The Industry Leaders Fund welcomes the appointment of Kris Lloyd AM to the ILF Board.

The acclaimed artisan cheese maker says she plans to continue her advocacy of the ILF to encourage leaders from SA industries to enter the awards, enabling further growth in the SA employment base.

Ms Lloyd (ILF 2014) becomes the first female scholar to serve in this role.

“The support that ILF has given so many individuals to better themselves and contribute positively to our great state is something I am incredibly proud of and I am keen to continue to assist in whatever way I can,” she says.

“I believe the experience gained from almost three decades in business, previous other board appointments including the South Australian Tourism Commission, appointments as South Australia’s Food and Wine Ambassador, Ambassador for Women in Agri Business and Regions and Festival Director of CheeseFest, now in its fourteenth year, means I can contribute to the ILF Board in many different ways."

The award-winning Adelaide Hills producer says she was excited to be the inaugural female Scholar and Board member to sit on the panel to select grant recipients.

“I feel privileged they have put their trust in me, and I hope I can contribute in a meaningful way to see increased gender diversity,” Kris says.

“I am thrilled that I will have the opportunity to be a part of the selection panel and believe my experience judging the Telstra Business Women’s Awards, International Cheese Judging, Wine Judging, running a small business and judging the Food SA Leader Award perfectly equips me to be a valuable panelist.

ILF CEO Geoff Vogt says Kris brings a range of sought-after skills to the ILF Board.

“She is eminently qualified as a successful businessperson, as a major contributor to the success of the South Australian business community and as keen advocate of the ILF,” Mr Vogt says.

“She has already made a major contribution to the success of the ILF as chair of the Scholars Network committee and I expect, as a director, she will provide significant insights, energy, profile and new perspectives to what is already a very successful organisation.”

Read the full statement here>

Read The Advertiser article here>

From the CEO Geoff Vogt

April has been  a very busy month.

The biggest news is the very welcome and exciting appointment of Kris Lloyd AM as an ILF Honorary Board Member. You can read about her and her aspirations in this bulletin.

At the same time, David McNeil, one of the founding fathers of the ILF, was nominated as the second ever Emeritus Member of the ILF. This is the highest recognition bestowed by the ILF. The first Emeritus Member was Inaugural President, Col Peters AM. 

Grant applications have been flowing in with 25 lodged as at 30 April compared with 10 at the same time in 2020, 20 in 2019 and 2018. The quality of the applications appears to be very good, with a high percentage likely to be competitive on a quick review. Pleasingly, female applications are well up on last year. With the portfolio worth $13.4m as at 30 April, compared with the indexed value of the original funds, there is plenty of room for more quality applications.

In this bulletin:

• there is a great summary of the 20 April Media Training day by Christine Molitor, who coincidentally applied her learnings on 5AA on Monday 3 May.
• there is an update on the Information Evening which is tonight. If you have not booked in yet you will still be welcomed, but please inform Suzi  so your name tag is ready and catering can be adjusted.
• you will see details about the very timely Hiring and Retaining key Staff breakfast on 13 May. Are you finding it hard to build a quality team? This is for you.
• you can read about the strategy training afternoon on 18 June. With an all-star cast of business leaders you are bound to go away with multiple valuable tips for your business. Save the date; invitations will be sent soon.
• there is a Save The Date notification for a personal investing breakfast to be held on 29 July sponsored by Morgan Stanley with the ILF’s Investment Adviser, Sam Saunders.  
• you will find an invitation to get a free up to date salary survey in return for providing data to the survey.
• there is an opportunity to join a Cyber security webinar, and
• you can see what I have been reading, with supply chain diversification in focus as a result of the Suez Canal blockage and a bit about what Artificial Intelligence is capable of and what it is not.

Read more of the CEO Report here>

Hiring and Retaining Key Staff Event: 13 May 2021, 7.30-9.30am.

Struggling to find, and more importantly retain, key staff so you can build a quality high skilled team?

You are not alone. In the competitive market for skilled people with the right culture you need to be better than those you are competing with.

This breakfast session will give you inspiration and the tools to “go get 'em”.

