All IIB Executive Associates who attend meetings with Managing Directors, Owners and Proprietors of businesses are themselves senior executives from virtually every profession, background and industry imaginable.
As mature business people, they have typically been Chief Executives, Managing Directors or Executive Board Directors, and have personal experience of the pressures, stresses and joys of running a business. Having run some of the best known businesses in the world, many have also started, run and eventually sold their own small to medium sized businesses.
Any senior executive / business leader considering themselves suitable for accreditation must pass through the Institute's selection process, and then undertake the Consultancy Business Development Programme.
This provides a framework for developing skills directed specifically at the SME sector. The first programme was started in January 1991 and to date over 5,000 executives have completed the distance learning and residential business school required to achieve the status of an accredited Executive Associate.
Once accredited, Executive Associates continue to be supported by the Institute through monthly training workshops and an internet based system which provides a platform for exchange of information and the sharing of expertise. The exclusive network of Executive Associates which is the largest in the world, allows them to work together on assignments to ensure that supported businesses receive the highest quality service.
The Institute requires all Executive Associates who have been through its accreditation process to give free some time each month for selected meetings with independent business owners. Unlike some advisory services, the benefit of being supported by IIB Executive Associates is that they have 'been there, seen it, and survived to tell the story', and are sufficiently experienced to be able to provide practical advice that works.