Yira Designs / Business Strategy
Clear direction.
Practical progress.
Business strategy and mentoring for Aboriginal entrepreneurs, growing businesses and community-controlled organisations. Practical support to test opportunities, make informed decisions and turn priorities into action.
Phil Sillifant MBA · Founder & Principal
20+ years across corporate, commercial and community roles
Supply Nation Registered · Boorloo (Perth) · Australia-wide engagement
Discuss your business priorities →
Support for your next business decision.
Whether you are testing a new idea, preparing to approach a major buyer, weighing a growth opportunity or seeking an experienced sounding board, start with the decision in front of you.
01 / Strategy & advisory
Set a practical direction.
For owners, enterprise leaders and boards assessing growth, partnerships or organisational priorities. Explore your position, test options and connect the chosen direction with delivery.
Typical outputs: agreed strategic priorities, a practical action plan, partnership options or a scoped business case. Deliverables are tailored to the engagement.
02 / Business mentoring
Build capability through decisions.
One-to-one support for emerging and established business owners. Work through pricing, cash flow, customer demand and delivery challenges, with practical tasks and an experienced sounding board.
Typical outputs: an initial diagnostic, agreed goals, tailored mentoring sessions, action priorities and progress reviews. You make the decisions, with support to build the skills and confidence to manage your business.
03 / Feasibility & viability
Test the opportunity.
Assess market demand, costs, pricing, margins, cash flow, capacity and risks before committing resources.
Typical outputs: an opportunity assessment, assumptions to test, feasibility findings and a practical business case, as agreed.
04 / Market access & procurement
Prepare for the buyer.
Product development, branding, buyer requirements, retail supply chains and commercial partnerships. Assess tender suitability and delivery capacity.
For purchasing organisations, support includes Aboriginal supplier engagement, identifying commercial opportunities and planning practical supplier-development actions.
Typical outputs: a readiness assessment, route-to-market priorities and actions addressing buyer or tender requirements.
05 / Reconciliation & engagement
Connect commitments with action.
RAP development and review, implementation planning, governance, facilitation and stakeholder engagement. Experience includes authoring five Wesfarmers Reconciliation Action Plans. Phil also provided executive officer support to the Wesfarmers RAP Steering Committee and coordinated divisional progress reporting and implementation actions.
Typical outputs: scoped strategy or review findings, implementation priorities, facilitated sessions and reporting arrangements.
06 / Indigenous design & collaboration
Bring creative and commercial thinking together.
Original artwork, RAP artwork, visual concepts and creative partnerships. Each engagement defines the creative brief, deliverables, timing, artist credit and permitted use of the artwork.
How I work
Commercial judgement.
Capability that stays.
Each engagement starts with your priorities. The approach combines practical commercial guidance with learning you can apply within your own business.
1. Understand
Clarify goals, customers, finances, strengths, constraints and the decisions ahead. You bring your context and the information relevant to the agreed scope.
2. Test & plan
Examine demand, pricing, margins, cash flow, operating capacity and risk. Agree priorities and an action plan.
3. Coach & apply
Use tailored sessions, practical tasks or project work to strengthen commercial skills and put decisions into practice.
4. Review & embed
Review agreed milestones, adjust actions and strengthen the confidence and capability to continue independently.
Engagement options: a scoped strategy or feasibility project, one-to-one mentoring, a facilitated workshop or procurement-readiness support. Scope, deliverables, timing and fees are agreed before work begins. Australia-wide remotely, with travel by arrangement.
Selected experience / previous roles
From opportunity to delivery.
These examples draw on Phil’s work in previous corporate and director roles. Outcomes reflect the contributions of the organisations and commercial partners involved.
Tarkiner / CHAC
The challenge: turn an Aboriginal community enterprise idea into a viable national retail opportunity.
Phil’s contribution: guided product development, branding, packaging, marketing, business planning and partnership work with Seasol. Connected approximately 40 CHAC staff with Bunnings marketing specialists to build practical commercial knowledge.
The outcome: an initial 2024 Bunnings order of 20,000 bottles of each of two Tarkiner products—40,000 bottles total—and an ongoing supply arrangement.
Warlukurlangu Artists / Bunnings
The challenge: connect an established Aboriginal arts enterprise with national retail requirements and reach.
Phil’s contribution: Phil established an artist royalty program for the Warlukurlangu Artists pottery collaboration, ensuring remote and regional artists receive a royalty from every product sold through the program.
The outcome: the program provides artists with a royalty from every product sold through the collaboration.
National Indigenous Business Engagement / Bunnings
As National Indigenous Business Lead, Phil led the development and delivery of Bunnings’ Indigenous business engagement framework. He analysed categories, suppliers and procurement requirements to identify commercial opportunities, and worked with commercial teams, Supply Nation and Indigenous Chambers of Commerce to support Aboriginal business participation.
BOAB Fund / Wesfarmers
The brief: develop an enterprise-support fund linking Indigenous supplier development, procurement strategy and corporate governance.
Phil’s contribution: established and managed the Building Outstanding Aboriginal Businesses Fund, including strategy, program administration, corporate working-group coordination, stakeholder engagement and reporting.
Board Governance — Wunan Foundation
Board Director | 2021–2022
Phil’s board service with Wunan Foundation informs his approach to strategic oversight, organisational accountability and financial stewardship.
Indigenous Safety Barriers Australia
The work: steel road-safety barrier installation projects with more than $2 million in project value.
Phil’s role: director and named subcontractor representative, managing contractor coordination, suppliers, procurement, budgets and delivery stakeholders.
Relevant experience: firsthand responsibility for the operational, financial and contractual disciplines behind commercial delivery.
Professional endorsement
“Phil combines strong commercial judgement and strategic thinking with respect for Aboriginal communities and their aspirations.”
“I value Phil’s ongoing strategic advice so highly that I recently invited him to join the Tarkiner Board.”
Selina Maguire-Colgrave
Chairperson, Circular Head Aboriginal Corporation
Approved professional endorsement, October 2026
Resources & perspective
A practical starting point.
Download Business Strategy & Mentoring Capability Statement (PDF, 4 pages) ↓
Five questions before your next growth decision
- What customer demand have you tested, and what is still an assumption?
- Do your prices cover delivery costs and leave a sustainable margin?
- What happens to cash flow before the customer pays?
- Can your people, suppliers and systems deliver the opportunity?
- What would you need to learn before committing further?
Bring these questions to a strategy or mentoring conversation. They provide a useful starting point for identifying what to examine next.
Read Phil’s professional background & governance experience →
Work with Yira Designs
Discuss your business priorities.
Tell Phil about your business, the decision or challenge you are facing and your intended timeframe. The first conversation clarifies the need, the fit and a possible scope of work.
Start a business enquiry →