Work Wonders
Back in late 2021, we decided that instead of chatting to each other about the challenges and triumphs of people management in small businesses, we should invite you to join the conversation. And the Work Wonders podcast was born! Managing people is serious business. We bring you all the latest, practical advice without the pain. The podcast is brought to you by Aster HR https://www.asterhr.com.au/ and your hosts are Angela Gauci and Susan Rochester
Work Wonders
Guest Interview: Dr Belinda Chapman, Co-Founder of Quantal Bioscience
It’s interview time again!
In this episode, we spoke with Dr Belinda Chapman, Co-Founder and CEO of Quantal Bioscience and it was a great discussion.
Quantal Bioscience is a private research laboratory focussed on doing good big things with tiny microbes, across the food, agriculture and education sectors. Belinda herself has more than 25 years’ experience as a research microbiologist, and has led, managed, developed and inspired small teams of 5-20 research scientists for most of the past 20 years, and in a range of workplaces, from state and federal government institutes to industry, large and small.
Belinda opens up about her own journey of being a leader and comparing the difference between leading a team for a company you work for, and leading a team in your very own business. She also shares some great tips to improve engagement and retention in your workplace.
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You can find the show notes for this episode here
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Brought to you by Aster HR, the Work Wonders Podcast is hosted by Angela Gauci & Susan Rochester and is recorded at Launch Pad at Western Sydney University.
All information or advice included in this podcast is general, has been developed as a starting point for your business, and should be tailored to your specific requirements. It should not be considered legal advice. We have made every attempt to ensure the accuracy and currency of this information at the time of recording. However, references to things like employment laws are subject to change. For specific advice relating to your business, please get in touch with us.
Welcome to the Work Wonders podcast brought to you by Asta HR, where we simplify the human side of business.
Speaker 2:I'm Angela and I'm Susan, let's dive into today's episode and find out what you've been wondering about.
Speaker 1:Today it's interview time again, and we are delighted to welcome Dr Belinda Chapman, who is the co-founder and director of Quantal Bioscience, to the room. Her private research laboratory focuses on doing good, big things with tiny microbes across the food, agriculture and educational sectors. Belinda has more than 25 years of experience as a research. Linda has more than 25 years of experience as a research microbiologist and has led, managed and developed and inspired small teams of around 50 to 20 research scientists for most of those years and in her range of workplaces that she's been in, from state to federal government institutes. They've been across a variety of industries and size of organisation and teams, large and small. The discussion was a great one. We heard not only about the fascinating industry that she's in and the work that they're doing, but also how she's built her team and her own personal journey from being a leader inside an organisation and an employee herself to moving into leading her own team. She touched on engagement and retention, and we had a great discussion around culture in a workplace as well. She had a lot to offer. You're going to love this one, so let's get started.
Speaker 1:This is the Work Wonders podcast. Hi Susan, hi Angela. So today we've got another interview. We always love our guest interviews and we'd like to welcome Belinda from Quantal Bioscience here. Welcome, belinda. Thank you very much for having me.
Speaker 2:Thanks for coming along and chatting with us today, belinda. We met at a function here at Launchpad actually, didn't we? Yeah, we did, and I was fascinated by where you'd come from and your work history and what you're doing now. So can you expand for our listeners a bit more about your career and your?
Speaker 3:business. Yeah, so I am a microbiologist, I'm a research scientist and I've spent about 25 years doing research across all different kinds of industries so in the food industry, agriculture, the environment and I've also spent a lot of time working in education, but not as a teacher, so as a lecturer at university on occasion, but a lot of time also spent working with high school and primary school students and teaching them science as well. So my career kind of takes me from industry so places like I've worked at Arnott's, I've worked at Sanitarium, a number of different food manufacturers, through to working at the CSIRO, where I was there for 10 years as a research scientist and then also out on a few different interesting diversions, working at Westmead Hospital for a while, working around Warragamba Dam for a while and also at KPMG for a while as well.
Speaker 2:So I've had quite an eclectic kind of career. So they employ microbiologists.
Speaker 3:They do. So there's a whole kind of area of advanced science and technology kind of work at KPMG and also around some things some people might have heard of, like R&D tax incentive, this particular scheme to encourage research in Australia in industry, and so I've been involved from that side of things with KPMG as well. But where I am now is I've actually established my own business, which is Quantal Bioscience, and we are about nine years old Actually, we're nine years old at the end of this month. Congratulations, thank you very much. And so that's been a whole different journey, but still as a research microbiologist, but now with a few extra hats on as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we all put those extra hats on once we get into our own businesses.
