Xavier Phillips likes to make his mark. That’s why he’s taking his entrepreneurial skills out of the start-up space and into the Big 4.
The 20-year-old was among the first graduates of Bond’s Bachelor of Entrepreneurial Transformation, recently donning his cap and gown on a short trip back to Queensland from Sydney, where he is now ensconced at KPMG.
While most would see joining one of the nation’s top consulting firms as slightly at odds with the sneakers-and-baseball-cap stereotype popularised by Atlassian’s Mike Cannon Brookes, Xavier sees it as a natural fit.
“I think the term entrepreneurial transformation is a bit of a misnomer,” he said.
“I think it should really be intrapreneurial transformation. It's this idea of using those entrepreneurial concepts in the business space rather than actually building a business, that’s the way I see it going.
“I came in initially thinking I might start my own business and work for myself, and after a while I realised that the skill set that I have now is built on developing other skills.
“Going somewhere like KPMG offered me the ability to build on the stuff I was starting to see in the immersions (within companies) I did as part of my degree.
They really showed me that as a young person it was better to spend time honing my skills in these companies rather than taking an unnecessary risk, especially given the current climate.
It means you can make those mistakes that you would in your own firm, in a Big 4 where there’s so much infrastructure and support already around you and have the opportunity to take more risks, try new things and have more flexibility.”
The flexibility and support offered by Bond also allowed Xavier to make his mark in an entirely different area – the Australian Army.
Joining up in 2020 just as Covid was changing lives worldwide, Xavier completed his officer training as part of a whirlwind process which saw him take command of his first platoon of 30 soldiers at the age of just 18.
He ended up supporting the NSW police doing border checks on people travelling between Victoria and New South Wales and also played a key role in flood clean-up operations.
“Part of the reason I chose Bond was that I could get my degree done in two years. So that year I spent in the army, rather than being a hindrance and putting me behind, meant I could go to Bond while continuing with my army work and still come out at the same time as my peers but with three years of army under my belt as well a degree,” he said.
Xavier said the flexibility and breadth of experience offered by the Transformation Degrees gave them a unique selling point.
“We’re already seeing firms picking up on the value of having specific qualifications in digital transformation. Here at KPMG we have a digital transformation division, while Deloitte and Ernst and Young also have digital transformation capability,” he said.
“I hope that digital paves the ways for the other degrees in Health, Legal and Entrepreneurial Transformation degrees to be seen as a valuable qualification as these areas continue to expand.”