Marguerite Orane, Senior Partner of Growth Facilitators.
GROWTH FACILITATORS, Group Process Consultants and Knowledge Works Consulting have forged an ongoing relationship to bring world-class conferences to Jamaica.
Discussing the nature of the alliance in the following discussion, Marguerite Orane, senior partner for Growth Facilitators says that in today's globalised, digitised and multi-faceted business environment, higher demands are being placed on innovation, speed, and superior customer service. So, business leaders must respond quickly and effectively to the opportunities in order to survive and meet growth objectives. Numerous limitations can be overcome through effective strategic alliances with organisations that offer complementary services.
She says the latest initiative of the alliance is a one-day conference themed: 'Leading the Innovation Process' featuring Professor Clay Christensen who is one of the world's leading experts on fostering innovation within organisations.
Q: What are the specialisations within each company and how did you determine the potential for collaboration and best fit?
MO: Growth Facilitators specialises in facilitation, consulting and leadership development for international and local business entities seeking to achieve higher levels of team efficiency and overall growth. Knowledge Works on the other hand specialises in the design of Executive development conferences, training programs and retreats. Most of the board of directors of Knowledge Works Consulting, a U.S.-based executive development firm, are Caribbean nationals who are fully involved in initiatives which further the development of the region. The collaboration between the two companies represents an ideal harmony, as one of the main services of Growth Facilitators is to help organisations in the private and NGO sector flourish by exposing them to world-class thought-leaders via conferences and seminars. With this in mind we collaborate with Knowledge Works, a premier international management consultancy that expertly sources these well-sought-after business leaders and best selling authors.
Q: Do the entrenched value systems of each company need to be shared to achieve synergy?
MO: It is imperative that value systems and objectives are shared to achieve not only synergy but substantial and sustained positive results. Some of the values of our strategic alliance include open communication, delivery of high quality work and commitment to deliver high value learning experiences to clients. With this mutual goal in mind our companies collaborate to assist business leaders in sustainable development.
Q: Has the alliance created growth-generating innovations?
MO: So far the alliance has created growth-generating innovations. When we brought Professor Kaplan (author of the Balanced Scorecard) to Jamaica in 2003, he was well received by the Jamaican business community. The Balanced Scorecard framework is internationally known and used by the world's premier companies.
Using Kaplan's Balanced Scorecard as a model, Growth Facilitators has created a breakthrough programme for education. The Breakthrough Initiative allows schools the opportunity to achieve excellence through the development of focused strategic plans. The initiative utilises a participatory and collective approach, to developing and meeting specific objectives and has so far been implemented in seven high schools in the Kingston and St. Andrew area. The initiative looks at schools as businesses and so far has been successful in contributing to academic and socio-cultural development of eleven schools.
Q: From previously staged seminars, it appears that your target audience is the top Caribbean business leadership. If this is so, why restrict yourselves?
MO: Strategic development and management are the tasks of the CEO and the senior leadership team, and hence we have found that our programmes appeal to mostly senior level executives. However, we aim to impact on leadership development in its diversified forms.
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