9 May 2007 
 
South Australia should use its status as a smaller state of Australia to its advantage, rather than an excuse for underachievement, delegates to the Institute of Chartered Accountants Business Forum in Adelaide were told today. 
 
In his presentation at the Institute’s Business Forum, Wayne Jackson, former Managing Director of Thomas Hardy and Sons and previous Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Football League, identified the main challenge facing South Australia as translating two to three years of solid growth into two to three decades of sustained development. 
 
South Australia has enjoyed record levels of employment and investment in recent years and Jackson challenged delegates to think about how continued economic growth could be fostered. 
 
“South Australia needs to get past its mentality that it is a poorer or weaker cousin of other states in Australia,” Jackson urged. “We need to learn to get over our failures more quickly and stay committed to success.” 
 
“Change is inevitable, success is optional”, Jackson told the assembled chartered accountants. “This is the attitude that has been adopted by the AFL, resulting in a $140 million profit last financial year and this is the attitude that South Australian business must adopt”. 
 
As part of a plan for such success, and in a departure from his own self-confessed career in the wine, brewing and football industries, Jackson believes that South Australia’s privileged position in arts and culture should be nurtured to ensure the continued growth and development of the state. 
 
Mr Jackson also believes that it is impossible to attempt to develop all aspects of the state’s business overnight, but rather that a considered, strategic approach is needed. 
 
The Institute’s Business Forum continues in Adelaide until Friday.