Brenton Siviour of international accounting firm McKessar Tieleman has been working with the World Bank to help small businesses in China to improve their marketing, financial and management systems and, following from that, their profits. The aim is to alleviate poverty by building small to medium business enterprises (SME). This will create employment, which leads to the creation of wealth.
The recent admission of China to the World Trade Organisation has exposed Chinese businesses to increased competition. Those businesses now say we need to know about world’s best practice.” Australia leads the world in business and entrepreneurial skills, so it was no surprise when the bank came to look for expertise. Mr Siviour began consulting with small businesses to improve their efficiency in 1996 with his own company, Siviour Corporate. He has continued this work for McKessar Tieleman following the merger of the companies in February 2000.
In June 2001, the World Bank invited McKessar Tieleman to analyse the needs of businesses in Sichuan Province, China. This led to Mr Siviour becoming involved in a pilot project, starting in April 2002, to help five companies develop their systems to world standards.