Helping Geelong small businesses develop successful business plans
Over 220 Geelong small businesspeople recently enjoyed a growth event, keynoted by Deakin Business School (DBS) Professor of Practice Pete Williams, taking away actionable insights to boost their profits.
First published by Deakin University
Over 220 Geelong small businesspeople recently enjoyed a growth event, keynoted by Deakin Business School (DBS) Professor of Practice Pete Williams, taking away actionable insights to boost their profits.
Deakin Business School (DBS) is strongly committed to sharing cutting-edge knowledge with the business community. A commitment exemplified by our recent ‘After 5’ event, co-presented with the Geelong Chamber of Commerce.
Over 220 local business leaders and entrepreneurs gathered at the newly refurbished Waterfront Pantry to delve into the transformative ‘7 Levers Framework’ for business planning.
The session was led by Pete Williams, creator of the 7 Levers framework and an entrepreneur in his own right.
This framework is used by teams of students in Deakin’s Business Development Clinic, who consult to small businesses, conducting a ‘health check’ across the 7 levers of business profitability.
Participating businesses get recommended actions that will deliver tangible growth and benefits, whether the business focuses its efforts on a single lever or several of them.
The Geelong event offered an introduction to the 7 Levers framework and took participants through an analysis they could apply to their own business.
‘We saw attendees leaving the venue not just with new connections, thanks to the wonderful networking opportunity, but with actionable insights for their businesses’, Pete Williams says.
‘The success of this event is a testament to attendee’s appetite for learning and willingess to engage with a university that makes a commitment to its local business community’, he adds.
Enhancing SME performance is a focus for Deakin Business School, which is making inroads by delivering research and policy advocacy as well as practical business support.
At the macro level DBS’s IPA-Deakin SME Research Centre publishes white papers that inform the policy agenda for the small business sector, while individual businesses benefit directly from DBS programs like the Business Development Clinic.
Education is critical to this agenda, and business students at Deakin who participate in the Business Development Clinic and entrepreneurship programs are graduating with a powerful set of skills to innovate and drive profitability in their own small businesses, or those that employ them.
On sharing knowledge at events like this, Pete Williams says, ‘It underscores our dedication, not just to educating future leaders but also empowering current ones right where decisions happen — in the boardrooms.’
‘It really makes the point that Deakin’s expertise stretches beyond the classroom and directly into the heart of industry.’
Learn how Deakin can help your business
Businesses interested in participating can learn more and sign up at the 7 Levers website.
Deakin Business School offers a range of opportunities for employers to get students involved in their organisations – learn more.
