Institution: Melbourne Business School
Course: Leadership 21 Owner/Manager
In January 2013 I was appointed CEO of KOJO after working in the film and television part of our business for 18 years. Whilst an exciting challenge I quickly recognised that I wanted to gain some external training and skill development to ensure my personal and business skills were improving as I set out to continue to grow our company.
KOJO offers a wide spectrum of services across several industries so I have to work very hard to ensure I and the business is armed with the right knowledge to reach our goals and ensure the business is successful as a whole.
As part of this search I was determined to seek further education. My career had involved extensive “school of hard knocks” experiences that I have learnt a lot from and value greatly. So the course I was searching for needed to be genuine, real world and ultimately applicable to what I wanted to implement in KOJO. I also believed I wanted to study with leaders who had significant equity in their businesses and who are focused on designing a new strategy.
With this criteria in mind I chose the Leadership 21 course through Mt Eliza business school. The ILF grant I received gave me a fantastic opportunity to complete this course in 2014. I travel extensively so having the course in 4 modules over 12 months with the support of one on one business coaching meant I could still run the company and also meet my education commitments at the same time.
I found the program incredibly rewarding but also challenging; as I drilled deep into who I am as a leader and also how I can get the best out of myself, my staff and my company. The other members of my group also added significantly to the experience and I learned a lot from hearing how other leaders ran their businesses and dealt with similar issues and opportunities.
The Leadership 21 course covered all areas of business including strategy, finance, conflict management, marketing and personal development. Early in the course we worked through what sort of leader I was; my strengths and also my weaknesses. This was important to me as having been in the business for nearly 20 years I really needed an independent opinion on areas of my leadership I needed to work on.
The calibre of presenters is world class and from a wide scope of industries. This is key to getting a balanced educational environment and an opportunity to learn in areas that you may be less experienced in.
I highly recommend the Leadership 21 course to any leader who is looking to maximise the strategic goals of their own business, improve their skills and build their business and personal networks.
