How Alison Covington is ‘tackling tricky issues in the retail sector’ at Good360

Alison Covington is the founder and managing director of Good360 Australia.Here, she discusses how she went from driving the bus industry to “tackling tricky issues in the retail sector” to fight waste.Inside FMCG: What does Good360 Australia do?Alison Covington: At Good360 Australia, we work with retailers, brands and manufacturers as a connector for those donating goods to help people in need. I launched this charity in 2015 because I could see the need for a simple way for businesses to help people they care about and reduce waste, by taking the complexity out of it. We ensure there is never a reason not to do good.How did you find yourself a part of the retail industry?My background was in logistics. I worked in the bus industry for many years. I transported people and was responsible for industry reform. I looked at the retail sector and thought I could help improve what was happening, and now we have hundreds of businesses partnering with us; more importantly, there are now 40 million items in the hands of 4 million Australians who need them. What are some of the challenges you’ve faced in your career and how have you dealt with them?I am often one of a ‘few’ in an industry. In the bus industry, I was one of the ‘few’ women in a male-dominated sector. I was also younger and not a family member in a privately owned business. It either never bothered me, or I never noticed. I was busy just getting on with the job and ended up as managing director of a multinational transport company. Now I am tackling tricky issues in the retail sector, helping businesses, government and people change behaviours. We are good at understanding that food waste is unacceptable, but we struggle to understand, and be as passionate about, reducing waste in all the other goods.Government and industry have targets for reducing food waste and have funded initiatives to achieve these targets for decades, but we haven’t broadened the scope to include all the other things we produce and consume. This is my greatest challenge. To get us all to think about the huge benefit – to people in need, to the environment, and to the communities where businesses and their employees work – of donating goods to charity rather than letting them go to waste.  How does your prior career experience intertwine with Good360 Australia?Most people are surprised when I say I worked in public transport or that I bought and sold bus companies. Most charity CEOs have been in the sector a long time, but there are a lot of similarities [among my various roles]. I have experience running depots, now we operate a re-distribution centre. I transported millions of people, now we transport millions of boxes of essential goods. There was a need to collaborate with many stakeholders to change the way things are done and deliver outcomes for people, and this is a huge part of our work at Good360. What does your current role at Good360 Australia involve and look like?As the founder and managing director, I have a team of around 40. We operate an online marketplace to list the goods businesses want to donate to charities and disadvantaged schools nationally. We receive the goods at our re-distribution centre or directly from their stores or distribution centres. Our team consists of IT, digital, marketing, sales, finance, administration, operations, logistics and warehousing specialists. It is a complex solution that we make simple for businesses and charities.I am responsible for ensuring the success of our strategy and growth plans, including financial viability. The need for non-food aid in Australia has never been higher. My priority is working with businesses, governments, and philanthropic partners to scale goods, funds and awareness, and provide the essentials everyday Australians desperately need to go from surviving to thriving.What key leadership lessons have you found as your career has evolved?It’s so important to keep learning, to be curious and to believe. A good dose of resilience always helps, too. If you can help your team believe, you will move forward faster. A quote that I love is, ‘Set a goal so big that you can’t achieve it until you grow into the person who can.’I often tell the team that no one was uniquely qualified to start Good360. There may have been people who had the commercial skills, but they may not have had the resilience to work in the charity sector, where capital is tight, and you need to be nimble and pivot. It hasn’t been easy navigating the challenges we’ve faced over the last 10 years, but the team is unique and has been so critical to our success.Every day is a learning curve. It’s important to surround ourselves with people who can join us, and help guide and grow what we are trying to achieve. There is no way we could do what we are doing with any ego, you need to check that at the door and collaborate for the greaterThis story first appeared in the August 2024 issue of Inside Retail Australia magazine.