It’s serious business…

By Shaun Inguanzo
LUMEN Australia founder Keith Evans admits he may have worked himself out of a job.
While the term CEO to most companies means chief executive officer, Mr Evans said Lumen staff members were so efficient that his CEO role now meant “chief entertainment officer”.
“When I started off as CEO I was into engineering, economics and things like that,” Mr Evans said.
“But now I have got some beautiful and wonderful people working for me, and I’ve become the chief entertainment officer.”
Mr Evans’ humorous description of his staff is backed by a serious outlook on the company’s future.
Lumen Australia designs a range of electronic parts for both local and overseas car manufacturers.
And there’s a good reason why the Hallam-based company is turning over $19 million a year – good people result in good service to Lumen’s clients.
“Employment has gone up over 30 per cent in the last couple of years,” Mr Evans said. “We’ve now got over 60 employees.”
Mr Evans said staff remained loyal to the company.
“They don’t go,” he said with a laugh. “I can’t even get rid of the bad ones, I’m too bloody soft.
“But to be honest, we have a lot of engineers travelling from the other side of Melbourne to work here and who have been with us for a number of years.”
Mr Evans said the key was allowing his staff the responsibility to feel as though they were running the business.
Lumen Australia also has a keen interest in designing Bluetooth products for car manufacturers – a wireless network that eliminates the need for cables between a person’s devices and the car itself.
“We’ve been doing Bluetooth for a couple of years and the technology has got quite a few more years of life in it,” Mr Evans said.
“In fact we’ve got a meeting with Mazda Japan, which is interested in speaking with us about Bluetooth for the rest of the world.”
Lumen also specialises in Controller Area Networks (CAN), which aims to reduce electrical wiring while providing a more intelligent car.
An example of this technology is that CAN is intelligent enough to tell a car’s rear parking sensors to disable when a trailer is hitched onto the rear and connected to the CAN network.
The future of Lumen Australia inevitably lies through overseas expansion, Mr Evans said, and the 64-year-old expects his son Jon, 36, to be leading the way to new markets.
“The future is overseas where we hope to set up an office and distribution point in Europe,” he said.
“But the first stage is entering the USA. It’s frightening, and I am glad I’ve got young Jon with me.”