Author Profile: Hacy Tobias
Hacy Tobias spent 33 years in the corporate world. She was a Human Resources professional and held general management roles from 1994 to 2007. From 1997 onwards, she held internationals GM roles and spent over a decade working across the Asia Pacific region.
Her focus was on strategic human resources and organisational change. She was ‘tapped on the shoulder’ for roles that were ‘start up’, ‘fix up’ or ‘change’. Hacy’s focus was on working with CEOs and senior management in the development of strategies, structures and frameworks to create profitability, leadership capability and employee retention. Her mantra was ‘creating and implementing systems, processes or frameworks IF they were going to assist companies become profitable and increase the leadership capability of an organisation’.
Her great passion was developing global leadership competency frameworks and also she was noted for her speaking, facilitation and cross cultural training capabilities, (Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific).
In late 2007 her position as the global HR General Manager for a company in the Resources Sector came to a sudden end.
She started consulting, but felt drawn to having a business where she could work with teams, (as she has a great love of coaching and mentoring people); leverage her time, (not just getting paid for when she did work); and eventually enjoy a residual income well after she ‘retired’.
After much research and soul searching as to whether she could actually be an entrepreneur, Hacy joined a global network marketing company, in late in 2008, selling anti ageing skin care. The tipping point, criteria wise, was the efficacy of the products, the values of the Company and its record longevity.
Nothing had prepared her for the dramatic change of going from a salaried employee to having to be the CFO, CIO, CMO and every other role, let alone the cash flow implications. In late 2011 a publisher suggested she write about the transition of working in corporate to running one’s business from home. Thus, The Diaries Of A Corporate Princess was born.
Book Synopsis: The Diaries Of A Corporate Princess
I look back now and see the humour of what happened four years ago and the phrase, “those who can’t, teach” comes to mind. Having been in the human resource profession for thirty three years, I had often advised people when they had lost their job. This first thing I would say is to go out and buy a copy of What Colour Is My Parachute?, a must have when you are job seeking or considering a career change.
Life has its ironies and so when my job suddenly came to an end, a meeting with my CEO and twenty minutes later I had gathered my bag and was gone, I couldn’t even follow my own advice. Sure, I had an old copy of What Color Is My Parachute? However the reality was, I had never contemplated such a suddenly job loss, nor what my plan was. I felt I didn’t have a “parachute”, let alone the luxury of speculating what colour it might look like.
Just over a year later, after being head hunted for other positions, I took the huge step, without any parachute or net, to be my own boss and start my own home-based business. It was four years of hard learning, frustration, start overs, learning over.
No one tells you just how much your identity is tied up with your job and most importantly, how much of the “structure” and infrastructure we take for granted in organisation assists us in doing our job.
So this book is for all those people for want to be a home-based Prince or Princess and are struggling to make that happen, as they transition from an organisation of many, to initially an organisation of one. This book is for you. May you enjoy and hopefully gain a few insights.
Hacy Tobias
Recovering Corporate Princess and now Small Business Princess and CEO
The Diaries Of A Corporate Princess tells the tale of a woman who thinks she has it all. The first third of the book covers some of her corporate adventures, ranging from sipping Dom Pérignon in First Class as a Level 7 typhoon strikes Hong Kong airport, through to a visit to a mine site in southern China where the inhabitants have seen few Westerners.
The reader follows her adventures as she returns to Sydney, re-establishing her old life and seeking another job. After experiencing a “on the road to Damascus”, she decides to establish her own business from home.
The last third of the book deals with her coming to grips with her new life, her two steps forward and one back, the disappointments, the expectations of a high achiever failing again and again and finally how she regains her tiara.
