THE Advisory Board Centre has announced a $150,000 investment into 100 business leaders across Asia Pacific to provide vital access to knowledge and networks to support business growth and economic recovery.

The Advisory Board Centre's Scaling Business Scholarship has been launched at a time when the OECD’s Interim Economic Outlook has found that building confidence will be crucial to ensure that economies recover and adapt.

This investment in scaling businesses will drive economic impact and prosperity by equipping leaders to thrive in constantly changing and competitive business environments, according to Advisory Board Centre founder and CEO, Louise Broekman. 

She said the program was designed to prepare business owners and leaders to more effectively achieve their strategic priorities through smart, scalable governance and advisory solutions. 

Ms Broekman said scaling businesses played a crucial role in driving economic growth – both locally and internationally. 

“The global pandemic has been incredibly challenging but it has also highlighted the strength of the entrepreneurial spirit and the power of critical thinking and decisive decision making,” Ms Broekman said. 

“The Scaling Business Scholarship will provide business owners and leaders, who provide valuable products, services and employment, with the confidence to thrive in uncertainty and volatility by enabling critical thinking, access to practical advice and robust scalable governance frameworks that support both quality and speed.

“As governments across Asia-Pacific continue to invest in training and upskilling workers, we recognise the significance of equipping business owners and leaders with the knowledge they need to adapt, recover and drive growth.”  

The program is a wholly-funded initiative of the Advisory Board Centre which has been designed based on feedback gathered from the global advisory community as they supported businesses to navigate the effects of the global pandemic.

According to Ms Broekman, after the initial triage period of supporting business owners to navigate the immediate effects, advisors were reporting an increase in the number of business owners seeking support to explore options around repositioning their business and executing on strategic priorities.

“This Scholarship investment comes at a time when entrepreneurial organisations with high growth aspirations are poised to help drive economic growth and recovery," Ms Broekman said. "The ambition and drive is there -- we want to see more organisations achieving their ambitions and are providing practical support, increased knowledge and capability to help them on their journey.”

The Scaling Business Scholarship Program is now open for expressions of interest from business owners and leaders. The wider business community can also nominate a business leader for participation.

The program is targeting participation from business owners in key business hubs across the Asia Pacific region including Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong.

The Scaling Business Scholarship, valued at $1500 per participant, includes:

• Enrolment in the Best Practice in Advisor Engagement eLearning Program;
• Personalised program support;
• Mentoring session with a global business leader to support action planning;
• Comprehensive business diagnostics to help define key priorities for the future;
• Access to a global network of influential and well-connected peers and advisors through the world-leading Advisor Concierge.

Applications are now open for the Round 1 commencement in late January, 2021

Ms Broekman said business owners and leaders with high growth plans are being encouraged to register their interest at tyhe website: https://www.advisoryboardcentre.com/scaling-business-scholarship/.

About the Advisory Board Centre

Representing independent professional members across 10 countries, the Advisory Board Centre recently released the world-first ABF101 Advisory Board Best Practice Framework, a principles-led approach to support ethical, impact focused engagements at a board level.  In 2004, Louise Broekman established an advisory board for her own business which provided her with first-hand experience in how a well-run advisory board can positively impact CEOs. Since 2012, she has served as chair for commercial advisory boards and led the international research and development programs for the Advisory Board Centre Global Research Council.  Ms Broekman is an in-demand speaker and is regularly called upon as the leading voice for Advisory Boards in the Asia-Pacific region.

ends

WOMEN accountants are calling for greater workplace support, and a better culture to improve their mental health and engagement at work.

A new study by Monash Business School researchers, Carly Moulang and Alessandro Ghio from the Department of Accounting, found women’s presence in senior leadership remained low and accounting firms were facing difficulties in retaining them.

The research team set out to uncover why women dropped out in the middle of their career in professional service firms. A report by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency into gender equity found that despite women making up 48 percent of employees in the finance and insurance sectors, just 37 percent of them hold full-time management positions. 

Undertaking a survey of 203 women and conducting 31 in-depth interviews, researchers looked at supporting practices for women certified accountants from across Australia – including a broad cross-section of women from diverse backgrounds, demographics, ages and seniority in both urban and rural areas.

Associate Professor Moulang said survey respondents wanted to see more women in senior positions to inspire others to follow suit, and have male partners advocate for them and model greater workplace flexibility.

“Leadership support is key in order to advocate workplace change. There was a real call for more part-time positions with more leadership roles available to be done part-time. The ability to share roles is also on their wish list,” Associate Professor Moulang said.

Associate Professor Moulang said many women experienced work-life balance struggles despite the policies being in place for them to take time off work – in reality, they are unable to take the time when they need it.

“The crazy thing is that in many workplaces, while women may have plenty of time accrued, it’s not possible for them to take breaks until the project is finished. Doing so is seen as a ‘career suicide’ move. A consequence of this is that many women professionals then experience burnout,” Associate Professor Moulang said.

“One respondent spoke of the wellness days on offer at her workplace, but they were only available once the work was completed. This was often too late as burnout was already there. In many instances, women commented that burnout is ‘expected’ in their workplace, rather than something their workplaces try to avoid.

“The consequences of this approach have been devastating for many women, and have resulted in both psychological and physical repercussions, including hospitalisations."

Another woman told researchers: “When I first went back to work after my child, I was in a Big4, and that’s why I left. It’s because it didn’t matter if it was my day off or not, if it was month-end then I’d be expected to turn work around and work on that day.”

