In a wide-ranging interview Ryan Williams, who took over the University of SA director role from well-known founding director Dr Jana Matthew in October, sees less job hopping and more skilled staff looking for employment ahead.

Williams, who brings two decades of entrepreneurial experience to the table including leading South Africa’s second largest cinema chain in reaching a 150 per cent growth in profit, said visa backlogs are gradually clearing.

“The Federal Government recently announced that the visa backlog, which stood at almost one million before the federal election, will fall to 600,000 by the end of 2022,” Williams said.

“The gaps created by talent shortages and departures during the pandemic, particularly in casual jobs and sectors such as retail and hospitality, will hopefully be filled again.”

Williams joined the Australian Centre for Business Growth in January and is working with a team of nine staff and 16 growth expert chief executive officers who have started, grown and exited companies.

Jana Matthews will remain as ANZ chair in Business Growth,

Work is focused on helping businesses look forward and Williams said they should now be applying what they have learned about their businesses during COVID lockdowns to their future operations.

“As things change back, how is your business operating, what are you doing with the e-commerce platform you have focused on,” Williams said.

“As normality returns post-pandemic, many businesses that pivoted to e-commerce during the crisis face a question: do we pivot back?”

Businesses had three choices, according to Williams, to continue the focus on an online presence or if shopfront is key to generating sales “if you are that kind of business how do you lean more heavily into ensuring that experience in store is off the charts”.

“For businesses that can maintain both channels, this is a potentially huge growth opportunity,” he said.

“There’s a myth that in a post-COVID world you need to back one horse. But the organisations who will thrive and grow are those who are willing to take the leap and pursue both strategies – where it makes sense to do so.”

For Williams, moving to Adelaide and then later taking on the director job is about finding a more purpose-led role.

“(And) I think South Australia is well poised if you look at a 10-to-15 year horizon,” Williams said, “we live in a state of opportunity, tremendous opportunity.”

He referred to the state being built on small to medium businesses, saying they account for 60 per cent of gross domestic product and about 40 per cent of employment.

Williams brings years of experience leading South Africa’s Ster-Kinekor Theatre chain (Hoyts equivalent) in reaching a 150 per cent growth in profit and oversaw the growth of 16 SMBs that resulted in a 54 per cent increase in profit.

“In this role I’m taking scars and mistakes and learnings .. and being able to share this with a swathe of SMEs, to help them achieve their potential will be enormously rewarding,” Williams said.

The change of leadership is a new stage for the centre that has seen more than 1,200 business owners, CEOs and managing directors enrol in Business Growth Clinics and intensive Business Growth Programs.

Under Matthews, the centre has won international acclaim and awards from the European Foundation for Management Development and the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

Williams is focused on helping the state’s businesses grow and to share his diverse experience covering strategy, marketing and sales, and starting, growing and exiting companies.

“About a third of people who come through our program have no formal qualifications,” Williams said.

“Of the two-thirds remaining, about half have a business qualification in the broader sense of marketing or accounting or an MBA, and the other half are professional certifications, architects, physios, doctors, lawyers.

“Some will say can we chat about financial statement because I meet with my accountant and I don’t understand a word they are talking about … to admit that in front of peers is an incredibly brave thing.”