Our Story
A little bit about David Osborne | CEO and Founder of
Profitable Personnel
David was born in 1959 in a suburb of London called Finchley soon to become famous for being Margaret Thatcher’s constituency.He developed his passion for performance from his experiences in the Military as a Member of the Modern Pentathlon School of Excellence, as the WA State Triathlon Coach, which lead to the largest medal haul in the State’s history at a National event. David’s Coach, Olympic Gold Medalist Jeremy Fox.
Military Service – UK 
David’s father had a strong sense of military service and fought in Normandy with the Royal Sussex Regiment in the Second World War. Unfortunately, the injuries his father sustained in his military service contributed to his death when David was sixteen
This strong sense of military service inspired David to join the Army in 1978 as an Electrical and Mechanical Engineer. Having a passion for sport and having just seen one of the regiment’s officers win an Olympic Gold Medal at the Montreal Games, David decided to train as a Modern Pentathlete at the Great Britain School of Excellence.
David’s Coach was Olympic Gold Medalist Jeremy Fox.
As a member of the Modern Pentathlon School of Excellent He learnt.
- How quickly you can become good at something with the right people around you.
- How we all need great coaches to get ahead.
- How you need to look at the person’s whole situation even when coaching in just one aspect of life.
- He also learnt He had a very strong sense of independence and disliked being told what to do.
Australia
David had always wanted to emigrate to Australia after reading the book The Chrysalids at school. At eleven he subscribed to two Australian newspapers, to keep up to date with the goings on in the “Lucky Country”. With his love of multi sports and need for independence he emigrated to Australia and established a Triathlon Club. David used the techniques he learnt in the Army and his Triathlon Club won “The President’s Cup” and became the best club in the State. David became the Western Australian State Junior coach for Triathlon in 1992.
(There wasn’t a senior coach’s position for Triathlon in 1992).
As the State coach he learnt and improved my knowledge in:
- Benchmarking performance and monitoring results.
- How to set goals that inspire people to perform even when the training is tough and taxing
- How to train specifically and build upon areas of weakness
- The importance of specific knowledge
- How to plan for numerous athletes all with a desire to achieve in different events, in different age groups, and over different distances
- How everything must be run as a business
- How there is a return on investment in everything you do
Curtin University – Australia
David decided to move from elite sport and took a position with Curtin University in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. David worked across the tertiary and the vocational sectors as the team leader delivering commercial training in occupational health and safety and management. He lived in Kalgoorlie for eight years. During this time, He worked full time, undertook postgraduate studies, and continued with my love of sport. One of his greatest achievements during this period was to run non – stop 120 km pushing a wheelbarrow of Iron Ore from the Whims Creek Hotel to Port Hedland.
Audio clip of David pushing a wheelbarrow 120km full of iron ore in the Black Rock Stakes
As University lecturer in Kalgoorlie He learnt:
- Qualifications are important, however more importantly is the application of the knowledge and persistence to over challenges and achieve the original goals.
- How training has a limited impact, if the student does not value the education, or does not want to change, or goes back into an environment that does not support their new education.
- That policies and procedures do not drive a business, people do.
- How bullying is used as a key managerial practice in many organizations, even educational establishments.
- How so much time, energy and resources are wasted in all areas of business.
- That he loved knowledge and was brave enough to experiment with it, and not take a theory on as “Gospel.”
Barrick Gold Mining Company – Australia
After eight years as a Curtin University lecturer He decided that even though He work with primary industry, He wanted to experience working in primary industry, and so He took a position as a mine site coordinator a Granny Smith mine in Laverton.
As a fly in fly out training coordinator He learnt:
- That there is significant employee disengagement, and often the senior management team is either unaware aware of it or does not know the real impact of it on their business
- How to examine business performance by using value driver trees
- How to audit the effectiveness of a procedure to ensure an increase in performance
- How to gather and nurture the creation of business improvement ideas
- How the workforce has hundreds of thousands of dollars of business improvement ideas that management often never get to hear about because employees are disengaged
- That many staff are just “treading water” and waiting for someone to assist them make the decision for them to move on.
“You have opened up so many people’s minds in different ways…whether it was to open someone’s mind to new ideas,
offer them a book to read or introduce them to another way of learning.”
– Ciemone Nielsen – Human Resource Manager
Profitable Personnel – Australia
In 2006 David decided to establish a business based on his passion and that is finding Profitable Personnel and ensuring companies managed their work force, so they were Profitable Personnel.
The first year was very challenging as all business owners find out, in addition to trying to build a business he walked out of the surf on 26/01/06 having broken two vertebrae in his back. Additionally, David had to have a Tubercle Tibial Transfer and a Maci graft on his right knee to replace the cartilage he had worn out from years of running.
As a business owner the lessons he is continuing to learn:
- Business is tough and is a great personal development journey because it will uncover your weaknesses.
- Successful business owners need to be continually learning.
- You are only as good as the team around you.
- Always have a contractual agreement in place even if the work has been referred to you.
- That a professional appearance does now guarantee ethical integrity.
- That one of the problems with any project is identifying exactly what the client wants, and often they unclear about this.
- Always do your best, have integrity, respect, and an open mind about everything.
“Compelling Empowering, Essential” Dr J Beeson – Jigsaw Geoscience Pty Ltd,
“David reveals The True Colours of a Person Without Them Even Realising”
Darren Tindal – HIMAC Managing Director