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| ABOUT US (AND YOU) |
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| What ? |
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Facilitating Outcomes |
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Structuring Uncertainty |
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Order out of Chaos |
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Organisation futures |
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Prospectivity Analysis |
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Growth options |
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Due Diligence |
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Integration |
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Reality Therapy |
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Story Tellers |
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Mentoring |
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Business Generation is a professional advisory firm that helps organisations to address the challenges of growth.
In nature, living things grow, reproduce and die. They grow until something gets in the way - something inside them, or something in their environment.
In business there are also barriers to growth. Some are internal; some are external. Sometimes the barriers can be moved; often they cannot. Sometimes it is you that has to do the moving.
You and your organisation exist in a wider environment. And you want to maximise your potential within that wider and ever-changing environment. You want to scan and screen the opportunities, and position your resources where they can earn their best return. Our role is to partner you in that process.
We add value to information - yours, and others'. We help you to identify the key variables that determine your business future, and to chart a suitable course toward it.
There is usually a story to be told. We help you tell it. In an expert market report, an information memorandum, a strategic or business plan, a marketing strategy or a sales brochure. |
| Whom? |
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Business-to-business |
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Private and Public Sectors |
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Local and International |
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We specialise in industrial and commercial sectors - not consumer products.
We work with large and small organisations in both the private and public sector. Private sector entities like GPT, Flight Centre, CSR and Rural Press. Public entities like the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), the NSW Department of State Development, and Austrade. Membership-based organisations such as NSW Farmers Association and the Securities Institute of Australia.
We contribute at two principal levels in the organisation, corporate, and strategic business unit (SBU): |
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typical corporate assignments include strategic planning, the assessment of specific growth options (through project due diligence), corporate communications, organisational effectiveness, and governance issues including the delegation of authorities; |
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typical SBU assignments include integrated business planning, strategic marketing, export development and feasibility studies. |
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In either case, our preferred approach is to complement and consolidate an existing internal 'cabinet team', with the inclusion of group or individual mentoring where appropriate.
Geography is an opportunity, not a barrier. We have worked with:
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Australian firms focussed on Australia; |
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Australian firms pursuing overseas markets; |
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overseas firms targeting Australia markets; |
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overseas firms targeting third country markets (in the Pacific Rim and in the EuroMed). |
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| Where? |
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Sydney base |
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Multi-national reach |
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Correspondent offices. |
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Business Generation is based in Sydney. It was founded in 1989.
We have established a network of correspondent offices overseas. This resource enables us to respond rapidly, confidently and cost effectively to the requirement for initial information about market opportunities in key countries around the world. If detailed in-country research is required, these offices may undertake that role. Or we may undertake that task directly, with the correspondent offices providing logistical and other support.
We also work close with Austrade and other local and international trade development agencies where that route offers better value. |
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| How ? |
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Professional |
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Systematic |
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Interactive |
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Robust |
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Pragmatic |
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Informal |
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We start by listening.
As we come to understand the broad dimensions of the challenge, we make suggestions about how it might be addressed.
Once you and we are on common ground about how to proceed, we submit a formal proposal, so that everyone has the same key expectations.
We draw from a range of proven diagnostic, planning and facilitation tools and processes, depending on the particular challenge.
We assemble the required skills and resources.
We tap your brains first, because it costs money to gather extra information. We put an appropriate premium on what you already know - but we don't leave it unchallenged - and then we build on it.
We also draw from a wide range of local and international contacts with specialist knowledge and skills. And if we don't know any, we find them.
We like to talk it through. You can't do everything in a workshop, but they can dramatically shorten the critical path.
We believe in constantly closing the loops. Progressive feedback. No surprises.
We engender trust.
When the job's done, we remain available, but unobtrusive.
And through it all, we become friends. |
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| When? |
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Planning |
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Diversifying |
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Fundraising |
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Investing |
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Initial public offering (IPO) |
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Major Capex Projects |
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Divestments |
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Commercialising Technology |
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Corporatising |
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Facing Change |
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Crisis |
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Talking Head |
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Non-executive Directors |
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As organisations grow, so do their planning requirements. We assist you to develop, maintain and review corporate strategic plans and their subordinate business unit plans. The strategic framework of such plans should have a life of several years; it is appropriate to review the operational aspects at least annually.
