86 Grapegrower & Winemaker www.winebiz.com.au March 2012 – Issue 578

insurance & finance

Investment in people crucial to agribusinessWineries seek to build leadership from within

Kellie Arbuckle

A NEW PROGRAM that trains middle-to-senior level agribusiness managers could help wineries improve innovation in the office and source future leaders from within their business.

The Agribusiness Management Development Program (AMDP) is a new program that was launched by The University of Adelaide and SOS Group last year to improve the managerial and leadership capabilities of agribusiness people.

SOS Interim Management managing director Jeremy Lomman says investing in staff leadership and managerial training is fundamental to the survival of agribusinesses, including the wine industry.

“Raising the core skills of existing workers is now just the minimum requirement for an industry to continue to exist in the future, rather than a source of additional competitive advantage,” Lomman said.

“If Australian agriculture and the wine industry not only want to exist in the future, but be in a position – both locally and globally – to prosper, then managerial and leadership capability is required.”

Delivered over five days at The University of Adelaide, the program has been designed for people with varying levels of industry experience and does not require previous university study.

University of Adelaide executive education director Andrew Stevens designed the program with Lomman.

Stevens also provides academic content for leadership development programs at a number of Australian wineries, including Yalumba.

“Once every two years, Yalumba brings its top level managers from around the world to the Barossa and puts them through its intensive Signature School leadership program. We work with Yalumba to provide relevant managerial content,” Stevens said.

In developing the AMDP, Stevens says he saw a need to bridge a gap in the wine industry where people were taking on leadership roles they had no skills in.

“We found that it’s no different in the wine industry than it is in most other industries – that you get promoted based on what you used to be good at,” Stevens said.

“Good winemakers become senior winemakers, and then become managers or owners; and while they may have a fantastic technical skill set, what they find themselves doing is not what they were trained to do.

“Unless you’ve spent money in developing their managerial and leadership skills, you need to ask what sorts of decisions they are going to be making. In order to be a successful organisation, you need to augment technical skills with management and leadership capability.”

Yalumba people general manager Nick Slape is heavily involved in the Yalumba Signature School. He says investment in learning and development is fundamental to the business.

“For us, a continuing investment in learning and development – not just in dollars, but in time, energy and attention – is simply about making sure we have the right people, with the right skills, at the right time to help our business get to

where we’d like it to be,” Slape said.“Planning for learning and

development requires the same kind of rigour and attention from our managers as their other responsibilities, and we believe very strongly that it delivers big benefits to us in terms of innovation, people retention, succession planning and continuous improvement.”

Stevens says a major part of capability development is teaching people how to think, rather than how to act, in particular situations.

He says teaching people how to manage people and finance, and how to improve certain processes and strategies were also important aspects of capability development.

To avoid clashing with vintage, the first program has been organised to run from 30 April to 4 May this year.

Lomman believes education aimed at mid- to senior level managers in the wine industry could help wineries struggling to find fresh talent.

“Due to increasing skills and labour shortages, it is becoming increasingly difficult and cost-prohibitive for many agribusinesses to attract (and retain) new talent,” he said.

“Consequently, investing in the education and professional development of existing management is back on the agenda for many agribusinesses, as they seek to build their next leadership group from within.”

The cost of the program is A$3500 plus GST.

For more information or to register, visit: www.thesosgroup.com.au.