Speaker 1:Don't, we Can't help it when you're a business owner. So science definitely, even in food production and agriculture, as you said. So yeah, I'm really curious what sort of things would they ask of you there and how does that fit into the production of those sorts of items?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I guess when I first started in my career, it was a little less complicated in some ways than it is now. I guess when I first started it was very much things like have we got salmonella in, you know, for example, eggs or chickens or somewhere where we don't want that kind of organism? But now, with a whole lot of new technology coming in which is what our company actually specialises in, which is around DNA sequencing the questions and the opportunities have got a lot bigger in food and in agriculture, and so one of the key areas that we actually work in is fermentation. So a lot of people would think about fermentation like making yogurt, making bread, making beer, that kind of thing.
Speaker 3:We all like all the good stuff Salami, olives, just list goes on. So in fermentation there's a lot of microbiology research Right, and we can actually delve into these really fascinating, really complex fermentations now using DNA sequencing. So really funky things like get whole new microorganisms to grow where they wouldn't normally grow, trying to get a whole lot of new bioactive kind of molecules out of microorganisms, that sort of thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you talked about, you know, going from different place to place and quite different sort of industries or different businesses before you had your own. I'm curious does the same sort of process apply no matter where you are? To some respect, you know, is it with that skill that you've got and the knowledge that you've got, is it sort of able to be taken away to any industry?
Speaker 3:It is so in terms of my technical skills. So my technical skills are actually really transferable across industries. I had a good fortune of kind of learning at a very theoretical and fundamental kind of base that then turned into something that was applicable to lots of different areas. So that's been really great. And then my business skills and my other kind of skills are totally transferable across all of those as well, just like most people would imagine.
Speaker 2:So before you started. Quantel, you were an employee, obviously.
Speaker 3:Yes, I was. Yes, generally, I'm trying to think back. It's been a long time.
Speaker 2:You may have had another business before that. No, Because what I was curious to ask about was you know, although you were managing staff in previous roles and you had teams and all the rest of that, what's different for you now? You know, doing it in your own business. The stakes are a bit higher.
Speaker 3:For a start, yes, yes, I think so. Obviously, if you don't keep in your own business, if you don't keep money coming in the door, then there's a lot bigger consequences, a lot more soon, a lot sooner. I think that the key difference for me is really focusing in on how do I create a really high performing team, and that has always been a passion of mine. But it does sort of hone it to a fine edge when you know that you've got to make payroll the next fortnight.
Speaker 3:So and we have a small team. It's a very dedicated team, it's a very specialised team. In some ways it's also quite a kind of niche sort of team and in a lot of ways we're asking the team to do things that aren't often asked of them in other environments as well, in other working situations. So they're all learning new skills all the time in that small business context, even though they're still obviously employees. Being employees in different kind of contexts also does mean that you're asking different things of your employees as well, that's true.
Speaker 2:So in your business, what would be an example? Say someone had come from. Csiro into your business? What would they be doing that they wouldn't have got exposure to?
Speaker 3:So a couple of things like marketing.
Speaker 1:Yes so it's.
Speaker 3:You know, a lot of our team is very practised at working with different clients, obviously doing the research, working with different clients. But then there's a whole other edge to it when you're talking about things like marketing and speaking to people more broadly about what we do to try and engage people, rather than the specifics of our kind of research.
Speaker 3:As scientists, we're all often guilty of slipping into our specialist area and starting to talk too much in detail, in technical detail, about what we're doing or what we're interested in, but we engage with kind of broader audiences often. So remembering, especially in a marketing kind of context, we might have to come up to a sort of a higher level of being able to be engaging with people.
Speaker 3:And that can be challenging when you're head down in a specific area for a lot of the day and then you've got to kind of morph into somebody who's doing marketing or, in the case of our team as well, a lot of education work with students of all ages as well. So it's quite a different kind of mindset in there, you know.
Speaker 1:I'm sure listeners could really identify with that as well because you know, you know, you know your stuff, but you still have to do other stuff as well, and it is that kind of changing the hat, or yeah, and when you're a small team, everyone has to pitch in, and sometimes it is about being multidisciplinary and stepping in and doing bits and pieces to make the ship go forward, I guess.
