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Hello, can you hear me? Okay. What do companies like Pie Face,
Aussie Farmers Direct, Australia Power and Gas have that other
companies don’t? These companies have achieved rapid sales growth
of between 36% and 600% over a four-year period. How did they
manage to achieve spectacular growth, despite the fact that in 2010
business failures have actually grown by 25% due to the global financial
crisis and poor cash flow management. My research is all about drivers of fast growth
and how leaders actually instill a climate of learning in these enterprises.
These fast growth entrepreneurs are the crème de la crème
of Australian enterprises and they actually comprise of 5% of Australian
companies. They obviously possess characteristics that are not ordinarily
found in organisations. So, how do they actually get their employees
to subscribe to a commitment to learning? To share the vision,
to actually get them to think outside the square?
Before I share with you what actually fosters learning, I would like to tell
you what does not and that is probably the most interesting finding of
my study. What I found was that bonuses related to performance does
not actually get people to try, therefore it’s not about the money and it’s
not about the carrot and the stick. So it’s not to say that money is not
important, because obviously money is, but what I’m trying to say is that
you take money out of the table, you pay them enough, take money off
the table but focus on the employee, so that they can actually create the
best work that they can actually do. How do I do this? How do these
leaders do this? Focus on being a role model, get the leader to actually
walk the talk. Provide them a roadmap, give them a roadmap as to
where you want them to go. Support them, provide an open climate so
that they actually can voice their opinion. An example of this would be they actually
get their employees to sit down, cross legged, in a circle and ask them
what I feel like saying. An example would be they say “Oh you know the
lights in my office are too dim so you know what, I need to be able to
have brighter lights”. There are two take-home messages from what
I have actually found from my research. One, treat people like people.
Two, it’s not about the money. As the old adage goes, money can’t
buy happiness and I actually should break out in a song – have
you guys heard the song, it’s not about the money, money, money … yeah?
So basically do you think that this will be applicable in the university
setting? Can we actually encourage people to learn this way? Thank
you.