Robert McVicker talks to the Courier Mail about ‘sustaining working communities’ – particularly considering the Queensland resource boom.

“We just see a tremendous future,” says Morris Corporation boss Robert McVicker.

The Courier Mail, 24 Feb 2012

We are talking about recordable incidents of course!

Morris has just achieved a national result of ZERO recordable incidents for the month of January.

The recent achievements could not have been happened without the support of our staff, and the January 2012 event caps off a range of achievements across our sites including:

A number of sites – over 100 days incident free

Pluto, WA – 145,000 recordable man hours incident free – and counting!

Fiona Berkin would like to thank all staff for all their efforts and ongoing contribution to HSE initiatives and Morris is proud of our ongoing achievements in this area.

Pilbara, WA

Fourteen Indigenous trainees from AWC Carey have begun their first on-site training with Morris Corporation one of our sites in the Pilbara. The six week training program enables participants to gain a Certificate III in Hospitality.

The students met Andrew Forrest of FMG on Sunday the 11th of December (Pictured below). Andrew visited Christmas Creek to speak to contractors on site, and spoke to the trainees and offered words of encouragement.

From all accounts, the trainees have completed their tasks with the same enthusiasm they had from the day they first arrived on site.

Welcome to the Morris team to everyone, and keep up the great work!

Fiona Berkin, Queensland Finalist

For the past seventeen years, the Telstra Business Women’s  Awards has celebrated some of Australia’s most amazing women. Fiona Berkin, Morris Managing Director has attended the awards ceremony in the past as a guest, but this year was nominated for the awards by Gail Gorry of Tieri cleaning. The submission began with an online questionnaire, followed by a phone interview, then a face-to-face panel interview. While on her honeymoon Fiona was nominated as a finalist in the Hudson private category along with Susan Buckley of QIC and Deborah McKern of Seasons Living Australia.

In Fiona’s absence, Les Seaton attended the awards luncheon. There were some giggles in the crowd when the speaker called Fiona to accept the finalist trophy and Les walked up on stage to collect it. Congratulations goes to Susan Buckley of QIC who was winner of the category.

Fiona says “I’m ecstatic with being a finalist. In the position I’m in, it’s typical to always be looking forward, thinking ten steps ahead. The process of being nominated  in the 2011 Telstra Business Women’s Awards forced me to look back on my achievements and reflect on my career. It was an exercise I enjoyed.”

Q400 Awards

The prestigious awards ceremony, held at the Sofitel in Brisbane’s CBD, acknowledges the State’s best privately owned businesses, assessing their profitability, turnover, assets and staff numbers.

The unique Q400 list provides public recognition of the achievements of Queensland’s home grown entrepreneurs and business heroes. In 2006, Morris earned a ranking of 133. Each year since, Morris has moved up in the rankings. In 2007 Morris was 39, in 2008 we were 21, in 2009, 16. Morris was one of the big movers in the list moving up four rankings to be number twelve and last year. We finally cracked the top ten in 2011 ranking number seven.

In addition to the outstnading ranking Morris also picked up the “Global Star” category award.

Morris and the Tiwi College have partnered to launch a healthy eating campaign for the Tiwi people.  The Taste it, Live it, Do it campaign involves a host of activities over a 24 month period designed to engage the Melville Island community and promote healthy eating and activity in a way that blends innovation and tradition.

About the Campaign

The main objectives for the campaign include:

• Training and evaluation of core competencies pertaining to safe and nutritious delivery of food service;
• Developing knowledge and skills to hunt and collect traditional bush tucker;
• Key information delivery that allows students to self-assess nutritional and cost effectiveness of meals;
• Providing and developing skills required for personal and interpersonal health screening.
• Educate and provide preventative solutions.

Did you know?

“.. The average mortality rate for a Tiwi male is 45 years old. Tiwi Islands has one of the highest rates of renal failure and kidney disease in the world ..”

(source: www.sportshelathcheck.com.au/targets.htm)

Anecdotal evidence from Tiwi elders along with medical professionals’ opinions strongly suggests that a return to bush tucker diets can counteract the onset of type two diabetes.

See pics of the launch at http://www.facebook.com/Morriscorp

Services Category Northern Region

On Friday 22nd July, Robert Mcvicker was awarded with the Entrepreneur of the Year award (Services Category, Northern Region). Robert will contend for the title of 2011 Australian Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year at the national awards in Melbourne in November where the overall Australian winner will then go on to Monte Carlo to compete in the international Ernst and Young World Entrepreneur of the Year awards. This award is a global program with 140 cities participating from over 50 countries and being a winner is very prestigious and highly regarded in the business world.

Robert McVicker

Robert started with Morris in 1978 as a promising young chef who caught the attention of the company’s owner, the late David Morris. David nurtured Robert’s abilities, training him in every aspect of the business from operations through to management. In 1996, Robert undertook a 100% buy out of Morris. Morris specialises in sustaining working communities in some of the most remote parts of the world and has had unparalleled success despite the world’s economic downturn. Today, Morris is the largest wholly privately owned facilities management company in Australia.

What the judges said;

Operating in remote locations in diverse global markets, Robert has demonstrated courage and innovative solutions to solve problems on the ground. He has shifted the game from competing on price, to competing on quality. He has now a scalable business with an empowered management team and a solid financial performance.