Speaker 3:It absolutely is in our team. Yeah, everybody has to get involved in just about everything at some point in time.
Speaker 2:Do you enjoy listening to our interview episodes? As you can tell, Angela and I really enjoy making them, so we're always on the lookout for interesting people we can interview. If you or someone you know would make a great guest for us, please get in touch. You can contact us through our website at astrohrcomau or via LinkedIn. We're always happy to have a chat about what we might be able to discuss. That can both inform our listeners and help you to reach a wider audience. Now let's get back to the episode.
Speaker 1:Okay, belinda. Well, you talked about being quite specialised in what you do with your clients. So, no doubt is that what attracts people to want to come and join your team if they get to be able to work in that technical space, in a very niched area.
Speaker 3:I think what particularly attracts people to our team, and we have an interesting kind of dynamic in our team. We've got a whole bunch of people that I've actually been working with for sometimes up to about 20 years, and we've kind of followed each other through. A number of organisations kept together as a team. But we've also got a younger cohort that's about half of our age that we've managed to attract.
Speaker 2:Why don't you employ 15 year olds? We do, they're more like mid-20s, but we do actually employ 15 year olds as well, so that those younger kind of generation.
Speaker 3:It's an interesting kind of dynamic. But I think what's really attracted those younger people to our team is we are a really unique offering in the science sort of space. In Australia. There aren't too many businesses like ours sort of space in Australia there aren't too many businesses like ours and often getting into science sort of organisations is quite challenging and we have a very personal kind of way of talking and interviewing and recruiting our newer sort of graduates and so on, which I think is quite refreshing when you compare it to often the major sort of jumps and hoops that you have to go through to get into larger organisations.
Speaker 1:Well, going to all the trouble of finding them. I mean, you talked about other people following you and your journey and coming and joining into the team, but keeping them engaged and keeping them long-term, I guess, is front of mind for you. Would that be right? It is definitely. What sort of strategies have you used or what have you done over the time to keep people engaged in the work that they're doing and the vision of your business and, yeah, keep them around for the long term?
Speaker 3:I mean, a key thing when you're working with scientists is scientists love to learn. They love to learn constantly, and so making sure that you're providing opportunities for learning is probably one of the key things. And so with our younger recruits, we have implemented very deliberate kind of training, including helping to sponsor and take them through master's programs, PhD programs and so on while they're working with us, which again is often challenging if you're working for a larger organisation. So we're kind of providing a unique opportunity in that regard and also, I think, by the nature of a small business. When there is a lot going on in there, there's a lot of opportunity to learn a lot of things really quickly. And because we have a very experienced older cohort of scientists as well as younger team members, they're getting a lot of experience kind of into their heads really quickly.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And in a really just close kind of way you know like the team is very close and we're all in together.
Speaker 2:So, it's not like it's separated in multiple levels of hierarchy or anything like that and I was thinking also like as a scientist, by training myself, the whole collaborative expectation of you know scientists talk to each other about their work and you know what the developments are and all that sort of thing. So it's exciting to be in that environment where you're involved in those conversations. It is yeah.
Speaker 3:And I mean, I always think science is a team sport yes, definitely, and so having that opportunity for collaboration and learning from your peers is really important. It's also really important, though, as well, to give scientists space to get into deep, independent kind of work. Get into deep, independent kind of work, and so that's. We do both at Quantal, which, again, is a really good thing, because you need both of those kind of elements as a scientist.
Speaker 3:And do you structure that? Yeah, we do so we have, even though, as I said, everyone kind of jumps in and works together. Everyone has their own bit of specialisation as well. We try and give opportunity, wherever we can while still juggling the demands of a small business for different people in the team to specialise in different areas that they can spend some quality time on and get really deep in their knowledge. So we want that combination of I think I heard it referred to as well in a few different ways in business but like a T-shaped person you want to be really deep in some areas and very broad across a lot of areas, and that's true in science, it's true in business.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I agree, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Belinda. From your experience of being a leader of a team and more so recently in your own business with your team, what practical things have you done to maintain a really positive culture where everyone is aligned to the purpose of what you're doing?
Speaker 3:It is a practice that I've had right through my career, but it's particularly important now in a small business where we have to align to achieve things.
Speaker 3:I think the key thing and I'm getting better at it all the time and I'm certainly putting much more deliberate effort into it is really sharing the whole of the journey with the team as much as I possibly can.
