Q&A: How Chris Baskerville brings empathy to insolvency

Chris Baskerville describes his father, Peter, as a serial entrepreneur.

When Chris was a young child, Peter established Craft Time – a business selling knitting sticks, wool and other knitting items – and Peter and his business partner expanded it throughout Queensland.

“My first experience in business was having an old-school sticker gun that I used to stamp prices on goods,” says Chris.

“Seeing how my dad and his partner expanded their business gave me some insight into how you can grow across multiple locations.”

Peter entered a multitude of new businesses in the years to come, including Moors Espresso, the Star Hotel, The Chamberlain Hotel in Sydney and a business that delivered fresh food quickly.

“Dad sold the food delivery business for much more than the original investment. It was a very successful concept. I worked in that store during the school holidays and I saw what it was like for a small business owner to sell to another small business owner. I was often in the store when that transition happened. It was a really interesting process to witness.”

He’s brought this early exposure and knowledge to his own career, including his current position as Managing Director of Jirsch Sutherland where he specialises in insolvency. Baskerville has handled more than 2,000 corporate and personal insolvency jobs over the course of his nearly 20-year career.

Baskerville spoke with Public Accountant about the impact his early exposure to small businesses has had on his career choice and how he’s helped businesses of all sizes navigate difficult times.

Q What did your exposure to entrepreneurship early in life teach you about managing people and client relationships?

There’s a concept known as founder’s attrition. The founder of a business brings great energy and excitement, and the customers resonate with that. When the founder sells you tend to lose some of that energy. There’s often some attrition that happens at that point because, all of a sudden, customers aren’t resonating as strongly with the business.

With [our food delivery business] being a family-owned business, we would make an effort to get to know customers’ names. There was a strong personal connection there.

We sold the business to an older couple who just wanted a business that would automatically kick over and generate an income stream. But they didn’t have the same enthusiasm and energy for the business. They were so focused on cleanliness and organisation, rather than sales and customer satisfaction being the main drivers for the business. My dad had to provide the new business owners with a lot of guidance and support during the transition.

Seeing this taught me about running a people business. If you don’t look after the people, including your own staff, you have no business. If you’re in the people game you have to focus on the people. I take the same view in my current profession. We are a people game. The insolvency products and services we offer are important, but at the end of the day, business is about dealing with people, usually at times of supreme stress.

Q Insolvency practitioners are rarely coming into business owners’ lives in positive circumstances. How does your background in family businesses change how you approach business owners and your work?

I probably make a decent insolvency practitioner because I know what it feels like from a family’s perspective when your business goes bust.

When I meet a director who has done everything they possibly can to make a business good, and they’ve fallen on hard times or one of their key customers has fallen over, I have empathy to understand the position they’re in.

When a director in distress understands that the person helping them has gone through a similar experience before, it’s easy for them to deal with me and not see me as the enemy.

I’m here to help.

Q What mindset do you need for success in the business world?

My dad always talked about two different business mindsets: he said the mindset of an entrepreneur is to take a blank canvas and turn it into a painting. If you imagine a blank store with nothing in it, an entrepreneur sees a vision for the business to bring that store to life.

Once the doors are open and the business trading, the mindset shifts to business management. The entrepreneur creates the idea and opens the doors, and then business managers have to take over from there.

I’ve learnt from seeing my dad go through this that an ideal partnership will have someone who is entrepreneurial and can create a vision. They believe in their soul that this particular business needs to come to life. That person needs to team up with and respect a business manager who understands cash flow, profits, sales, staff, HR – all the minutiae that goes into business.

Q What have you found most rewarding about specialising in insolvency and helping your clients?

I often say that insolvency is a 10-year apprenticeship because of all the variables, the different hats we wear and the different types of circumstances you find yourself in.

If a business owner or leader comes to me and says they need help, I'm able to find a solution that allows that business to continue to trade, if they seek help early. I want to help them get their business to a better place than before they came to see me. I liken it to my family’s experience. I wish that my parents had had someone to help them when they were experiencing business troubles.

I genuinely love to help people. I think that people feel my integrity and credibility. They are in a vulnerable position and they know that I am there to help. I’m their champion.

Q You coach your son’s football team – and of course you’re the club treasurer. What lessons from sport have you been able to apply to your professional life?

My son is 17 years old and, at the start of the pandemic, his team’s coach quit. My wife nominated me to take on the coaching role. I had no idea about football and there I was coaching the team – a sport I didn’t have any connection to, and I didn’t even really like it to begin with. But what I’ve learnt is that football is a simple sport to learn but a complex one to master. It’s the complexity to master it that keeps me intrigued to become a better coach.

This year the treasurer stepped down and the president asked me to take over. It’s my son's most passionate sport so it’s a nice connection to have with him. It’s been very rewarding to be on his journey, being connected to the same people as him and watching him grow. Being a volunteer coach and treasurer is my way of giving something back.

Success is a team sport. To win you have to rely on everyone in your team to do their job. It’s the same in business. I haven’t been successful off my own bat. It’s the mentors, business partners, your wife, your kids, the colleagues you've worked with who support you.