Steve Harley · Founder & Principal Advisor
More than 30 years of building businesses, leading product and commercial portfolios, and developing people inform the advice Steve brings to your next decision.
Based in Perth. Working with leaders across Australia.
A connected view
Good advice needs to account for what happens after the decision: the customers it serves, the economics behind it, the work people must do and the capacity available to deliver.
Steve brings those perspectives together. His experience spans business ownership, P&L leadership, product development, commercial partnerships, workforce strategy and transformation. That is useful when a question crosses functions or the next step is difficult to see from inside the organisation.
The starting point is your business context. Steve applies relevant experience to the decision in front of you and identifies where further evidence or specialist input is needed.
Selected career experience
These examples come from Steve’s earlier founder and executive roles. They show the responsibilities, decisions and practical experience he brings to advisory work today.
Founder experience
Steve founded and led Networx Internet, carrying responsibility across products, infrastructure, sales, customer service, finance and people.
The business grew to approximately 30,000 customers and A$3M annual revenue before its acquisition and operational transition.
First-hand experience of the trade-offs between customer demand, growth, resources and day-to-day delivery.
Product & commercial leadership
Steve founded an internal product-development and commercialisation capability, bringing customer insight, prototypes, supplier decisions and controlled releases into one product pathway.
The resulting portfolio generated more than A$60M in incremental growth over about three years.
A practical view of what to build, what to test and what needs to be true before a larger investment.
Workforce & operating leadership
Steve led a multidisciplinary technology chapter with an approximately A$8.5M annual labour budget and authored a steering-committee-endorsed workforce strategy.
The strategy connected skills, workforce mix, location, automation and AI choices through a proposed role architecture. He also designed a governed model for task-level human and AI responsibilities.
Experience linking workforce choices, business demand, professional capability and responsible adoption.
Emerging technology & exploration
Steve directed an emerging-technology capability, bringing technology exploration, customer validation and trials together to assess where new technology could create business value.
His experience includes sponsoring a live AI and machine-learning trial, connecting technical possibilities with customer needs and the evidence required for investment decisions.
Clearer choices about what to explore, what to pilot and what evidence is needed before committing to scale.
Explore technology strategy & explorationThe product example relates to Steve’s founding leadership of iiNet Labs. He later served as iiNet’s Chief Product Officer. His subsequent Telstra roles included General Manager appointments and technology and workforce capability leadership. These are prior career roles, not HarleyShift client relationships.
View Steve’s professional background on LinkedInHow Steve works
You work with Steve to define the issue, weigh the evidence and shape a path people can act on.
Start with the opportunity, constraints and people involved. Establish which decision matters and what evidence can inform it.
Examine assumptions, compare options and explain the trade-offs. Connect customer, commercial, technology and workforce perspectives.
Build agreement around responsibilities and next steps. Make the work understandable to the people who will carry it forward.
Professional recommendations
His LinkedIn profile includes recommendations from former colleagues, managers and team members, alongside his career background.
Judgement & accountability
Where appropriate, AI supports research and analysis within the agreed approach to handling information. Steve checks recommendations against the evidence and business context, works through the choices with you and supports the human decisions needed to move forward.
Initial enquiries are reviewed by people and are not sent to AI or automated decision systems for classification or decision-making. Keep the first contact high-level; detailed or confidential material follows only through an agreed approach.
How enquiry information is handledEach engagement starts with an agreed scope, schedule, fee and understanding of Steve’s availability. Completion or transition arrangements are agreed upfront. Implementation and ongoing support are considered separately where they fit the need and available capacity.
See an illustrative decision briefA direct conversation
Bring the opportunity, uncertainty or challenge. The first step is understanding whether Steve can help.
Start the shift
Book a focused fit check or share a few high-level details. We can discuss the situation, assess the fit and decide what useful support would involve.
Prefer a message? WhatsApp Steve
