Doctors and other health professionals were sceptical about what a former equities researcher in his mid-20s could tell them about the health system. But his persistence and vision eventually won enough of them over for him to start his own healthcare company, GenesisCare.
A little over a decade later and GenesisCare is the largest provider of radiotherapy in Australia and the country's largest group of privately practising cardiologists. It has an estimated annual turnover of about A$300 million ($306 million) and is about to expand overseas.
The company has signed a deal to roll out around 25 specialist cancer care centres in Western Europe in the next four or five years. This will build a Northern Hemisphere business about the same size as its Australian one.
It's usually a bad sign when a company starts eyeing overseas markets and talks about doubling its size. It often has more to do with the chief executive's and the board's ego than sound business strategy - much better to be running a really big company than just a big one. And there's always the risk that the company becomes so focused on expansion and acquisitions that management takes its eye off the core business.
But GenesisCare looks as if it's in safe hands.
Collins is a thoughtful and methodical chief executive with a clear vision of what he wants to achieve. He's the sort of business leader Australia needs if the country is to move past the mining boom and start exporting services such as healthcare and education.
And he's the sort of chief executive investors would want a piece of.
GenesisCare is owned by management, doctors and US private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. It has appointed investment banks Macquarie and UBS to explore a sharemarket float, which could yield A$1 billion, which GenesisCare says it needs to fund its expansion plans. If this company does come to market, it will be keenly sought after.
WHO KNEW?
The decision by the Reserve Bank of Australia to leave interest rates on hold last week instead of cutting them to record lows took many people by surprise, including me.
But there's someone out there who wasn't surprised that the bank left rates at 2.25 per cent.
In the seconds before the RBA's surprise decision, the Aussie dollar spiked higher, seemingly in anticipation of the decision not to cut.
This is significant because keeping rates where they were pushed the Aussie dollar higher; an interest rate cut would have meant investors would earn less money for holding Australian dollars so the currency would have fallen. When the widely expected cut didn't materialise, the currency rose because it turned out investors wouldn't be earning less after all.
It's the third month in a row someone has "guessed" the RBA's decision and taken a punt on the currency market. Regulators are worried information may have leaked from the RBA and have launched an investigation.
To ensure all investors are treated equally, the RBA releases its decision to everyone at exactly the same time: 2.30pm on the first Tuesday of the month (very inconvenient timing when it coincides with the Melbourne Cup in November).
Properly functioning markets are the mechanism by which our economy operates. That someone seems to be getting an unfair advantage shakes investors' confidence in the system and ultimately in the whole economy.
TICKLE ME PINK
Finally, what's a busy corporate executive to do to reduce stress?
The answer, at least for some of Australia's largest companies, is colouring in. ANZ, Wesfarmers and health insurer Bupa have all issued colouring-in books to staff, according to reports.
The trend follows research by Melbourne neuropsychologist Dr Stan Rodski, who apparently found that people with "beta" brain frequencies - which are typically associated with stress - could switch to the more restful "alpha" brain frequencies by colouring in.
"Focusing on a single task such as colouring-in promotes creativity, reduces anxiety and improves sleep," Rodski explains. He is the "author" of Colouration, an "anti-stress colouring book for adults". Each copy comes with a set of 12 coloured pencils.
