Who We Are
Some careers move sideways.
Australia. Germany. Singapore. Japan. Four countries, one question following her the whole way:
why do good businesses lose their way the moment people stop understanding each other?
”Throughout my career, I have witnessed or been part of many situations where “untethered” behaviour, words or actions undermine the outcomes teams, businesses or even individuals are trying to achieve. Very few of us grow up with the ability to navigate system dynamics without learning first to understand ourselves in different roles, contexts, and environments. As a shy introvert, I faced some very challenging stakeholders in my early career that terrified me, but this taught me how to relate, project confidence, and build common purpose.
My first roles in Germany showed me that I often became the facilitator or mediator in diverse groups. I learned to embrace and enjoy these roles, and this has formed the foundation of my life’s work by helping businesses and their people thrive at work through intentional culture and leadership.
Joanner Fisher
That’s the reason Fisher People in Culture (FPC) exists. This is her story.
Meet Joanne Fisher
Over her 30+-year career, Joanne has worked with clients from around the globe.
Joanne Fisher has spent her career living the thing she now helps other leaders navigate through sharing what it takes to lead across cultures, rather than simply reading about it.
She has lived and worked in Germany, Singapore, Japan, and Australia. She’s bilingual in English and German and remains in regular contact with Germany-based clients today as someone who has sat on both sides of the table.
<1992
Sydney, Australia: Working within Australia's financial services sector. Starting at AMP and finishing as HR Business Partner for Westpac's Financial Markets division.
1992
Düsseldorf, Germany: Working for a privately owned consulting firm delivering EU- and development-bank-funded projects (EBRD, World Bank) writing proposals for large institutional programmes and project-managing multicultural teams across Eastern Europe.
1999
Singapore: This chapter was about family rather than career. Raising twins during this period and spending time in volunteer work. The pattern of moving, adapting, and rebuilding a life somewhere new was becoming second nature.
2001
Japan, Tokyo: Worked with an American recruitment company servicing Japanese companies hiring English-speaking candidates. This role provided cross-cultural coaching to the expatriates moving through that system.
2004
Sydney, Australia: Completed Post Graduate Diploma in Counselling and Applied Psychology, with placements as part of the degree.
2005
Cologne, Germany: This chapter was more about family than career. While staying professionally engaged on a project basis with former consulting colleagues and taking on ad-hoc cross-cultural coaching assignments with executives and managers in global businesses based in Germany.
2007
Sydney, Australia: Working as a career and executive coach, and as a Key Account Manager with corporate and SME business leaders to manage global mobility assignments. Went on to build the career experience across executive recruitment, executive coaching, leadership development and culture consulting. This now underpins Fisher People in Culture.
Joanne has a sincere passion for client success and wellbeing, and a high level of intercultural understanding. Her years working with and inside German and international businesses have shaped her approach to work and life significantly by seeing the value that diversity of thinking and experience brings to organisational performance.
She isn’t explaining a culture she’s read about. She’s explaining one she’s stood inside.
Why FPC exists
”Interestingly, FPC was founded right when Covid hit. Little did I know how culture would become so critical in the coming years. I had been working at an Executive Search company that had a deep approach to servicing clients and candidates. It aligned well with my coaching background and allowed me to work closely with Senior Management in medium-sized businesses across a range of industrial sectors.
I saw clearly that there was a broader need to support these managers and businesses with expertise to understand their most valuable resource: their people. To help them navigate the implicit, relational aspects of their organisational system. These businesses were purpose-led, had great products, and often had leaders who grew up in the technical domain.
What kept them up at night was how to best lead, develop and enable the talent they had to adapt together, as the organisation and its environment evolved. They needed trusted advice from experts that could do tune-ups, rather than complete overhauls, and who were able to connect the parts of the system so that changes made a positive impact on behaviour and mindset, and stuck.
Joanner Fisher
So in 2020, Joanne founded Fisher People in Culture, building on the relationships and track record of her earlier business, Fisher Management Consulting. Her mission was, and still is, to bring the calibre of culture and talent expertise that large corporates take for granted to the busy SME and subsidiary leaders who need it just as much and often can’t find it anywhere else.
Practically, that means creating space for leaders to step back from “the way we’ve always done it” by tapping into new models, applied practice and fresh approaches that shift status quo thinking, so people and businesses can thrive in a fast-changing world.
The Culture Mechanic
Joanne is a Culture Mechanic.
She brings deep business expertise across markets and countries, underpinned by an emotionally intelligent approach that connects with how people actually think and behave in complex, high-pressure environments.
She lives the philosophy of ongoing development herself by bringing clients the latest thinking from executive coaching, neuro-leadership, emotional intelligence and organisational culture. All because a Culture Mechanic who stops learning stops being useful.
Joanne Fisher’s credentials
- ICF Professional Certified (PCC) Executive Coach
- Licensed and Accredited Facilitator of the Neuroscience of Leadership and Performance NeuroTREADTM programs from EnHansen Performance Pty Ltd
- Accredited practitioner for PRISM Brain Mapping (Neuroscience Based Behavioural Profiling), Saville Consulting Wave and Roche Martin ECR – Emotional Intelligence.
- Bachelor of Business (Human Resources)
- Graduate Diploma in Counselling.
Joanne doesn’t diagnose culture from a distance and hand over a report. She gets to the details, works out what’s not running smoothly, and develops fixes alongside the people who have to work with it every day.
Who we work with
You’re a growth-ready Australian SME, or the Australian subsidiary of a German or European business.
Often, but not exclusively, industrial products and privately-owned, in engineering, technology, manufacturing or building materials. Sales and distribution businesses make up a large share of who we work with.
You’re growing fast enough to feel the culture straining at the seams, and honest enough to want the truth about it, not just reassurance.
We work with businesses anywhere from 10 to around 250 employees, always alongside the decision-makers. We’re based in Sydney and work Australia-wide and into New Zealand, with an active hand in the German-Australian corridor.
Our team
FPC is a small, collaborative team of professionals and partner network, with diverse backgrounds in executive search, talent development, and culture. All sharing one passion: helping our clients become the organisation, leader or professional they aspire to be.
Joanne Fisher
Founder & Culture Mechanic
Joanne Fisher founded FPC to bring the culture and talent expertise to growth-ready SMEs and subsidiary leaders. Her thirty-year career has taken her from HR roles in Australian financial services to over fifteen years living and working across Australia, Germany, Singapore and Japan. An experience that shapes how she reads people, teams and organisations. She’s bilingual in English and German and remains in regular exchange with clients and Head Offices based in Germany.
Eline Derks
Marketing & Project Coordinator
Eline leads marketing strategy, content, and digital execution for FPC, working alongside Joanne to shape how the business shows up – on the website, in client-facing content, and across the firm’s digital presence. She works closely with both Joanne and Ruth, translating big-picture direction into clear communication. For Eline, good marketing is making sure the right people can find FPC, understand what it does, and trust it.
Ruth Hills
Client & Team Support
Ruth keeps FPC’s engine room running. She handles the coordination, scheduling, accounts, systems and behind-the-scenes admin that lets Joanne and the team focus on client work. Always across what’s needed, liaises with clients, and pitches in wherever the day requires. Ruth brings a calm, can-do approach to everything she touches.
Some of the companies we've worked with
Talk to Joanne directly
Culture issues rarely announce themselves cleanly. If you’re sensing something is off, or you know exactly what the problem is but aren’t sure where to start, let’s have a conversation.
