How Sendle managing director Laura Hill made the “unconventional path” work for logistics, and what your business can learn

For more than a year, Laura Hill has served as managing director of Sendle, the door-to-door parcel delivery service offering small business owners a viable alternative to Australia’s original logistics titans.

It’s a company which prides itself on efficient transport between A and B. And that’s what makes Hill’s appointment so interesting: unlike industry veterans with careers locked into logistics, Hill’s CV traverses everything from the heyday of TV’s ad market to crucial roles in some of Australia’s biggest e-commerce players. 

The “unconventional path” might seem ill-suited for such a methodical industry, but for Hill, it has worked out just fine. Here’s what professionals can learn from her success so far.

Key takeaways

1. Lean in to your own unconventional experiences

2. Recognise unique experiences in others

3. Diversity empowers talented people

Lean in to your own unconventional experiences

Speaking to SmartCompany Plus, Hill said her unconventional path into logistics management started at the Nine network, where she served on the sales and partnerships team.

There, Hill dealt with a totally different set of ‘deliverables’ to the mass of parcels Sendle handles each and every day. Yet there are parallels between the two worlds, which Hill continues to draw on.

“Logistics in particular, over the last three years with the pandemic, has just boomed and faced a number of challenges as a result,” she said, “but it’s also come so far — relative to where it was — if we think back to parcel delivery, just in 2019.”

“Media wasn’t too dissimilar,” Hill continued. “I was in TV in the heyday when Nine just used to win year after year after year.”

“And that changed. I moved into digital media when Fairfax was one of the leaders in digital publishing.”

“And then all the competitors started to enter, we saw the rise of the Googles and the Facebooks, and what we had to do there.”

Looking back, Hill said having a “foundation in an industry that’s had to evolve itself has been really, really advantageous to staying ahead.”

Between the pure media years and Sendle, came Hill’s tenure at Gumtree, a platform she had originally come to know as a seller herself. Even then, the overlap between her existing skillset and the needs of challenger brands was evident, given the data analysis skills she had developed at Fairfax.

“I was an avid Gumtree user, so very familiar with the brand and passionate, but it was really the opportunity I could see in the market, the evolution and the need for data as a key aspect of advertising in the [e-commerce] industry,” she said.

“Knowing the data that you get from a marketplace about what you’re selling, what you’re buying, where you’re located, all of that kind of stuff was just so rich, and had so much potential that Gumtree hadn’t tapped into,” she continued.

“So when I joined the business, the advertising arm was completely new. So I was tasked with coming in, hiring the team, establishing the go-to-market, and then evolving that proposition over the six years that I was there.”

Eventually, exposure to the needs of Gumtree’s sellers, including sellers hoping to post their items, built Hill’s understanding of the modern logistics landscape.

After “starting to become familiar with those types of small businesses, those side hustlers, those types of people that are leveraging the power of C2C marketplaces,” it was a “logical next step from an e-commerce marketplace environment into shipping” Hill said.

Recognise unique experiences in others

Hill first joined Sendle in January 2021 as VP of partnership development, a role that leaned on her Gumtree experiences as the company brokered a shipping partnership with online second-hand wardrobe hotspot Poshmark.

Not even a year later, Hill ascended to managing director. Now with visibility across the entire organisation — and the honour of being one of the most senior logistics personnel in Australia — Hill said it was important to recognise talent who took similarly unconventional paths into the logistics scene. 

Looking past immediately relevant industry experience can help organisations build successful teams, Hill said. That applies doubly in tight labour markets, where the pool of talent with specific know-how may be shallow.

“It’s really about those transferable skills”, she continued.

“You know, I’ve led sales teams, brand teams, done budgeting, had responsibility for functional teams in terms of, budgeting, and P&Ls, and hiring, and all those things.”

“They’re all the same in every company. So it’s a good foundation.”

“[In] media, advertising, you get exposure to lots of industries, you end up spending a lot of time working with key partners and get very deep relationships with banks, and automotive, and FMCG, and everything in between.”

“So you do get good exposure, whilst also learning really strong business fundamentals.”

“Does a marketing director need to know logistics just to encourage people to sign up to Sendle?” Hill asked.

“No, their job is acquisition and messaging and all those kinds of things.”

“Similarly with salespeople, you can train them to sell the product that they need to sell. So I think people can get very siloed within their industry thinking they must know [the specifics].”

Hiring outside of a company’s lane can provide other benefits, too. As a challenger brand to the incumbents, like Australia Post, Hill said personnel with outside perspectives can contribute ideas otherwise overlooked by the industry establishment.

“You need a different way of thinking about doing things, doing the same isn’t gonna make us progress,” she said.

Diversity empowers talent

In her role as managing director, Hill has also risen to the peak of an industry where men significantly outnumber women. 

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics reveals the transport, postal, and warehousing sector employed nearly 554,000 men in November 2022, compared to fewer than 180,000 women.

Recent history shows that gender disparity extends from the mail room to the boardroom. 

In 2020, former Prime Minister Scott Morrison ordered Australia Post CEO Christina Holgate to stand down or quit after it was revealed she purchased luxury watches for staff who helped broker a business deal between the carrier and major banks. 

Months later, with her leadership of Australia Post at an end, a government inquiry cleared Holgate of wrongdoing.

Cleared of corruption or fraud, Holgate said Morrison had engaged in “one of the worst acts of bullying” she had encountered and called for the then-PM to apologise. 

Appearing at a subsequent Senate hearing into the matter, Holgate said she would be surprised to see a man receive the same treatment. 

“I have never seen any male public servant depicted in that way,” Holgate said at the time. “So do I believe it’s partially a gender issue? You’re absolutely right I do.”

Morrison refused to apologise, and denied his actions amounted to sexism.

After mediation, Australia Post paid Holgate a $1 million settlement. The parties issued a joint statement saying the organisation “regrets the difficult circumstances” surrounding her departure.

In the present day, Hill acknowledges female participation in the sector is low but is improving in a meaningful way. 

“It is definitely changing,” Hill said.

“I was just at a partner dinner last week with one of our key partners, and it was actually three males to four females.”

“And the four females were all within leadership positions within their respective businesses.” 

“So it’s still got a long way to go overall. But I do see that there are a number of women coming into leadership positions within the industry.”

Women occupy half of Sendle’s leadership positions, she added, representing “strong support amongst the group.”

“Not once have I ever felt like, because I’m a female, my voice isn’t respected or heard or anything like that,” Hill continued.

“I’ve got a great team, and we all work well together.”

While not specific to logistics, it is clear that welcoming staff from across traditional gender divides can benefit companies looking to break free from the industry status quo.