Institution Building of State Enterprise Restructuring Agencies and SME Support
Gordon Gullan - Lead Consultant & Facilitator for Business Skills & Management Training Programmes
The aim this 3-year programme for the Government of China, under £19M DFID funding, was to help accelerate State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) reform by undertaking pilot programmes in Sichuan and Liaoning Provinces, so developing models for implementing the reform policies that could be replicated throughout China. The Enterprise Restructuring component focused on loss-making state enterprises suitable for restructuring and privatisation, while the Enterprise Development programme was aimed at the SME sector to provide support and access to financing through Credit Guarantee Funds. Gordon Gullan was responsible for providing the assistance in training needs assessment, and design of a programme in business consultancy process skills for the consultants and staff of each of the six Restructuring Agencies. He tutored and facilitated the entire series of residential programmes in each of the provinces with the assistance of a team of five interpreters. He also designed and delivered a special management training programme for the entire management staff of the six Credit Guarantee Funds, set-up to support the SME sector.
The focus of the HR development and training assistance was on the newly established restructuring agencies set up in the cities of Chengdu, Mianyang, Leshan in Sichuan Province an also Shenyang, Anshan and Dalian in Liaoning. These were the intermediary organisations set up to support the selection of suitable pilot enterprises for restructuring, analysis of the organisation, its operations and management and preparation of business plans to encourage involvement of strategic investors leading to privatisations.
The majority of the staff training in the enterprise agencies was through practical experience guided by international sector specialists. The development programme that Gordon designed was the only cross-cutting practical training programme of the project in business & management skills development. These were run on a residential basis in cities of Chengdu and Dalian for all consultants and key administrative staff. The agencies were also responsible for Information Advice Centres to provide support and assistance to Small Enterprises in start-up mode, using the skills developed during the training.
Gordon Gullanâs key tasks included
- Scoping of requirements, based on a training needs analysis, for a time and budget constrained programme â participation was integrated across all six agencies to build relationships and share knowledge of different industrial sectors, with a maximum time limit of 14 days including travelling to the selected centre;
- Design of the a highly-active group-based programme approach, working closely with a team of five interpreters to sustain the pace and level of energy requried for such a programme. Key areas of focus included: strategic thinking process skills for development of business plans, operating a consultancy business, team building and working as consultants in a client's location, communications skills and core elements of project management;
- Preparation of a supporting reference manual of some 350 pages including practical case studies and exercises in the skill sets required as consultants and also for the management skills;
- Planning of physical arrangements in selected hotels/centres in each location to suit group working;
- Delivery and facilitation of the entire series of programmes in each location;
- Facilitating closing reviews and Action Planning for the close of the programme to allow the Agencies' international Experts to follow-up on the changes needed in support of both consultants and the administration of the agency itself.