About the succeed programme
The Deloitte Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI) in association with The Businesswomen’s Association (BWA) and Business Partners are working together on The Succeed Programme. Succeed is a programme whereby multidisciplinary business advisory teams comprising both men and women mentor female entrepreneurs.
The ambition of the Succeed programme is to increase the percentage of women-owned young companies that remain in business. Statistics show that 50% of all new companies registered fail within the first two years. Many interventions for young companies focus on how to raise finance, rather than providing skills and advice to ensure the business succeeds.
The programme will target entrepreneurial women in the ‘start-up’ arena where the women are the controlling shareholder in a young company fulfilling any one of the following criteria:
- turnover of between R250 000 and R10m
- employ fewer than 10 people or
- in business for less than 5 years
For entrepreneurs taking part, we will facilitate the assembly of a 12-month advisory team consisting of Deloitte managers, BWA advisors and a mentor from Business Partners that offers:
- an initial health check of the business
- quarterly access to competencies for the business that the entrepreneur may not already have
- operational decision-making support for addressing business problems and challenges
- a mini-scorecard to track business success (financial, internal, people & learning measures)
We will know we have succeeded when:
- the business performance of the young companies we advise improves within one year
- at least two out of three young companies we assist are still in business after two years.
The illustration below depicts the different roles played by participants in the Succeed programme and the criteria applied for participation. The metaphors used in the picture are:
- the team leaders are busy bees
- the advisory team members are star volunteers
- the young company is a growing flower
- and Deloitte, BWA and Business Partners provide the building blocks for success
This table lists all meetings, who should attend, who will organise the meeting, relevant document templates that must be completed before the meeting and who is responsible to complete documents.
|
Meeting Description |
Organiser |
Attendees |
Documents |
Completed By |
|
Health Check – a detailed review of the entrepreneur’s business to identify areas requiring development. |
Deloitte Advisory Panel |
Entrepreneur and Business Partners |
None |
Entrepreneur and Business Partners |
|
Needs Brief – discuss needs and profile of ideal advisers. |
Deloitte Advisory Panel (DAP) |
Entrepreneur |
Application Form Needs Brief Business Overview |
Entrepreneur
|
|
Business Overview Session – Advisers and Entrepreneurs meet and get to know one another. |
DAP |
Team Leaders Entrepreneurs Other Advisers |
Matching Scorecard |
Team Leaders Entrepreneurs Other Advisers |
|
Team Formation – informal session to sign one year agreement and training on how to be a mentor and be mentored |
Team Leader |
as above |
Advisory Agreement |
(all to sign) |
|
Quarterly Meetings – 4 meetings (1 every 3 months) lasting half a day to discuss business & offer advice. |
Team Leader |
Team Leader Entrepreneur Advisory Team |
Agenda, Minutes, Balanced Scorecard Feedback |
Team Leader Entrepreneur All |
|
Strategic Review –Formal session to thank advisers, discuss feedback and award participation certificates to entrepreneurs and advisors |
DAP |
Team Leader Entrepreneur Advisory Team |
Business Progress Certificate Feedback
|
Entrepreneur DAP All |
The following picture uses the metaphors introduced above to show how the Succeed Campaign will operate and what the role-players do at each stage. You will notice that entrepreneurs who benefit from the project for one year are expected to act as advisory team leaders for another entrepreneur in the following year. In this way, we hope to make the project self-sustaining once critical mass is reached.
Entrepreneurs will pay a commitment fee of R4, 500 to participate in the programme. This fee will be refunded after the successful completion of the programme.
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