Speaker 3:I have come from a bit of a background where sometimes you know you're talking about certain things to management, you're talking about other certain things to your team, and I have had that kind of training myself to hold different things back from different audiences within the business. But I think in a small business like ours there's actually more value in having everybody pretty much up to speed as much as possible with all aspects of the business, and so that's definitely a work in progress, something I'm really deliberate about now and you know that's been kind of something that I've actually been receiving some business coaching on as well over the last 12 months and I can see the difference that it's making to the team and really again taking a whole bunch of people who are either never really worked in science before and this is their first science job, and then taking a whole bunch of people who have worked largely in an institutional kind of setting for a long time.
Speaker 1:Taking all of those people along on what is the journey not just of our science, but what's the journey of our business as well, is really, really important, and I'm hoping it will all reap benefits as we slide into our 10th year, as we all do yes, well, susan and I are always rabbiting on about communication, and I think, fundamentally, that's what you're talking about there sharing information on a practical point of you know, this is the decision we're making, or this is the position we're going toward, or whatever it may be.
Speaker 2:I like what you're saying there, yeah, and I can definitely see a benefit for you coming, if not already, a lot about how you do what you do and how the organisation achieves what it's achieving, but we haven't really spoken to the specifics of the services that you offer your clients.
Speaker 3:Can you tell us a bit more about what?
Speaker 2:Quantel does. Where do you make your money? How do you keep those people employed?
Speaker 3:Sure, we actually do four different things, and I said four and I'm holding up five fingers, so that anybody can see me because there's kind of a fifth thing on the side so we work with, we do our own research internally.
Speaker 3:We also do other people's research as well for them. So we have lots of clients, big and small multinationals through to one single person kind of businesses, and we do research for those businesses. We have also got a whole suite of education products and experiences that we do for high school students, for primary school students, high school students for primary school students. We also have out of the research that we have done over the years we have commercialised that into some really specific services which is around DNA sequencing and that is actually applicable into the food area, into the agriculture area, environmental area and health areas as well. So we do work in animal health and agriculture and so on.
Speaker 3:And then there is a fourth area, which is training. So we offer training. Again, we do quite specialised training for large multinational businesses who need very specialised training around certain things, and we do very fundamental kind of training for people, especially in the food industry, who are maybe just starting out with their own company, their own products, learning how to make especially artisan foods for the first time and how do they actually make sure that they're going to be safe for their consumers to eat and also how do they know that they're going to get the right sort of shelf life as well. So we offer that training kind of services as well.
Speaker 1:Okay, belinda. Well, we always like to end our interviews with the same question and we'd love you to share with our listeners maybe one thing that they could take away that might help the engagement and retention in their own teams.
Speaker 3:Okay, thank you for asking that question. It's a great question and I did give it a lot of thought. So I think the key thing for me in keeping a team together and retaining them into the longer term is always being prepared to do everything that you're asking your team to do as well, or flipping it over, I guess. So don't ask your team to do anything that you wouldn't be prepared to do yourself. It doesn't mean that you have to do everything, but you have to be prepared to do the same things that you're asking your team to do. And again, I think in small businesses we can all acknowledge sometimes you're doing things that are outside your comfort zone. Things are outside my comfort zone as well, but if I think well, I'll have a go at it. I'm hoping that my team will have a go at it as well, and vice versa.
Speaker 1:I love that. Leading by example, yeah, sounds simple, but yeah, such an important part. Well, thank you so much. It's been a pleasure talking with you today, belinda. It's so interesting to listen to your story and your business, and certainly outside my comfort zone, but I loved hearing about it. Thank you for sharing with us Before you go. If people would like to know more, or perhaps even doing some educational training with you, how could?
Speaker 3:they do that. Thanks for that as well. So if you're interested at all in our training programs especially if you're a small food business looking for some expert advice, so the best thing is to go to our website, which is wwwquantalbiosciencecom. If you are interested in our education programs, we have a Facebook page which is also Quantal Bioscience and that tends to focus around our education programs.
Speaker 1:Fantastic. Well, we'll be sure to put those links in the show notes today so you can just click on that. And thanks again for being with us. Thank you very much for having me again. Thank you very much for having me again. Thank you Thanks for listening to the Work Wonders podcast brought to you by Asta HR. Hit the subscribe button now to never miss an episode, and if you'd like to continue the conversation with us, you can find us over at astrhrcomau. See you in the next episode.