Dr Ghio said surprisingly, many women revealed they had to moderate their own behaviours, particularly in situations where they were the only woman in a meeting or on a committee. 

“Women in professional firms feel like they have to behave in certain ways to maintain their career. Part-time work and job sharing, even leaving early to pick up the kids from school, is still seen to be frowned upon in many workplaces and in terms of limiting women’s potential for advancement,” Dr Ghio said.

“Many of the women we spoke to are considering not just leaving the organisation but the accounting profession altogether.”

Researchers said their findings have relevant implications for the accounting industry, especially in the re-examination of practices that aim to support women in the workplace. This could also open the doors to improving psychological resources and wider acceptance of flexible working arrangements so women can better balance work and family duties.

“The identification of potential sources of support to break the glass ceiling for women can lead organisations to incorporate the challenges of the current fast-changing economy and society, and improve outcomes for women, allowing them to flourish at work,” Associate Professor Moulang said.

To hear more about this research, Monash Business School is holding a Masterclass titled ‘How do we integrate mental health, wellbeing and performance within professional service firms?’ For more information, click here.

ends

UNIVERSITY of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney’s redesigned Bachelor of Commerce degree courses have been redeveloped 'from the ground up' in response to pre- and post-COVID challenges facing businesses now and in the future.

Aspiring graduates will require a more diverse range of skills outside of those taught in traditional business degrees, said Mark Uncles, deputy dean for education and professor of marketing at UNSW Business School.

“While pre-pandemic understanding of areas such as accounting and financial literacy, economic and marketing principles, business communications and teamwork all remain important for organisations, additional themes have emerged in recent times,” Professor Uncles said.

“These include learning how to survive – and thrive – in the digital economy. It is clear we need to give more emphasis to digital literacy, business analytics, organisational agility, workforce flexibility, innovation and entrepreneurialism. 

“This holds true because of the current pandemic, but also because of the other big issues we face as a nation, such as climate change, limited water resources, changing energy demands, urban growth and renewal, and population ageing. There are business challenges – and opportunities – in all these areas,” he said.

To equip graduates with a sharper skillset, UNSW Business School engaged a wide range of employers as well as its Business Advisory Council members. The council includes board directors and c-suite executives from Australia’s top listed companies, regulators and public sector organisations who assist UNSW to better understand their business and organisational requirements.

MEETING INDUSTRY BY DESIGN

EY’s Oceania Campus recruitment lead, Sarah Perrens, served as the industry representative on the Academic Program Review panel redesigning UNSW’s Bachelor of Commerce.

As well as the skills EY would expect to see in its graduates – such as communication, teamwork and problem-solving – Ms Perrens said the firm now assesses graduates for a range of other skills and competencies.

These include adaptability, being a virtual collaborator, drive and resilience, learning agility, and being technology focused -- that is, the ability to keep abreast of new technologies and how they can be practically applied.

“We are seeing an increasing demand for future skills in data and analytics, and staying abreast of new technologies such as automation, robotics and AI. Creativity, problem-solving, adaptability and resilience will be paramount in the future,” Ms Perrens said.

Prof. Uncles underscored the importance of producing graduates with a current and focused work-ready skillset.

“UNSW’s Bachelor of Commerce has always done well in attracting students with first-rate maths and literacy abilities with a good technical grounding, and then building on that to develop their analytical and critical skills within a particular discipline," Prof. Uncles said.

He said employers were looking for graduates with analytical and critical thinking skills who could work with data and apply their insights to address particular business or societal problems. Areas of application are as diverse as auditing and fintech, and consulting and business analytics.

COMMUNICATION SKILLS COUNT

Prof. Uncles said employers were also looking for communication skills that extended beyond simple oral and written presentation to the visual presentation of data using platforms like Tableau and PowerBI, and the ability to draw out insights for decision-making.

Other valuable skills incorporated into UNSW’s Bachelor of Commerce include teamwork and collaboration to address practical business problems, well-developed levels of cultural competence, business ethics and leadership in terms of influence.

“All our students will be engaged in work-integrated learning and have access to our unique Career Accelerator services, including options for career development, internships, mentoring, and practicums. They will curate these activities – and their attainment of skills – into personal portfolios,” Prof. Uncles said.

“We are embedding all of these skills and competencies, and practical employability features, into the curriculum – they aren’t optional extras, they are built into the fabric of the degree.”

CROSS-FUNCTIONAL VALUES ADD UP

Employers and UNSW’s Business Advisory Council also highlighted the importance of cross-functional and cross-disciplinary thinking. The Bachelor of Commerce first year courses now come together as a fully integrated offering.

“If you think about what goes on inside an organisation, there are interrelationships between all the functions,” Prof. Uncles said. “Accounting and finance principles naturally fit together, while international business and marketing often go together, so too do governance, regulation and ethics.

“In the broader business ecosystem, at a macro level, opportunities and problems don’t present themselves in neat packages, so it’s important to apply a business mindset where connections and interdependencies are understood.

“We carry this through to double degree programs where the Bachelor of Commerce is offered in combination with other degrees,” Prof. Uncles said.

A large number of students, for example, were undertaking a Commerce degree with Engineering, Prof. Uncles said. He explained how this approach might add cross-functional value within an organisation.

“Say there was a problem around water resources in a region of Australia," Prof. Uncles said. "You can think about that from an engineering perspective, but also think about the business opportunities presented by water management.

“That’s where value is created, or if you do it badly, where value is lost – and that’s the kind of connected thinking we are developing in our students.”

The first undergraduate intake will be for term one, 2021.

More details are on the UNSW Business School website.

ends