DEbra Bayne – Founder and CEO

Debra Bayne leads change that builds stronger, more effective organisations.

ETHOS

Searching for better ways of conducting business, internally and externally, is a healthy pursuit. Debra embraced the opportunities presented in the 1990s to explore the potential of the new tools for the new millenium: computer based technologies. Prior to establishing Debraneys, Debra worked as a private consultant to the Australian federal and state governments, advising them on how they could achieve their business goals, using the newly available computer based technologies.

Since founding Debraneys in 1995, the conception and design of Debraneys IT products and services have remained a principal focus for Debra. Her leadership inspired a responsive, enthusiastic team of people who worked together in Australia and South East Asia. They have helped bring to market Debraneys’ products and services, which have been used globally.

Setting up the company’s operations in Sydney, Australia, before the internet had taken off, Debra could see that massive changes were on the horizon.

Debraneys Asia was established in Singapore in 1997, based on securing a contract through winning an Innovation and Development Scheme Grant from the Singapore government. At the media launch of the 3 world first products for the incentive travel industry, Debra was acknowledged as guiding the project towards even higher goals than they had themselves aspired to reach. Utilised globally, these computer based products changed work practices and how services could be delivered in the travel industry. They massively expanded the potential customer base, reduced costs, and reduced the time spent on a myriad of jobs. It was rewarding to see the improvements as the fulfillment of innovation utilising computer technology.

Underpinning all of the products and services that Debra has produced for Debraneys are methodologies and technologies that support people, and make a meaningful contribution to businesses. This ethos is a critical foundation of the company.

LEADERSHIP

In our world today, a world of continual social and economic upheaval, it is imperative to understand WHAT it is worthwhile to change in a business.

Leadership requires a vision of a clear and strong direction, a vision of how to enact not only different, but better, work practices and products.

To criticise is easy. To put better in place requires courage and persistence, and a determination to implement real working solutions.

Leadership requires experience and discernment. Debra has always been acutely mindful of the reality that change has an impact on people, and that it takes time to get used to things being done in a new way. Creating and delivering well-designed computer-based tools, Debra has consistently found that they have an enormous capacity to support change for the better. Having the capacity is one thing. Fulfilling it is a different matter. Every step along the road of change needs to involve the people who will be impacted by the changes.

GLOBAL FOCUS & RECOGNITION

Debra’s focus for the company has always been global. Debra has been a participant in Australian government trade delegations to the UK, UAE, India, and Japan, as well as undertaking marketing trips to the US and Canada.

Debraneys’ new enabling technology for the international maritime sector led to Debra being invited to chair the “Maritime Security Asia 2006” conference in Singapore, entitled ”Life after the ISPS code” (International Ship and Port Facility Security Code). The conference explored the reality of the impact of this critical worldwide compliance regime. The international maritime legislation called the ISPS code was introduced after the September 11 bombings in the US in 2001. Its purpose was to require more stringent safeguards to be applied to the global maritime industry. This was a prime example of the load that the security and compliance requirements placed on each of the business stakeholders, government and private, across this complex industry sector. It impacted the volume and kinds of information that they were increasingly required to store, share and track.

International interest in this technology also resulted in Debra being part of the inaugural NSW Business Women’s Trade Mission to the UAE, at the end of 2007.

Australia hosted the APEC summit in 2007. Debra was invited to speak at the APEC Women’s Forum in Northern Queensland. The topic of the forum of the 21 member countries was “Building a Sustainable e-Future.”

After nearly a decade and a half of dividing the work of Debraneys between its Sydney and Singapore bases, Debra made a strategic decision to focus the work of the company in Australia. This was a major change, a reframing of the business in order to ready it for the long-term commitment to the requirements of the R&D project that it intended to undertake. This important decision was taken in the knowledge that the project had the capacity to make a significant long-term impact on the global business environment.

Membership for Debraneys maritime product suite was awarded in the Australian Technology Showcase (ATS). Debraneys remained an alumni member of this important venue for showcasing Australia’s innovative technologies to the rest of the world. Across this period Debra secured an important state government contract for Debraneys systems. The research and development continued.

TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE 

Transformational change has been Debra’s intention as the outcome of all of the work undertaken by Debraneys. Continual change creates complex and convoluted working environments. Debra’s strengths include the capacity to simplify these environments.

The lessons of the first decade of computers’ incorporation into the business environment had been many. They continued to grow across the next decade. The requirements of managing, and sharing, increasing amounts and types of information were escalating at a rapid rate. Overseeing consulting projects for both the private and public sectors clearly illustrated this trend. All businesses were being impacted by computer based technologies as a growing layer of multi-faceted complexity, and an increasing load of compliance and security requirements were being added to the business environment.

Spearheading the long term R&D project in Australia, Debra was compelled to ensure that these important lessons were not wasted. She undertook the ongoing work needed to address many of the growing problems being encountered with regard to Information Management throughout the world.

One thing that Debra found to be repeatedly proven across the life of the company is that enacting innovative change brings more positive results than can, initially, be anticipated. This outcome always surprises. The R&D project was designed to find ways to address long standing problems for businesses with regard to Information Management.

As the R&D project continued, Debra saw that the capacity also existed to tackle on-going structural problems that affect businesses – namely the need to reduce some of the pressure on the resources of cities, and the ability to expand and strengthen the economic foundation of smaller, regional centres. Until recent times the attendant technologies could not have supported these much needed outcomes. Now is the time for more change.

Sadly, the Coronavirus pandemic and its aftermath have endorsed the outcomes of the work of Debraneys’ long-term research and development. These have included the ability for staff to work remotely, to run many types of businesses away from traditional city locations. These dimensions for change go hand in hand. Once the problems of successful information management begin to be addressed, then each of these outcomes can work together, to form a valuable part of the capabilities for businesses of the future.

Today is no less exciting nor a challenging time for Debra and Debraneys. Having reframed the business for this decade, the goal has been to take the lessons, embrace the extraordinary capabilities of our time, and use all of them well. This can be found in the suite of products called the Master Instrument. It supports what is happening now, and allows for “now” to keep on changing.