As an entrepreneur, Graham Merrett has a passion for building businesses. 'After several years of building up my hi-tech domain expertise, I started a number of my own ventures. It was at a crucial point of growth in one of these companies that I realised my management limitations were holding me back,' he said. Mr Merrett is the founder and chief executive of BlueSkyFrog, Australia's leading wireless service provider. 'Our growth was funded through three private equity placements totalling A$8 million [$46.09 million]. We had more than 2.4 million subscribers and were awarded Australian Mobile Application of the Year.' As the company prepared to go to the next level, which would include expansion overseas, it was decided that Mr Merrett did not have the skills necessary to continue as chief executive. 'This was one of those moments in life when you realise that you can either do something about your shortcomings, or your future will be in the hands of other people, regardless of how hard you have worked or how smart you are. 'I could fix this in time for what the company needed, but I realised it was time for me to do an MBA.' Recruiting a new chief executive was an enlightening experience. 'Knowing that I was going to do an MBA, I was able to evaluate the candidates for the position on their merits and look at them from a different perspective. Apart from the MBA on their CV, what made them different to me? How did they get enough recognition for [other firms] to head hunt them? Where did they develop the vocabulary that enabled them to articulate such complex business issues so simply?' To bring himself up to that level, Mr Merrett pursued an MBA at the Australian Graduate School of Management. 'I learnt about new concepts in strategy and management, and frameworks to analyse and describe them. I developed a network of like-minded professional friends and colleagues in Hong Kong and Australia. 'However, one of the most important things I found was a way of thinking about the business as a whole and a new level of confidence.' That confidence, coupled with the knowledge he gained during the MBA programme and his past work experience, have allowed Mr Merrett to work collectively across several businesses and projects simultaneously. With some he plays a consulting role. With others he is an equity partner or an investor, taking on a diverse range of work. Mr Merrett is a first-class honours graduate in software engineering from Bond University. Before setting up BlueSkyFrog in 1998, he spent several years as a software engineer for Digital Equipment Corporation, working on networks engineering. He has since sold the company to Vodafone, which sold it to Legion Interactive. Mr Merrett is now the principal of his own consulting company, Bell Velocity, which he runs with the help of an IT/back-office team in India.