Grow Your Business - David Reid Group Perth - Strategy, Marketing, Sales, People, Technology, Consulting and Coaching

Philip Doyle, Program Manager,
CBS Growth Programs

At some stage in the life of their business, every business owner will come to a pivotal point when they realise that future growth will require some form of change. What this change is and how to manage it then become the million dollar questions.

A frustrating aspect for SME owners can often be who to turn to for advice. One option that has proven to be instrumental for hundreds of WA businesses has been the CBS Growth Program.

For over ten years Curtin Business School has been running a Growth Program for Western Australian SME’s. This Program has achieved wide success and has seen businesses from across the State emerge with a fresh perspective towards their business and its future. The Program runs over 12 months and consists of 16 full day workshops attended by business owners once every three weeks.

We spoke with Philip Doyle, Program Manager of the Growth Program, about the success the Program has enjoyed since its inception. Philip outlined that there are two key reasons for the Program’s success: “The first reason for success is having a course that caters to individual needs. Each person has needs, but everyone’s needs are different. So when people come to us they may have common problems, but also some problems that are unique to themselves. Through our process of workshops and mentoring we are able to cater for everyone’s needs. The second reason is that people get a lot of satisfaction and learning from being able to talk openly in a group with like-minded people. At a networking function usually your competitors are there and people don’t talk freely. In our groups they’ve traveled a journey together for a year and they get to know each other. There’s a lot of trust and they share each other’s problems and solve them together.”



	“The first reason for success is having a course that caters to individual needs.”

The ability for the Program to help businesses achieve real change is a tribute to the people involved. One of the most fascinating observations about the changes undergone by businesses over the course of the program is that the starting point of the process is often with the business owners themselves. “Entrepreneurial people have a natural ability to start a business. They have the gut feeling, the drive and enthusiasm. They also tend to know the technical aspects of their business very well and come with the skills to get the business up and running. But it usually comes to a point at about the million dollar turnover mark where those traits that have enabled them to get the business going, become inhibiting factors. They want to do everything and have an inability to let go and stand back and allow other people to develop into the space where they’ve been.”

Why does this become such a problem for businesses when attempting to grow? Philip explains “the inability to let go is a huge limiting factor for the further development of a business. What we see is people attempting to grow their business on weak foundations. The old definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again and expecting a different result. So people think ‘this is the way I’ve done it before and the business has grown, so I’ll just keep doing the same thing and doing it harder to grow the business even more’. We find that for growth to occur a fundamental mind shift is required.”

If business owners starting the Program are often burdened by their own lack of awareness of the impact of their actions on the success of their business, how does this change during the course of the Program? “We find that what changes is how people think. Coming into the Program people think it us all about finance, marketing, human resources development and planning. But at some stage during the program – and its different for everyone – they realize that it is more about them. They are the fundamental or critical factor between success, failure or mediocrity in the business. Until they change their mindset, nothing will change. A Client once said to me that once he took his ego out of the equation, the turn over of his business quadrupled because he realized he couldn’t do it all and needed to stand back and let others take over. This is hard for entrepreneurial people to do – there are two forces pulling in opposite directions.”



	“They’ve given their best effort and they know that they can work a little bit smarter rather than harder.”

As explained by Philip, the Program does not discriminate in the types of businesses that can enroll; “The rule is there is no rule. They come from all sectors of the economy, they’re all ages, male and female. They do all share one thing in common – they all come to the realization that there has got to be a better way. They’ve given their best effort and they know that they can work a little bit smarter rather than harder.”

As Program Manager Philip has seen a lot of businesses go through the Program and a lot of business owners come to this fundamental mind shift. They may have been in business for as much as 40 years or as little as two – but the power of understanding their limitations is just as significant. The beauty of the Growth Program is that it is flexible. Philip says “it’s about not being rigid but ensuring that each person achieves what they want to achieve. It’s a big learning curve for participants. Some people we need to ‘hose down’ from day one because they want to make all these drastic changes. Others go the whole twelve months and are still soaking it in before they take any significant action. Everyone’s different and we don’t have a structure that says its Day 2 so you must be doing this or it’s Day 4 and you must be doing that. We cater to everyone’s pace of learning and particular circumstances.”

For more information on the CBS Growth Program email c4einfo@curtin.edu.au or go to www.curtingrowth.edu.au and follow the links.

Go Back >>