Talent, Leadership and Innovation – SKT’s Recipe for Business Success.
Business Link Pacific is proud to partner with reputable business advisory services like Sam Kiak Tubangliu Certified Practising Accountants (SKT), who are extremely adept at offering SMEs in Papua New Guinea the necessary business advice and support they need. In our latest blog, SKT share what they believe is the recipe for entrepreneurial success.
Business growth can be rewarding, challenging and occasionally a bit mystifying. Ironically, the bookkeepers most in need of growth are usually the ones buried in unfulfilling and unprofitable work. That’s how Sam Kiak Tubangliu Certified Practising Accountants (SKT) began in 2010.
Managing Partner of SKT Arthur Sam, describes the firm’s formative year as a startup in a 5 square meter fire hazard office along Ahuia Street in Gordons with one client, that to date, still has not paid.
Struggling to see a vision come to fruition in a company can be very challenging for an entrepreneur. Seeing a vision come to fruition requires traction. Firm owners may have visions of how to grow, but that doesn’t mean they can necessarily implement them in ways that (a) make the ideas profitable, (b) that don’t overwhelm them, or (c) that are sustainable and long term.
Fast forward to 2019
Nine years later, SKT is now in a position to offer an alternative range of professional accounting support to meet the needs of businesses in Papua New Guinea. Operating out of MRDC Haus in Port Moresby’s Central Business District, SKT’s high net worth clientele include:
- Brian Bell Group
- National Fisheries Authority
- Coffey International
- Hides Gas Development Company Ltd.
- Innovative Agro Industry PNG Ltd.
- NGIP Agmark Ltd.
- Mineral Resources Development Corporation
- PNG Ports Corporation Ltd.
- Petromin PNG Holdings Ltd.
- Business Advisors in PNG for Business Link Pacific
Right people, right seats.
Many entrepreneurs are holding onto the very work and processes that are keeping them from growing. In a sense, they are anchoring themselves in the past. Asking an entrepreneur to let go of the vine they created is tough, but it is the very thing that will allow them to get what they ultimately want. Are you holding on too tightly to “the ways things were?”
Growing a firm larger than you means that you won’t be doing the tax returns anymore. Other professionals have to prepare the returns the same valuable way you did it. The right people can get it done. Arthur says the right people are the ones who share your company’s core values. The right seat is usually your employees operating within his or her greatest skill or passion in the organization.
Managing Talent
The rate in which firms burn through their talent is staggering. Most firms typically shrug off this issue because they know there is always a new crop of candidates graduating out of college to fill their talent pipeline. Sounds good, but the problem is that continuously replacing an employee is much more expensive than hiring a new college grad. As a result, the long-term cost of high turnover means the leaders you need to run the firm won’t be there when you need them. Therefore, it is imperative to develop future leaders.
Leadership: A key growth enabler
Apart from partners Arthur Sam, Jacob Kiak and John Tubangliu, SKT’s management team is predominantly female. Creating leaders is a long-term process, which means you need to invest the time in teaching your staff how to lead and let them know that you see them as leaders. If you let them know you are making the investment in them, they are more likely to stick around and not jump at the next opportunity they find. This means giving them opportunities to lead a project or give voice to the direction of the firm.
Developing your future leaders shows that you see your employees as assets instead of disposable commodities who can be replaced by the next round of graduates. By believing they are leaders you need to steward, you will do a better job of developing them and build a firm that exists beyond yourself. Investing in the people you have in your firm will allow them to take over the reins and ultimately lead.
If you are an SME in Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Samoa or Vanuatu and are interested in connecting with a business advisory service, contact us on [email protected] for more information, or read more about our services here.