Amy Smith is the Managing Director of Jenny Craig Australia/New Zealand. Interviewing her was like speaking to a kindred spirit... and I think you'll enjoy our conversation.

Amy believes that anything is possible - and when you have Amy at the helm, that's probably very true. Managing change and giving organisations a sense of purpose, vision and momentum is her passion. She's done that through building strong brands that connect with customers and grow businesses and revitalising tired cultures. Amy loves getting both businesses and people in touch with their strengths and helping them to unleash their full potential on the world.

Amy started her corporate life in Australia at Telstra, then moved to London in 1993 where she worked for just over a decade running creative advertising agencies and building brands such as Sony PlayStation, Virgin Upper Class, Nike and Revlon, and finally, Honda.

She was one of the pioneers in the UK to harness the best creative minds and found a global movement called We Are What We Do, whose purpose is to encourage lots of people to do small actions – environmental, behavioural and ethical – that result in big, positive change in communities and the work place.  

In her role at Jenny Craig Australia, she is on a mission to lead Jenny Craig into the future with confidence.

She is a passionate supporter of women and as a single mother of two children aged five and six, is in touch with the realities of juggling the demands of a career and family.

In this interview, we talk about:

• Work as a place of transformation and spirituality
• Why being relevant to your market is the most important part of managing a brand
• How are you going to enrich the lives of your customers?
• Why collaboration is important but being consensual can lead to problems

Enjoy this interview with Amy Smith.

More about Amy Smith:

Amy was an integral part of a small team behind publishing two books in Australia on behalf of the movement, Change the World for Ten Bucks (1 in 66 Australians has a copy and in 2006 it won the Prime Minister's Award for the best example of a charity and business working together for positive change) and more recently in 2007, Change the World 9 to 5, which addresses how we can work happier and healthier, bringing her creativity and passion for this movement.  

Amy's love for Australia and the birth of her second child saw her return to become the CEO of JWT Australia/NZ where she once again became the custodian of the world's biggest brands, including Ford, Nestlé's Kit Kat, Kimberly-Clark Kleenex, Unilever's Lipton and Kraft, for whom she created the Little Vegemites Aussie Reader program, supported by the Government's Little Big Book Club, whose role is to encourage literacy in schools all over Australia for under six year olds.

She has contributed numerous articles and columns to trade and marketing press on topics such as risk-taking in business, how to connect with consumers, building magic brands that stick and more recently, the use of magic and logic in business to grow revenue.  She has appeared on 60 Minutes to present the challenges faced by working mums and has done a number of television appearances to support her two books.  She speaks regularly on the subject of change, how to build businesses through creativity and marketing to women.

Now sixteen months into her role as the MD of Jenny Craig Australia, she is on a mission to lead Jenny Craig into the future with confidence.

She is a passionate supporter of women and as a single mother of two children aged five and six, is in touch with the realities of juggling the demands of a career and family. Amy is on the board of The Australian Childhood Foundation, working to prevent child abuse in Australian communities.  

Connect with Amy

Website: www.jennycraig.com.au