
23/04/2022
This Australia Awards Short Course on Business Acceleration for Entrepreneurs (Bhutan) aimed to develop and deliver a learning program mainly for Bhutanese entrepreneurs who have established businesses. The selected participants learned business expansion strategies and diversification skills. The Core Learning Elements program was facilitated online and sought to develop linkages with successful entrepreneurs in Australia.
This program was supported by the Australian Government, in partnership with Bhutan’s Ministry of Labour and Human Resources, Royal Government of Bhutan. The program was successfully delivered by QUT (Queensland University of Technology), in cooperation with AB Ventures and Royal Institute of Management, Thimphu, Bhutan Studies.
The course leaders from QUT were Wendy Perry and Nelson Salangsang.
The course was delivered in three components from November to May 2022.
During the core learning program, the participants were introduced to entrepreneurs during synchronous sessions. The guest speakers shared practical insights and strategies they used around relevant aspects of their business including: people, strategy, ex*****on, cash and success factors. The participants engaged well with the entrepreneurs, and business mentors. Most participants have had mentoring conversations with Australian entrepreneurs. The participants also practised the use of practical ‘scaling up’ tools: for example, the one-page strategic plan, vision statement, and team performance sheet.
The participants processed the inputs through practical output-oriented tasks encouraging them to apply the concepts and tools introduced. Most participants engaged and used the tools for their own business or organization.
Wendy Perry , Course Leader said: “Mentoring was a key mechanism used in this Australia Awards course. The participants’ Return to Workplans (or RWPs) were used by the facilitators to guide the choice of mentors recommended to the participants. The participants engaged with various mentors, based on their sectoral interest and/or particular business concerns. This mentoring program also helps with establishing sustainable linkage between the participants. About 20 Australian entrepreneurs (including women-owned, disability-focused and Indigenous entrepreneurs) were engaged in this program as mentors.
As a key course output, individual participants developed a Return to Workplan (RWP) which outlines their projects and implementation phase.
Nelson Salangsang, the Course Coordinator from QUT said: “The participant’s Return to Workplans (RWPs) reflect how participants applied their knowledge and skills gained from the course. All projects are directly relevant to their role and their organisation. They range from start-up and scale up activities to operational improvement, and training as well as ecosystem development.”
Participants have developed their vision statements, their unique selling propositions, strategic goals and Key performance indicators, cash flow strategy and GEDSI strategies for their businesses. Their RWPs were linked to their strategic goals.
Thank you CEO, Mr. Dorji Kadin of Bank of Bhutan for your valuable time and talk for our participants.