Sue Keay CEO, Queensland AI Hub and chair, Robotics Australia

MBA, University of Queensland Business School, 2018

“In our leadership unit we looked at how to analyse people dynamics. One of the biggest challenges I face as a woman in a male-dominated industry is that I’m always part of the ‘out’ group. Until I did my MBA, I didn’t appreciate how that influenced my decision-making but when I was able to step back and analyse the dynamics during meetings, it became clear I would never influence people over to my point of view if the ‘in’ groups were against it. I realised I had to be much more strategic about lobbying individuals to support my idea before it ever came to a meeting, because once a meeting starts, the dynamics mean that the ‘in’ group people are not going to be swayed from a pre-existing opinion. It sounds very obvious when I say it but the power of a lot of this business theory is that often these simple-sounding solutions can have a very significant impact.”