The Australian Agribusiness Leadership Program (Scholarship)

The Australian agribusiness sector has undergone significant change over the past 25 years. Increased international investment, greater domestic competition and the opportunities presented by improved international trade opportunities. The sector is diverse and includes business models that range from SME to major multi-national companies. The leadership challenges are equally diverse. Yet they often share a commonality of circumstances, and opportunities for shared professional development. 

While individual entities within Australian agribusiness do operate in competition on a daily basis, there are significant benefits to collaboration in tackling the complex challenges for the future. 

The Australian Rural Leadership Foundation (ARLF) is pleased to offer a unique leadership development program to foster that collaboration and build enhanced industry leadership capacity. 

The Australian Agribusiness Leadership Program (AALP) is tailored to the needs of the agribusiness sector. It has been developed in conjunction with key agribusiness organisations and individuals to deliver an immersive and informative opportunity for agribusiness professionals.

This development is underpinned by the ARLF’s 25 years of experience in designing and delivering high quality leadership programs.

Objectives of the Leadership Program

The objective of the program is to deliver practical leadership benefits to organisations and individuals within the agribusiness sector and to enhance the opportunity for collective impact.

Specifically, it will:

1. Develop strong leadership capabilities in the sector, including (inter alia) critical thinking, persuasion and influence, negotiation, facilitation, and communication;
2. Facilitate a deeper understanding of the shared leadership challenges and opportunities faced by the agribusiness sector in Australia and to commence a practical, cooperative approach;
3. Foster ongoing relationships for peer support across the sector.

The Program will achieve this through:

• Offering experiences that build an understanding of critical thinking, persuasion, influence, negotiation, facilitation and communication.
• Supporting participants to deconstruct complex situations and assumptions through exposure to legitimate competing interests in the agribusiness sector.
• Opportunities to achieve a deeper understanding of relationships and the significance of relationship building within different leadership contexts.
• Practical opportunities to understand and practice their leadership in situations which require teamwork, matching of individuals to tasks, and responsiveness to work-based cohesion and job satisfaction.
• Exposure to skills required to lead in a responsible manner in order to manage teams and successful operations, build organisational relationships and systems, and promote an ‘outward-focused’ organisation.
• Initiating structured pathways for future leadership development, including personal leadership development plans and the establishment of mentoring arrangements within the ARLF alumnus.
• Offering access to a national collective of over 1000 leaders through the Foundation’s network of Fellows.

Participant selection

Program participants will be nominated by their respective organisations. All participants need to have demonstrated leadership and their capacity to lead in middle to senior management roles.

Program dates

Session One: 26 – 31 March 2017, Regional Victoria

Session Two: 04 – 08 June 2017, Sydney, NSW

Online learning module: throughout April and May 2017