Adrian Fahey (ILF2016)

I would like to sincerely thank Geoff Vogt and the Industry Leaders Fund Board for giving me the opportunity to study at Harvard Business School (HBS), participating in the Owner/President Management (OPM) three-year executive program.

I have been a member of the SAGE Executive team for over 21 years and have held the role of CEO for the past 10 years. I am fortunate to have been able to develop my leadership and management capability with the business as it has grown from a simple start up 25 years ago to now being a leader in our field with offices across the world.

The opportunity to undertake studies at one of the world’s leading business schools has been an ambition of mine for a number of years and through the ILF, this ambition became a reality.

The HBS OPM program is tailored to challenge and enable CEO’s and Business Owners to transform their businesses. Through the program, I had the opportunity not only to study under Professors that teach the MBA program, but to interact with 130 CEO’s and Business owners from all over the world.

The program is run over three years and incorporates three key learning units – Analysing and pursuing opportunities, Leading Growth and Transformation, and Planning Future Transitions. The three learning units are delivered through a live-in program on campus in Boston, USA.

The true test and measure of learning new skills and knowledge must be the question ‘What changes have you made or initiatives you implemented with this new knowledge and skills?’.

During and subsequent to completing the OPM program, we have made a number of changes and introduced several new initiatives, these include:

Establishment of the SAGE Academy, our development and learning program focused on our future leaders. Currently we have 30 active participants who have been engaged in the program since 2017.
The SAGE Business System, our whole of business capability matrix that captures all of systems and processes.
We have stood up a new Line of Business – Asset Operations, our asset industrial maintenance and operations offering, providing key annuity business for SAGE.
We have established two new companies, Embedded Expertise, our technical resource placement company; and Skills Lab, our competency-based training company targeting industry 4.0 skills.
We have launched ‘SAGE Go’, our collaborative service app.
We opened a National Operations Centre (NOC), enabling us to provide remote support to our customers anywhere in the world.
All of this and more was achieved whilst growing the business by over 60% over the past 3 years.

The Harvard Business School experience has not only transformed me as a leader but has transformed our business. I have created personal relationships with leaders from all over the world, who I consider to not only be my mentors but also my very good friends. These relationships will continue to help me grow and develop well into the future.

Again, I thank Geoff and the Board of the ILF for this amazing life and career changing experience.

Adrian Fahey, CEO SAGE Group.
ILF Scholar 2016 – Harvard Business School, Owner/President Management program 2016-2018