School For Training Business Executives

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27675, 3 June 1955, Page 3

School For Training Business Executives

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY. A college for the training of business executives, backed by leading Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide firms, will be set up in the near future, inis follows a conference in Melbourne of 16 top executives of powerful Australian firms. The purpose of the college—to be c* «/-. Australian Administrative fctaff College—is to train men between do and 40 who are in line to succeed to top executive positions. It is proposed there should be two ♦u C l lor L s lectures each ’year and a,- - l ect urers should be selected lor their practical experience and not J or tberr academic qualifications. A further meeting will be held in Sydney by h sub-committee to work °ut details of financing the scheme. J he Chairman of the College Council (Mr Essington Lewis) said that America, from the early part of the century, had recognised the .need for providing means for training persons to meet the responsibilities inherent J u , senior executive positions. He added that, after consultation with Mr Noel Hail, principal of the Administrative Staff College at Henley-on-Thames, it had been decided to follow the pattern of that college. Mr Lewis said it was true that the majority of companies employing big numbers of men provided staff training courses. However there was now a general recognition that men who were to occupy the highest positions

should have their minds exposed to wider problems than those they might normally meet in their own. particular businesses. It was to enable them to get this type of experience that the Australian Staff College would be established. It was not sufficient, for a man to succeed, that he should be an expert in one particular form of undertaking. His mind must encompass the problems of a rapidly developing national economy. He must know how to make the best use of men and materials so that productivity might be increased with as little wastage as possible. . It was essential this need be recognised by all those responsible for the management of commercial and industrial undertakings whether they were serving as directors, managing directors or in any other senior managerial position. This was necessary so that the standard of living of all people might be preserved and increased and so that we might survive in the struggle for existence. “I feel confident that all businesses, whether small or large, throughout Australia will recognise they have much to gain by the development pf the work of this college. I am sure most businessmen recognise this, and if this college is to succeed it should be supported both financially and by sending executives to it for training from business of every kind; banking and commerce as well as manufacturing, distribution and retail,” said Mr Lewis.