 2011 and 2012)

(Kym was judged for the second consecutive year as one of the top 40 under 40 business leaders for CPA Australia’s In the Black magazine.)

BRW Fast Starters

(BRS has been nominated as a finalist in the 2013 BRW fast starters awards.)

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I’m not an employee of BRS or easyconsult or any other businesses of Kym. I’m not a journalist either. I’ve just met him once and have talk to him three times, twice of which were over the phone. However, that gives me enough motivation to write something about him, so that I will never forget. Another reason is that, to whoever is reading this, this person will be a source of inspiration for you I hope.

As the owner of the fastest – growing business in South Australia, a loving dad to three lovely kids, husband to a great wife, Kym seems to be the role model that everyone wants to become. He is very friendly, likable and approachable with a great big smile. What I admire most about this man is neither his businesses nor his social status, but his fantastic leadership skills and his genuine interest in people development.

Prior to meeting Kym, I had the chance to read his blog on the company websites (http://www.brsresults.com and http://easyconsult.com.au/). I was very impressed by these blogs because it was written by all the employees in the company. Everyone has a say. Through what Kym wrote, and his team members wrote, it was obvious that there is a very well-defined culture in the company with a focus on people development and job satisfaction. It seems that everyone in the team is truly enjoying what they do. An employee also stated that she chose BRS instead of other big firms because of its culture, its fabulous team and Kym’s coaching. However, the blog is still very well structured and absolutely a wealth of knowledge for small and medium businesses, as well as for leaders generally. Kym, particularly, shows his thorough understanding of business management and his winning leadership style. For me, this would be an ideal company for people who are growth-oriented, willing to learn, and highly value job satisfaction in their career.

I was lucky to have a meeting with Kym and had the chance to understand more about him, his points of view on life and his business. He has a positive can-do attitude, which has empowered him to overcome many challenges when he first started his business. In terms of recruitment, Kym favours young people who don’t need to have much experience because he believes that young employees are energetic, open-minded and eager to learn. It is much easier to instil a new positive way of thinking and attitude to the youth. Kym stresses the importance of attitude, which is a driver of success. With his employees, Kym always gives useful feedback and it is a common practice at his company that everyone has the opportunity to have a one on one with their boss. “Every person loves to be listened to, coached effectively and assisted to learn, grow and develop.”, Kym writes in his blog.

When I asked how he will maintain this engagement with his employees when BRS expands in the future, Kym gave me a surprising answer. He said it will not be changed, because he won’t employ a huge number of people. How big a company is doesn’t depend on how many employees it has. Thanks to technology, the business can expand by going online without the need to employ many people. However, even if Kym had a hundred people under his wings, I have the belief that he would still be able to maintain a good culture and engagement with his employees through many other ways.

To Kym, corporate culture is very important, reflecting his great focus on people. And I think this is the simple secret that has led him to today and future success. ” If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader” (John Adams). I find it interesting to see the difference between management and leadership( hopefully Kym can blog about this some day). If managers are those who do things right, leaders are those who do the right things. What most companies are having today are managers who tell others what to do, but not many leaders who can actually inspire others to work. Kym is one of very few examples of great leaders that I have known.

About BRS culture and Kym’s leadership, it is not sufficient to talk about within the scope of this blog. If you want to become a great leader and want to learn about how a business can succeed, I strongly recommend visiting their blogs at http://thebrsblog.com/ and http://www.easyconsult.com.au/blog/.

I feel very blessed to have had the opportunity to meet Kym Williams and also his wife Nicole Williams, who built the business with him. They have the kind of professional and family life that I would like to pursue in the future. Thanks to them, I have been inspired to try more and achieve more.

I hope you are inspired too 🙂