Aluminium Revolutionary Chassis Company (ARCC): Peter Murley

After more than 20 years in the bus industry, Peter Murley started Aluminium Revolutionary Chassis Company (ARCC) in 2015 to challenge the traditional dependence on using diesel, gas and other fossil fuels for public transportation.

Throughout his career, Peter has established a number of successful companies, built Australia’s first electric-powered buses, and last year sold his bus building business to TrueGreen to focus on ARCC.

In the race to develop green transport options, ARCC has flipped the standard push for more power from zero-emission fuel sources to focus on building lighter vehicles. Inspired by the architecture of a skateboard, the ARCC chassis are lightweight but sturdy heavy-vehicle bodies that can be manufactured quickly and affordably in Australia.

Peter’s transition to focusing on his role as Managing Director at ARCC meant moving from Perth to Sydney. While the move made business sense, it distanced Peter from his well-established network of entrepreneurial-minded friends who he would turn to for advice. Members of this group recommended that Peter connect with Executive Performance Partners for the accountability and the sounding board he craved.

Our Scorecard for Success

Peter worked with the Executive Performance Partners team to map out his individual scorecard for success. He started by outlining the three key areas of his life that he wanted to concentrate on: his family life, health goals, and commercial activities.

His objectives for his Scorecard for Success are to:

• Have a trusted partner available for discussions, advice and to act as a sounding board.
• Develop a deeper understanding of his motivations and triggers – why he does things the way he does them.
• Ensure all decisions align with ARCC’s strategic goals and what has to be accomplished to get there.
• Providing accountability to achieve his goals and future growth plans
• Build his confidence to step into a more public-facing role to develop ARCC’s profile

Peter has regular sessions with the team at Executive Performance Partners, which he says are crucial to keeping him on track. He also welcomes the ability to reach out and schedule additional calls with the team.

Within six weeks of the partnership, Peter was impressed by Executive Performance Partners CEO David Munro’s capacity to insightfully draw out what Peter needs to be the best version of himself. He instantly appreciated some of the philosophies and insights provided by the team and was rapt by the speed with which David picked up what Peter is doing and where he wants to go.

One area they have worked on is developing Peter’s ability to look at different motivations for people acting in different ways. Peter applied this skill to an interaction with a manager who was trying to avoid a difficult conversation with his team member and push the task back to Peter. The incident initially annoyed Peter, but David helped him see the different personality factors in play to find a positive outcome. Peter said it was about recognising the difference between being right and being effective.

He says the benefit of working with Executive Performance Partners is the guidance to apply the correct strategy for whatever circumstance you face.

Peter says:

“David (at Executive Performance Partners) has this capacity to understand what your strengths are and how you should apply them for the best outcome. It’s like, you’ve got a deck of 52 cards, and you know what’s in the deck, but David’s skill is to pull the right card that you need at that time to help you see what you should be doing or help you see things a bit differently.

I think I wouldn’t have lasted past the first or second week if I didn’t see any return. But my conversations with David deliver a couple of diamonds every single time. There’s not an interaction I have had with him that hasn’t delivered some significantly important takeaways that are practically applicable.

I like that he’s someone who is an entrepreneur, who was very successful himself. He has scaled his business, sold his business, started another business. That doesn’t misalign with my own story. And until you’ve risked your house, until you understand what it’s like to wonder how you’re going to make wages that week – well, it’s hard for me to listen to anyone that hasn’t had that experience because they’ve never been in my shoes.

I think this partnership has worked well for me because I was used to having this very supportive, very available network of very clever people who made me smarter and helped me learn. When that wasn’t available to me, and certainly in COVID times, I felt I needed more, and that’s where David has helped me.”