UQ Business School has appointed Rob Douglas as Director of UQ Business School Consulting - the School's professional consulting arm. Head of UQ Business School Professor Tim Brailsford said an active consulting business was the best possible evidence of the relevance of academic research and scholarship. He said, "Clearly people won't pay for what they don't value and the fact is that a great many clients have always sought our expertise as they address contemporary business issues. "What the launch of UQ Business School Consulting does is make access to the School's intellectual capital easier and more streamlined." "It also has symbolic value because it signals to staff that not only is consulting supported, it is core business for us." "Our new Director of UQ Business School Consulting, Rob Douglas, joins the School from a position at Waikato Management School where he has spent the last seven years adding value to business through consulting, business performance analysis, and executive development programs."
Douglas said he was looking forward to extending the School's client list to include not only the multinationals and large NGOs who typically seek input from the School, but also small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs). He said, "There's immense value in applying current knowledge and research to existing business systems and processes." "Access to the right experts can result in dramatic improvements for the client." UQ Business School Consulting, a trading name of the University's main commercialisation company UniQuest Pty Ltd, provides easy access to the intellectual capital of the School's 100+ academic staff. Douglas will be working closely with UniQuest to identify opportunities for connecting UQ Business School Consulting with commercial clients.
