Smart50 rank: 40
Revenue: $1,048,000
Growth: 45.16%
Founders: Dr Andrew MacDonald, 43
Based: Victoria
Employees: 3
Industry: Education
Website: www.mieza.com.au
Mieza Consulting is the brainchild of Andrew MacDonald, who, while working as head of sales for NAB, saw an emerging need for customised sales training in the financial services industry.
MacDonald launched Mieza in Melbourne in 2003, later expanding into Singapore and Hong Kong.
MacDonald says the most challeging part of the start-up was understanding the length of the sales cycle in the industry.
"It usually takes between one-to-three months for relationships to develop, plus another one-to-three months for opportunities to emerge," says MacDonald. This puts considerable pressure on cashflow and ensures that the business must remain focused on its core offerings.
Concentrating on designing and delivering training and consulting programs throughout the Asia-Pacific region, Mieza are currently developing an artificial intelligence game-based range of training simulations.
"We are in the early stages of development," says MacDonald. "But we already have clients waiting for the concept to be integrated into the training programs."
"The aim is to ensure that we have transformed the industry by embracing the learning needs of future generations early."
While the onset of the global financial crisis did give Mieza pause for thought, the company worked hard to ensure they remained criticial to their client's strategy of improving their client relationships. As a result, the company reported 45% average growth and an annual revenue for the 2008-2009 financial year of just over $1 million.
"It became apparent early on that if the region's banks were to retain, and in some instances grow, market share that they would need our assistance. The end result was a 98% increase in revenue during the greatest economic downturn in 100 years."
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