Geoff Brash Reading Answers: IELTS Reading Practice Test

Geoff Brash  Reading Passage 

Paragraph A 

Australian businessman and philanthropist Geoff Brash, who passed away in 2010, was known for inspiring young people to attain their full potential.

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He was raised in Melbourne by Elsa and Alfred Brash and attended Scotch College. His sibling Barbara achieved success as a printer and visual artist. His grandfather, German immigrant Marcus Brasch, established the Brash retail music company in 1862; his father, Alfred, operated it. The tagline said, "A house is not a home without a piano."

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In his youth, Brash relished the finer things in life, such as golfing, sailing, and taking a leisurely two months to backpack around Europe. After gaining experience in retail at Myer, he joined the family firm in 1949 and immediately made his mark. His first managerial move was to re-carpet his father's office while he was gone, a departure from his thrifty aesthetic sensibilities. His father, who at first disapproved of his son's lavish spending, eventually came to embrace the alteration and gave his son more responsibilities in the company.

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By the end of the Second World War (1939–1945), Brash's was catering to the growing need for white goods like dishwashers and refrigerators. While the senior Brash was pleased with what he had accomplished, his son saw the need for continued growth. The company only had two locations when Geoff Brash became managing director in 1957, but he quickly grew the business by floating it on the stock exchange the following year and opening suburban locations and acquiring well-known music industry names like Allans, Palings, and Suttons. A total of 170 Brash's shops eventually opened for business across the continent.

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Geoff Brash absorbed his father's emphasis on providing excellent customer service. A pioneer in establishing a share scheme for his employees, Alfred Brash's son continued and extended the programme when the company became public.

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Geoff Brash was upbeat and empathetic. As a result, he was a pioneer in building contacts abroad as well as in obtaining and marketing new technologies. He acquired and offered for sale a variety of contemporary instruments, including electric guitars, organs, and cutting-edge audio and video gear. He grew close to Taro Kakehashi, the creator of the Roland group in Japan, and this connection resulted in a partnership that brought electronic musical instruments to Australia.

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Brash and his wife were among the first Western businesspeople permitted to enter China after Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution, and they went to the first trade fair of its sort in Guangzhou in 1965. He visited Beijing several times and assisted the Chinese in their establishment of a top-notch piano manufacture there. He then served as the plant's representative in Australia. Don Burrows and James Morrison, two prominent jazz musicians, were also brought to China by Brash on a journey that reintroduced jazz to many Chinese artists.

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In 1988, he resigned from his position as executive chairman of Brash's, but under the new management, debt problems developed, and in 1994, the banks appointed administrators. After being sold to Singaporean investors, the business operated until 1998, when it once more entered administration. The Brash brand eventually vanished from the retail industry. The failure of the business he had led for so long, and its final demise, left Brash feeling deeply let down. But he didn't take long to make an investment in Allan's music label when it had been reorganised.

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Brash was a devoted philanthropist who, in the middle of the 1980s, started the Brash Foundation, which later changed into the Soundhouse Music Alliance with the help of other partners. This non-profit organisation oversaw and promoted the creation of multimedia music and music education for both instructors and students. The Soundhouse gives educators and students the chance to experience cutting-edge music technology and utilise it to independently or collaboratively write and record their own music. Along with various locations around Australia, the organisation has also developed branches in New Zealand, South Africa, and Ireland.

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