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Don Geare
Business Adviser, Enterprise Connect

Enterprise Connect – Making the Connection between Businesses and Success.

In this edition of the DRG e-newsletter we feature Don Geare, a Business Adviser with Enterprise Connect. Enterprise Connect is an Australian Government initiative that offers businesses advice and support through its Innovation and Manufacturing Centres. In this article, Don outlines the vision of the Program and the ways in which it is already helping businesses around the nation.

These days, the trend towards businesses reflecting on their problems and openly seeking outside advice is growing. Although the desire for help is present in many SME’s, the affordability of some options has been identified as a limiting factor. As a result, the Federal Government has launched an initiative to help SME’s that often get left by the wayside. Enterprise Connect is an initiative that sees industry veterans like Don Geare helping SME’s with building their success.

Don Geare is no stranger to the trials and tribulations of private enterprise. During his lengthy career he has worked in the manufacturing industry for many years and during that time has managed a variety of manufacturing and service businesses in Australia, New Zealand and England. He was hand-picked by the Australian Government to become one of its Business Advisers as part of Enterprise Connect.



	"Enterprise Connect is designed to help medium-sized businesses grow in a sustainable way."

In describing the program, Don says “Enterprise Connect is designed to help medium-sized businesses grow in a sustainable way. It is the flagship of the Federal Government’s Industry Policy and is delivered in two main stages. The first stage is a no-cost Business Review with an expert adviser from private industry. This is followed by the second stage of a matched funding grant of up to $20,000 to engage specialized consultants.”

This sounds like a winning combination, and Enterprise Connect has to date achieved great success with medium sized businesses around the country. We asked Don what type of clients Enterprise Connect is aimed at? Don explains: “In all the pre-work performed by the Government they identified that there is a lot of help out there for the ‘Ma and Pa’ type businesses. Also, the bigger companies can afford help. But within the $2 to $10 million turnover category there are so many companies that are not being assisted. In our experience we find that 90% of our clients are businesses that fall within this 2 to 10 million dollar range.”

It seems that many businesses that fall into this category have achieved success to date, but for some reason have stalled in their growth. These businesses then look for advice, but can be unsure of where to turn. Enterprise Connect provides a ready solution to these companies. Don explains how the process helps these businesses get out of the holding pattern they find themselves in: “We find that the issue is, generally speaking, that the original business owner has fantastic core competencies and brilliant technical skills but is being held back by either their day to day involvement in the business – with non-core issues such as admin or staff – or by a lack of clarity and focus. Once a business gets to the stage of some success it is often a case of needing to go back to its core competencies, figuring out what they’re good at and getting back to the business’s fundamental vision and values.”

Enterprise Connect offers these businesses the opportunity to meet with and gain the insight and support of an external expert that has personal experience in dealing with some of the issues they are facing. Don discussed the background to the creation of the Business Adviser position; “In the Government surveys conducted it was identified that SME owners are not afraid of getting external help, they just don’t know what it is they don’t know. They also said that they don’t know who they can trust, and a lot hangs on the credibility of the business adviser. That was when the Government decided to employ about 45 people from private industry rather than have bureaucrats trying to deliver the program.”

So what is the role of the Business Adviser? “Our role is to perform an analysis of the business, to work out where they sit at the moment and their internal strengths and weaknesses. We have benchmarking tools to help us determine where the company sits. We also have access to industry reports that help us to analyse what is going on in the particular industry at the moment and how to work with the business to devise a strategy and actions in relation to this. In a nutshell, it’s really taking an external evaluation, mapping out a route to the future and identifying areas where we believe the business needs to improve.”



	“The program is flexible and in almost all cases it has given companies clarity in moving forward."

Under the guidance of Enterprise Connect’s Business Advisers, many Australian SME owners are already enjoying the changes this has brought to their business. Rather than prescribe a formulaic solution that may be irrelevant to the actual issues faced by a particular business, the program maintains a balanced approach. This approach looks at the following four main areas: product and markets; Leadership and Human Resources; Systems and Procedures and Financial Profitability.

Don outlines that it is the flexibility of the initiative that is one of the keys to its success; “The program is flexible and in almost all cases it has given companies clarity in moving forward. It identifies simple strategies that are relevant to the business’s vision, values and core competencies. So even if the ideas were already in the company, our analysis and talking through our experiences running our own businesses puts things into context. I’ve heard it said that it’s like a mark in the sand – it tells a business that what they are doing is okay and where they should now spend the bulk of their focus time.”

For more information on Enterprise Connect, or to enroll for free Business Review, please visit www.enterpriseconnect.gov.au

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