Thursday 13 May, 7.30 am to 9.30 am, at the Australian Centre for Business Growth, Level 1 Yungondi Building, UniSA, 70 North Terrace, Adelaide.

The session will be delivered by Director at the Australian Centre for Business Growth, Dr Jana Matthews, and an international expert on entrepreneurial leadership and business growth.       

To register click here>

Strategic Planning and Implementation training with Codan's Donald McGurk: Friday, 18 June 2021, 12.30-6.30pm

Strategy is often debated. Views include:

• Good strategy is essential to a make a business great.
• Strategy should be set and reviewed annually.
• Strategy should be reviewed regularly.
• Setting a strategy is a waste of time because it is out of date before it is finalised.

An afternoon training session will provide you with an opportunity to hear real views from really successful business leaders.

Anthony Kittel (ILF2010), Managing Director of REDARC, will facilitate the all-star line-up which includes:

• Keynote - Donald McGurk, Managing Director of Codan. Reputed to be the best practitioner of Strategy in Adelaide. Under Chatham House rules you will see the Codan Strategy Plan on a page.  

• Panel session one - Big Business: ensuring engagement at all levels of a big ship.

1. Alf Ianniello (ILF 2011)  (Detmold)
2. Stephen Faulkner (ILF2018) (PMB)
3. Shaun Westcott (ILF2018) (Mitsubishi Australia)

• Panel Session 2 – Services: planning for demand fluctuations.

1. Gerry Doyle (ILF2016) (Tonkin)
2. Joanna Chronis (ILF2019) (LogicPlus)
3. Kelly Keates (ILF2015) (Zonge Engineering)      

• Panel Session 3 – Startup to Big Business: : biggest change in approach with growth from small to large.

1. Andrew Downs (ILF2013) (Sage)
2. Oscar Fiorinotto (ILF2017) (Supashock)
3. Claude Cicchiello (ILF2014) (La Casa Del Formaggio)

• Panel Session 4 -  Pivot: Is strategy important in  a crisis?

1. Chantale Millard (ILF2017) (Maggie Beer)
2. Charlotte (Charlie) Aykroyd (ILF2018) (Clean Green Australia)
3. Ben Rowe(ILF2015)  (Brauer)

• Special Guest- Jamie McKeough, Managing Director, Business Advisory, William Buck

SAVE THE DATE, invitations to be issued soon.

Sponsored by William Buck

Upcoming Events - SAVE THE DATE:

Personal Investing Breakfast:  Thursday 29 July 2021

Sponsored by Morgan Stanley

Media Training Event Summary:

Approximately 30 ILF Scholars were treated to an informative and participatory afternoon session, kindly hosted by Grant Thornton and facilitated by Ron Kandelaars.

ILF Scholars attending the event were asked by host Grant Thornton, to reveal their thoughts on some of the challenges facing their businesses today.

Read a summary of your colleagues findings here> 

Read a summary of the feedback of the session here>

Read the full event summary here>

Machine Learning:

This article is a follow up to the Scholars Network Machine Learning breakfast held on 10 March. It explains that the term Artificial Intelligence creates a false impression of the capability of computers. A far better term is Machine Learning, as used at the March Scholars Network breakfast.

I have coloured the typeface red for what I believe are the most relevant sections.

Read the article here>

Consilium Technology CEO, Seth Thuraisingham (ILF 2018), was a speaker at the March Scholars Machine Learning Breakfast. After reviewing the event summary article published in the April bulletin (read here), he made the following comments:   

"It's hard to stop calling everything AI, when that is the language that everyone else is using. Instead, that is a starting point to then deepen and navigate the conversation.

As per the Scholars Breakfast, the core business outcome of AI at this moment in time is simply a prediction.

There is a wonderful book, Prediction Machines, written by an economist not a scientist.  It is highly recommend for the business person.

A few key points:

o   Predictions are in every decision point.

o   The economics of prediction have come down, i.e. the costs to develop robust predictions in real-time has significantly reduced.

o   Predictions increase the value of our judgement in decision making.

I agree that there is quite a bit of hyperbole and excitement around the sci-fi aspects of AI - and that isn't really helpful to most businesses."

Scholars in the Media: