Taking Care of Business
AUTHOR: Deborah Tarrant DATE: 06.09.07 ISSUE 1, 2007
Building close relationships with the business community is vital for the success of the Australian School of Business. The co-chairs of the recently formed Advisory Council say their work has only just begun.
When Warwick Negus returned to Australia to head up operations for international investment house Goldman Sachs, he wanted to hire the best and brightest graduates and he knew just where to look.
“I knew the Number One source for smart, energetic students – the next generation of leaders for the company around the world – would come from this School,” says Mr Negus who is now Chief Executive of Colonial First State Global Asset Management and Co-Chair of the Australian School of Business Advisory Council.
In the late ‘90s, Mr Negus was on a mission when he re-established contact with the then Faculty of Commerce and Economics (FCE) at UNSW, where he’d completed his Masters degree a decade and a half before.
| Warwick Negus (left) and Tony Berg, co-chairs of the Australian School of Business Advisory Council, keenly recognise the important symbiotic relationship that exists between a business school and the business community. |
At Goldman Sachs, he chaired the charity committee and when the company gave each of its offices in the world US$100,000 to support local communities, Mr Negus prioritised education because he’d experienced its benefits.
“When I look back on my Masters degree, I realise it presented a ticket to play. It got me into the game with the job I wanted, and I built my career from there,” reflects Mr Negus who has held a series of senior executive roles with investment banks globally and established his own independent fund management company. His reconnection with UNSW has involved multiple roles – chairing the FCE Advisory Council more recently, and membership of both the University Council and its Foundation.
Tony Berg AM, his Co-Chair on the new Australian School of Business Advisory Council, had a different impetus for his revisiting campus life. Mr Berg, an MBA graduate from Harvard Business School, joined the AGSM board in the early ‘90s and subsequently chaired its Advisory Council, because he wanted Australia to have an MBA program that “was equal to the best in the world."
His MBA studies had developed “a questioning spirit” and a fresh approach to thinking, problem solving and decision-making that stayed with him through a stellar career. Currently, Director at investment house Gresham and the Chairman of Grange Securities, Mr Berg was the first managing director and CEO of Macquarie Bank and held the same roles at Boral Limited.
Both business leaders keenly recognise what Mr Berg, describes as “the important symbiotic relationship” that exists between a business school and the business community. It’s a relationship that’s not only about access to emerging talent, the graduates who have the key attributes to succeed and compete anywhere in the world. It’s also about working with the School to develop the research and teaching agendas. Where business may deliver funding for research projects and scholarships, it is a source of internships, jobs and inspiration through mentors and successful entrepreneurs and executives.
Growing connections
The drive is on to grow the connectedness of the Australian School of Business, and in the process to draw on the talents, expertise, experience and future involvement of some 60,000 alumni.
Mr Negus sees the School’s fundamental role as being integral to the Australian business community. As the co-chairs of the Advisory Council, comprised of 44 high-level business leaders, he and Mr Berg are determined to make this happen – and their decision to jointly chair the Council is sending a clear leadership message that “the newly formed School is far greater than the sum of its parts."
“Drawing on the combined strengths of the Faculty of Commerce and Economics and AGSM, our vision for the Australian School of Business is to be one of the best business schools in the world,” says Mr Negus.
Defining the goals for the School has been on the agenda at the early Advisory Council meetings.
The Council, which will meet three times a year, is supported by a smaller Executive Committee who meet on a bi-monthly basis. Having rejected the notion of being simply the best in the Asian region, their goal is definitely global.
The calibre of the council members, drawn from a wide range of industry sectors and displaying a great depth of experience [inside back cover], guarantees debate is lively, rigorous and most significantly, invaluable, report both co-chairs.
“Most business people have been through mergers so there has been plenty of advice at Council meetings on strategic imperatives,” says Mr Berg. “It is a forum for continuous dialogue between the business community and the School,” says Mr Berg
In its global objective is the plan to attract the leading academics from around the world to join the School which already claims a significant number of internationally recognised academics, and to build on existing strengths in research.
The business community is already actively engaged with the School's research in major projects such as:
|
These research initiatives are a resource for business innovators seeking academic insights and research assistance and demonstrate how mutually beneficial relationships between the business community and a leading business school can work, says Mr Berg who is anticipating future possibilities,
“As business is looking for bright recruits, we’re asking business leaders to help us to identify trends which may influence the types of training the School provides for undergraduates. For example, Sydney is a very important financial centre so we’re encouraging business to consider whether we should be increasing focus on disciplines within the rubric of finance – banking, insurance, investment management and investment banking … Do we need a Chair of Finance or Investment Banking?”
Connections with the wider business community are also being garnered through a range of networking programs for alumni such as the popular Meet the CEO event series which began in 2003 with a full house for global entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson. More recent guest speakers have included AMP’s Andrew Mohl, Westpac’s David Morgan, IAG’s Michael Hawker and the Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Peter Shergold. David Kirk, CEO of Fairfax and Glenn Stevens, CEO of the Reserve Bank of Australia complete the 2007 series.
The Lifelong Learning series also brings ‘town and gown’ closer together with a program of events hosted by Corporate Partners. The discussion brings a leading academic researcher together with an industry practitioner to explore topics of broad interest to alumni. For example, the 2007 program has included a seminar on population ageing with well-known demographer Bernard Salt and Professor John Piggott. Other events have included Professor Andrew Terry (an expert on franchising) and Mark Bouris, founder and Chairman of Wizard Home Loans and Tom Dery, CEO of M&C Saatchi and Professor Mark Uncles to discuss ‘brand Australia’.
The Alumni Leaders Network establishes strong connections between the School and the business community. Network members are distinguished alumni who also lend their support and participation to the School – as mentors, advisors, committee members, guest lecturers and, in the case of John Doumani, now Managing Director of Fonterra, as the School’s Executive-in-Residence.
In the past 12 months, the School has raised over $5 million in donations and pledged support for initiatives, including the School’s first endowed Chair in Innovation and Entrepreneurship.