MAYFIELD COURSES
Governance Foundations for SMEs: One-Day Workshop
Tailored for family businesses, partnerships, and SMEs, the course focuses on governance approaches that are simple, relevant, and immediately useful.
By the end of the day, you’ll have a clear understanding of what good governance looks like in your context, along with practical tools and a focused action plan to help you shift from working in the business to working on it.
Available as in-house board training tailored to your board’s requirements
Experienced facilitators with backgrounds as Chairs, Directors, and CEOs
Suitable for private organisations, not-for-profit entities, and cooperatives
This one-day workshop is designed to help you step back, introduce practical governance, and bring clarity to how your business is led.
Most owner-led businesses are built on a strong operational focus - but as complexity grows, it becomes harder to step back, make clear decisions, and keep everyone aligned.
In this course, you’ll learn how to create clear separation between ownership, governance and management, introduce structure to improve accountability and decision-making, and build a platform for growth, succession, and long-term value.
Gain practical tools, clear frameworks, and a 90-day action plan to support growth, succession, and long-term value.
Key topics include:
Where to start with governance - what governance looks like in a SME, family business, partnership, or sole trader context
Connecting governance and management - establishing clear delegations of authority, meaningful reporting, and oversight and risk
Understanding your business performance - identifying your business model and key value drivers, tracking time, sales, margins, pipeline, and operational metrics
Structures that support better decisions - boards vs advisory boards, the role of family councils, trusts, and ownership structures, legal and practical considerations in private businesses
Effective meeting practices - Charters, Constitutions, Shareholders agreements, foundational documents, role of the chair, board dynamics
This course is suitable for:
New or aspiring directors of family or privately owned businesses/SMEs
Advisory board members, and anyone stepping into a governance or advisory role within an owner-led firm
Those reporting to founder-led directors or advisory boards
We’ve previously welcomed participants from:
Register for Mayfield’s one-day Governance Foundations for SMEs course.
Upcoming courses
Westport
Tuesday 17 February 2026
Whangarei
Wednesday 18 March 2026
Hamilton
Friday 27th March 2026
Proposed courses in 2026
Invercargill
Mosgiel
Christchurch
Register your interest
To register for this course or enquire about board member governance workshops, please fill out the enquiry form.
Are you eligible for workshop funding or scholarship?
Mayfield Group has a number of organisations that we work with who offer potential funding and/or scholarships towards governance training. Please ask us about your governance funding options.