Komatsu chief executive officer and managing director Sean Taylor has won the Institute of Quarrying’s 2020 Caernarfon Award for his campaign to encourage diversity in the company.
The Institute of Quarrying (IQ) operates across five different countries (the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, South Africa and Hong Kong), with its members often engaging with each other’s individual knowledge and understanding of the industry through several papers and presentations.
Since 1989, the IQ’s Caernarfon Award has annually recognised the best presentation from its international members.
Judged by the IQ Presidents, it is received by an individual who has been deemed to have made the most significant contribution to the advancement of the science and practice of the quarrying industry.
Komatsu Australia chief executive officer and managing director Sean Taylor was recently announced as the recipient of the 2020 Caernarfon Award for his Let’s talk about diversity and inclusion presentation delivered at an IQA conference in October 2019.
“As an industry we have promoted the benefits of a diverse workforce for years. IQA members learned from Sean’s presentation what organisations can achieve when there is co-ordinated commitment from within to bring about real change,” Sean Braddy, the IQA President and Boral’s national quarries general manager for resources and development, said.
Taylor’s presentation focused on improving diversity within Komatsu and the company has since taken steps to apply this method of thinking.
Current research shows that a pragmatic approach to diversity and inclusion in the workplace can lead to stronger resilience and performance – something that is particularly important in the COVID-19 pandemic.
As part of Taylor’s presentation, Komatsu’s Say Again? campaign encourages its workforce to be conscious of language and ideas that may undermine diverse team building.
“Sean’s presentation at the Geelong conference openly shared Komatsu’s journey to improve diversity and inclusion across Komatsu and provided valuable lessons on leadership through the Say Again? campaign, led by Sean and the senior managers at Komatsu,” IQA chief executive officer Kylie Fahey said. “His presentation received outstanding feedback and the most follow up and interest.
“The IQA nominated Sean for the international award based on the quality of the presentation, feedback and what he is helping shape for the industry.”
Taylor described receiving the award as an “unexpected honour”.
“That our experiences have been recognised by IQ Australia and the rest of the IQ community as delivering value to the industry is an unexpected honour and we are thrilled to receive this award,” he said.
Due to COVID-19 precautions, Taylor’s certificate and trophy will be sent to him, with an in-person presentation to occur at a later date. The IQA will also organise a webinar to be shared globally of Taylor and the presentation at a time to be confirmed.