Critical events or pending major changes can also be the trigger for our involvement. Examples include: |
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exhaustion of existing market opportunities; |
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economic trends leading to sustained poor profitability; |
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erosion of market share; |
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threatened removal of trade barriers; |
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pending industry privatisation; |
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acquisition opportunities; |
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emergence of revolutionary technology; |
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reallocation of responsibilities at senior executive level; |
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the increasing demands of formal corporate governance. |
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For organisations seeking to raise funds, a business plan, information memorandum or investment profile of some kind is an essential requirement. And reciprocally, potential investors may find it valuable to commission an investigatory report of their own. The successful commercialisation of innovative technology depends on a succession of communication processes involving an expanding range of internal and external stakeholders.
Or you may need someone neutral to bounce ideas around with. One to one. A 'talking head'. Someone bright. Someone 'outside the square'. Someone professional. Someone friendly.
Someone safe. |
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| Why? |
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Objectivity |
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Insight |
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Complementarity |
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Extra Hands |
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Ramrod |
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Piloting |
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Outsourcing has become a mainstream response to the pressures of globalisation. It reflects the logic of concentrating your resources where they can deliver best returns.
Professional advisors, however, are of particular value to their clients precisely because they are not part of that organisation.
The risks of 'group think' and the pressures of accommodation to seniors are well documented. As an outsider, a professional consultant is in a stronger position to provide independent and objective advice, even when it may be unpalatable, and to provide insight which may challenge the status quo.
Professional advisors also enjoy breadth of exposure. Like bees moving from flower to flower they are able to accelerate the transfer of beneficial ideas to your organisation.
Or your resource requirement may be sudden, or short term, or specialised. It may involve piloting something whose future is not assured. Or it may require early momentum in a new direction that may conflict with the current thinking of many in the organisation. |
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| Who? |
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Chiefs, not Indians |
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Experienced professionals |
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Formal qualifications |
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Practical skills |
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Multi-functional teams |
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Project-based |
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We assemble teams to meet the specific needs of the client and the challenge in question. Because the thrust is strategic, and the emphasis is on information quality rather than quantity, our core teams are generally small - two or possibly three consultants with the requisite mix of skills and experience. Each project has a nominated director, and all but the smallest projects include a review function as well.
These core consultants are supplemented as necessary, e.g. for larger market research tasks.
We draw our core team members from a small network of experienced local practitioners who are mainly principals of their own firms: Adrian, Bill, David, Denis, Graham, Peter, Rick and a few others. Practitioners with whom we work well and who share our personal and professional standards. Many of us have previously worked together in the consulting divisions of 'big five' professional firms or the business development divisions of major corporations.
Most of our core consultants are formally qualified at postgraduate level, and provide a pool of complementary technical and commercial knowledge in engineering, the sciences, law, business administration and commerce. Their commercial experience and maturity equip them to operate effectively at the senior executive level of the client organisation.
Business Generation undertakes the commercial contract and assumes responsibility for overall project management and successful completion of each project. |
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| Services? |
| Our professional competence covers a range of appropriate business development services, including: |
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strategic planning |
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integrated business planning |
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strategic marketing plans |
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market research (principally in industrial and commercial markets), both in Australia and overseas |
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marketing audits |
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export plans |
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international business development plans |
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commercialisation of the public sector |
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commercialisation of new technologies |
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business case analysis and review |
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feasibility studies |
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project appraisal and due diligence |
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acquisition due diligence |
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strategic reviews of existing activities |
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organisational effectiveness profiling. |
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| Our CEO |
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Adrian Dignam
Expertise
Strategic planning
Business planning and analysis
Market research and planning
International business development
Commercialisation of new technology |
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Qualifications
B.Sc.Agr., University of Sydney
M.B.A., AGSM / University of N.S.W.
Th.C.(Hons), Moore College
Dip Company Directors |
Membership of Professional Bodies
Graduate Management Association
Institute of Management Consultants of Australia, Inc. (Certified Member)
Institute of Company Directors (Fellow)
Australian Society of Animal Production |
Professional Background
1989 Principal, Business Generation Pty Ltd
1985 Managing Consultant, Coopers & Lybrand WD Scott
1984 Corporate Planning Manager, Rank Group
1980 Assistant Manager, Economic Services, CSR Limited
1979 Business Analyst, Dalgety Australia Limited
1977 Post-graduate studies
1974 Consultant, International Relief and Development Programs
1973 Asst Technical Manager, Alta Lipids (Dalgety Australia Limited) |
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