Tonight I enjoyed attendance at the launch of The 2010 Growth Summit at PWC in Sydney.

The MC of the summit will be Verne Harnish who was key speaker

The theme of the National Growth Summit ’10 is “Going Global, Getting Lean” and there will be an impressive line up of ground-breaking business thinkers who will help small organisations grow their business and take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime economic opportunity to build as we grow beyond the time of collection...

Why do I call it time of collection?

Because the growth builders are taking over, building new niche's in the cheap economy and taking them worldwide!... sometimes for free...

As Verne mentioned, the international market are looking at how to create new revenue.

The growing markets currently represent 42% of international business - very aggressive

Mature markets at 58% - well look at stats below

If you are not looking at how to build business in the growing markets - they are already building business in yours - ready to take over - time to look at your new market...

There were many other facts Verne enlighted visitors with

America's average age 37

China's average age 33

Indias average age 27

Demographics show the future is with youth..

Water is also a future growth area - particularly given global needs with water holding more value than oil.

So, these are a few areas of discussion...

If you want to learn more about who is going to be at the growth summit - here is some info...

International speakers include:

• Hermann Simon, Partner of Simon-Kucher & Partners Strategy & Marketing Consultants, author of Hidden Champions in the 21st Century
• Guy Parsons, Leader in implementing Toyota's LEAN Methodology in service, manufacturing and retail companies
• David Meerman Scott, marketing strategist, entrepreneur and author of best-seller, The New Rules of Marketing and PR and World
• Wide Rave (LIVE via satellite)

Verne Harnish will be the MC for the event

The quarterly survey, conducted by Wholesale Investor magazine on its database of 4,286 high net worth, wholesale, professional and international investors, revealed the following points:

Investors remain optimistic

A staggering 81% surveyed said that now is a very good, or exceptional time to invest. The more the market recovers from the financial downturn, the more this statistic will drop. Smart investors invest when values are right down, and become less enthusiastic as the market moves towards its peak.

Private Companies are preferred (chart - type_of_investments_sought)

59.3% of investors prefer to invest into private companies (down from 71% in May 09 survey). Investors see that private companies can be invested into at lower values, and are less exposed to market fluctuations and nervous markets. Private companies also carry less debt and are less burdened by compliance, reporting and public scrutiny. It is anticipated that interest in public companies is set to increase as the market recovers over the next 18 mths.

Management Team is the key (chart - most_important_deal_attributes) 

77% feel that Quality of Management is the most important investment criteria. This is followed by Proof of Concept, Sector and Exit Strategy. Many people believe that "profit" and "quality pitch" are the attributes of a deal that get investors excited. This is not correct as these attributes were listed last.

Tips for entrepreneurs raising capital – listen to what investors what!

This survey gives an in-depth insight into the investors mindset. This greatly assists companies and entrepreneurs to shape their investment offers, greatly increasing their chance to raise capital. Here are some key tips:

• ·         Focus on building a very strong board and management
• ·         Only target investors who invest into your sector
• ·         Be realistic on valuation – get it stress tested by advisors or friendly investors
• ·         Be flexible – investors today seek more than a ride when investing into private companies. They want to become actively involved so be prepared to accept this
• ·         Be investor ready! Investors in the survey highlight that 41% of opportunities they seek are not “investor ready”. Companies need to seek the right advisor, get educated on becoming investor ready, and allow enough time to do so  
• ·         Raise capital now! Investors are active right now and have cash. Don’t wait till the market recovers – as values go up – investors’ appetite for private deals, and available cash will continue to decrease

To receive a full copy of the Survey, please visit www.wholesaleinvestor.com.au and go to the Media Centre.

Steve Torso is the Founder of Wholesale Investor, which is Australia’s largest private investment platform, with over $300 million in offering available. Wholesale Investor, also publishes the highly regarded Wholesale Investor Magazine, which promotes private / wholesale opportunities to a network of high net worth, professional and international investors. www.wholesaleinvestor.com.au

Efforts to improve the skills and capabilities of the workforce often fail because companies don’t really know where the gaps are. McKinsey’s client work shows that one tool to reveal them is a comprehensive survey that allows employees themselves to identify the areas most in need of improvement. A targeted, less costly program—something that’s particularly valuable in the present downturn—can then be rolled out to the organization.

“Identifying employee skill gaps” (May 2009) presents the case of a manufacturing company implementing a major performance transformation program that included significant capability-building efforts. To identify specific areas for improvement, the company surveyed site leaders, middle managers, and frontline supervisors in two regions. As the exhibit shows, their needs were quite different.

Performance transformation programs may also make it necessary to challenge the way people work. “The psychology of change management” shows how companies can successfully modify their employees’ mind-sets (June 2003).

Source: McKinsey

View the various thoughts from van der Veer here

Much of business literature, and management education, training and
development, is focused on a model that effectively leaves future to fate.
Detailed analysis of the past, control and stewardship of the status quo
feature prominently. Actions are filtered by past experiences. Even the
more recent focus on disciplines such as ‘strategic thinking’, ‘learning’
and ‘leadership’ have not yet delivered against their promise, as they are
not embedded in the day-to-day running of many businesses.

But there are companies which stand out from the crowd in terms of their
capability to form their chosen futures. These companies embrace new
ideas with the same enthusiasm that others wallow in past glories and
defeat. What binds these companies together is that they firmly believe
there is one durable route to the future competitive advantage: innovation.

View the PWC survey that they report...

...explodes many innovation myths and lays down some challenges
to the management of our major enterprises.

Download Survey results here

Overview:

On the whole, MBA programs are in decline. Their value is
being questioned, and they are seen as overly emphasizing
analytics rather than skill development and experiences.
Deans, executives, and recruiters identified four main areas
where current MBA programs are falling short: leadership;
globalization; communication/presentation skills; and problem
identification in ambiguous environments.

In response, MBA programs are innovating and experimenting
to change the MBA experience, and to help business
education regain its relevance and value. They are changing
their curricula and are attempting to make the learning
experience more interactive, engaging, global, and
experiential.

View the full report here