Trina Hockley - leading the way

HTR director Trina Hockley's world revolves around open communication - the source of true leadership

MULTI-COMPANY director Trina Hockley once turned a modest shearing supplies company in Western Australia into a million-dollar-a-year enterprise.

Fast forward 18 years and the director of HTR (Hospital Television Rentals) has successfully transformed the once publicly listed HTR back to a private company - the largest of its kind in Australia.

Now employing around 180 staff, Ms Hockley is both open and affable, refreshing characteristics to find in a company director who spends the majority of her time traversing the international business landscape.

What started on a sheep station in WA almost two decades ago has manifested into a successful business formula. But leadership, she says, is a by-product of experience.

"When my father had open heart surgery 10 years ago he asked me to take over the long-established family business, LM Electrics, and it all started from there," explains Ms Hockley.

"I was kind of thrust into the business following a successful partnership that supplied shearing equipment to stations throughout Australia. I took it from a $100,000 a year company to a $1 million a year company. When my father saw what I had done with that business, he asked me to take over LM Electrics, so I came home to the Gold Coast."

In 2000 Ms Hockley purchased Hospital Television Rentals, a national company that now supplies televisions and telephones to 15,000 hospital beds throughout Australia. In 2001 the Gold Coast Hospital became one of her first clients.

HTR is now on the cusp of supplying cutting edge technology to hospitals throughout Australia with Electronic Medical Records (EMR), a revolutionary concept where patients can access their medical records, television, pay TV and telephones with the swipe of a smart card.

Leading a dedicated team of researchers and technicians in Perth and another 30 staff at the company's Gold Coast headquarters, Ms Hockley and her team are in high demand. While it is evident that the mother of three leads HTR by example, maintaining consistent levels of excellence from the ground up is the company's core philosophy.

"I have to deal with a range of people all day, everyday," says Ms Hockley, who also owns the Betta Electrical store at Broadbeach and a commercial television rental business in Noosa.

"When we first bought this business we thought it would be relatively easy, but we have had to completely reconfigure certain elements so that we stay at the forefront of the industry.

"When you take a publicly listed company and turn it into a private one changes are inevitable. Of the 150 staff employed here when we first took over, there are only about three left. Staff must be held accountable and we found that when HTR was a public company staff could pretty much do what they liked. When we took over, a new audit system had to be introduced and we set out to create something new."

Ms Hockley insists that HTR is not all about whip cracking. In fact the 2003 Gold Coast Leadership Award winner is about to embark on a national staff training seminar tour. She will travel to each state and personally meet new staff and update key personnel on fresh strategies and new company guidelines.

"Because we are the biggest in the industry we have to personally train every single person," she says.

"There's not a training academy that specialises in supplying television and communications equipment to hospital patients. We need to keep our staff updated on everything from bird flu to the correct hygiene standards when entering a hospital.

"My key philosophy is how do you know what's going on in your company if you're not listening to the staff? I get out and talk to them and listen to what they have to say, because they are at the coalface of this company."

Footnote: In 2000 Ms Hockley became the first female to be elected on to the Retravision Board of Directors - a company she has since left.