Founder and Executive Director,
SAGE Group
Owner President Management (OPM) program
Harvard Business School, 2013

Like all natural-born leaders, the story of a South Australian business great begins long before the apprenticeship that sparked a love of automation and the ensuing empire.

Not a sporty lad or musically inclined, Andrew Downs preferred mowing lawns around his Woodside neighbourhood for pocket money in his younger years.

“I was very hands-on and analytical from an early age, there was certainly no music or sport,” Andrew, the founder, owner and executive director of SAGE Group, says.

By the time high school rolled around, Andrew had lost interest in the traditional chalk-and-talk classroom, which wasn’t the end of the world considering he went on to establish a multi-national, multimillion-dollar business and, later, hone his leadership skills at Harvard.

Instead of burying himself in books, he became an apprentice electrician at the age of 16 with Uniroyal / Bridgestone in the early ‘80s.

“Although my academic qualifications were pretty lousy, I excelled at trade school. I loved my job. I loved the electrical industry. And I fell in love with automation,” he says.

Moonlighting turned million-dollar business

Landing a job as a maintenance supervisor at Bridgestone in 1989, Andrew’s passion for all-things automation went on the back burner for a couple of years.

That was until he began “moonlighting” with a mate in his back shed after hours, playing around with programming and CAD as a side hustle.

Their first job in ’91 sparked the SAGE name – a name that’s now a world leader in the design, development and delivery of innovative automation solutions for the manufacturing, mining, utilities, defence and infrastructure industries.

“Our first job was a security light for a strata title unit, and we didn’t have a name to put on the invoice,” Andrew recalls.

“My friend Paul said, ‘just put SAGE at the top’ because my nickname was ‘Scallop’ and his was ‘Grogan’. So it became Scallop and Grogan Electrical.

“Because I was still moonlighting and probably only 50 per cent focused on my very well-paying day job, I was given an ultimatum by my then-boss: ‘You’ve either got to stop SAGE or leave’, so I left. My partner Paul decided not to go on the journey and that was that.”

From humble beginnings in Andrew’s back shed, SAGE Group has grown to boast 700+ employees across Australia and India.

Growth, learning and leadership

Although a pro at automation, Andrew confesses he had “zero business knowledge” and hit a few early hurdles – from unwittingly hiring a dodgy accountant to being sued by the local council for making too much late-night racket with his growing team of shed-based employees.

Outgrowing his own backyard after just 12 months, he soon set up shop in Melrose Park before moving to the high-tech Tonsley Innovation District.

A self-taught managing director, Andrew further developed his leadership skills by studying the Owner President Management (OPM) program at Harvard Business School in 2013 with a scholarship from the Industry Leaders Fund (ILF).

Since then, the ILF has helped SAGE CEO Adrian Fahey complete the OPM in 2016, while Chief Financial Officer Dion Draper undertook the Advanced Management Program in 2020 with ILF / SAGE support.

“SAGE as an organisation is committed to lifelong learning and excellence in everything we do,” Andrew, who actively participates on various boards, says.

“As part of our belief in the importance of leadership and training, our commitment is to give our executives the same opportunities I had. And I am always grateful to the ILF for my opportunity.”

Andrew’s top tips for success

• Surround yourself with people who are better than you.
  “Great leaders need to understand their weaknesses, understand their strengths, but more importantly, employ around their weaknesses.”
• Work hard, play hard.
  “Don’t make business miserable. Have fun, work hard and enjoy the journey; it’s not all about the bottom line.”
• Build your platform for growth.
  “It’s like a big house on a shaky foundation, it’s going to crack and fall over. Always invest in your foundation as a platform for growth.”