Client Case Study
Maton Guitars
Maton Guitars is where some of the finest quality guitars in the world come to life, each with a unique character and tone.
From a small backyard workshop started in 1946, the business has grown into a truly great Australian manufacturing success story, currently, employing 70 people, Maton remains 100 per cent family owned and operated.
Maton specialises in creating superbly crafted guitars from Australian timbers such as blackwood, bunya, Queensland maple, Queensland walnut and satin box. Bill May pioneered the use of many Australian wood species in guitar construction and is regarded by many Australian luthiers as the founding father of their industry. The Maton team is constantly investigating new materials and techniques in the pursuit of creating the world’s finest guitars.
Anthony Knowles Is Operations Manager at Maton Guitars and has been in the business for 20 years. Starting on the factory floor himself, Anthony showed enormous potential to take technically gifted people to higher levels of performance, productivity, professionalism and passion. Undertaking LMA’s High Performance Management course (Diploma of Leadership and Management) provided Anthony with a golden opportunity to elevate Maton’s approach to managing and leading people to a whole new level.
“My whole approach to leading the Maton manufacturing team changed during and following my initial LMA experience. I discovered the importance of investing time and energy into developing each individual as part of an integrated team. I also came realise the value of involving the team in keeping Maton at the leading edge of our industry – from identifying and accessing the equipment needed through to helping them to create the systems, procedures and processes to deliver consistent high quality. I came to understand my role and have spent the past 10+ years continuing to hone and polish my skills in people leadership”, says Anthony.
Interestingly, Anthony has observed a notable “rub-off” effect from those attending LMA’s courses to those yet to have this opportunity in their careers. “The LMA graduates exude confidence and maturity in their leadership actions and provide others with a taste of what they need to do or be to evolve to this next level in their careers. That’s exciting for the leadership team to see as it provides a steady stream of potential successors for us to continue investing in”, he proudly proclaims.
Anthony speaks with immense pride about the changes and improvements he’s seen over the past decade, which are in part due to the Maton-LMA relationship. It’s clearly more than just “sending people on training courses”. For him, completing an LMA course has been a life/career changing experience and the ongoing collaboration with LMA has provided those following in his footsteps with similar opportunities to become the leaders of the future.
Amongst the most obvious benefits and outcomes from the close connection built between Maton and LMA over the past 10+ years and the succession of course graduates are:
- Widespread improvements in the confidence to lead people and provide vision anddirection to team members.
- Clear and consistent inspiration to team members to contribute to improvement discussions and idea generation sessions.
- Business-wide commitment to being the best and doing the best always – to remain a world leader.
- A clear succession plan through the development and evolution of leaders at all levels.
LMA is delighted to continue to assist Maton Guitars as it develops its people and proud of the impact we’ve been able to achieve with graduates so far.