03 June 2016
The University of South Australia has announced a new scholarship scheme that will put up to 10 Aboriginal businesses operating in South Australia on a path to growth and success.
UniSA Vice Chancellor Professor David Lloyd says the scholarships will support CEOs and managing directors of Aboriginal businesses to attend a world-class program, the Growth Assessment Clinic, offered through UniSA’s Centre for Business Growth (CBG) and led by renowned executive education leader, Prof Jana Matthews.
“Our Business Growth Assessment Clinics are already proving highly effective in helping business leaders understand the critical factors that can take a business to the next level of growth,” Prof Lloyd says.
“The feedback we have from leaders who have worked with Prof Matthews and CBG’s growth experts is positive and exciting.
“We’ve run more than 150 clinics; more than 99 per cent of those who attended would recommend the program and 90 per cent say it has shown them where and how they can grow their businesses.
“We’ve proven that CEOs can learn to grow their companies. With our aspiration to become the University of Choice for Aboriginal people, this is the kind of scholarship support we need to offer.”
The Growth Assessment Clinics at UniSA’s CBG, conducted in small groups of CEOs (six-person maximum), provide a tailored approach to learning.
CEOs and Managing Directors are given tools and knowledge across key areas of the business including, products and services, marketing and sales, dealing with the external environment, building the organisation, financing growth and managing themselves as leaders.
Participants provide the latest information about their business – financial reports, analyses of their customers, descriptions of products and services, marketing information, organisational charts, and fill out an online diagnostic tool that enables the Centre to assess the health of the organisation and the level of leadership being provided.
All this background information enables the growth experts to understand and focus on company-specific issues, problems and opportunities.
Prof Matthews says she hopes the new scholarships will encourage Aboriginal businesses to come to the Growth Assessment Clinics.
“The companies we worked with in the first year of operations have all reported positive gains in revenue, profits and have added jobs,” she says.
“Our approach is to figure out how to unlock the growth potential of each company and to enable each CEO or managing director to understand the dynamics of business growth, especially as it relates to their company’s growth strategy.
“At the Clinic we help them understand their business drivers, assess their strategy, learn to delegate, understand how to finance growth, and learn how to build an organisation that can sustain growth.
“At the end of the intense day, they leave with a Company Action Plan that identifies changes required to strengthen the company, as well as a leadership development plan for themselves.
“I look forward to working with the leaders of Aboriginal enterprises that want to grow, to helping them learn what to do, when and in what order, and to creating jobs as they grow their companies.”
For more information, or to apply for the Business Growth Assessment Clinic scholarships for Aboriginal companies, write to cbg@unisa.edu.au
Media contact: Michèle Nardelli mobile: +61 418 823 673 email: michele.nardelli@unisa.edu.au
