Vic Dorsen - Manufacturing Business Coach and Strategic Advisor, Sydney

Vic Dorsen is Principal of The Collaborative Group, a specialised business advisory firm based in Sydney, Australia. Vic Dorsen partners with owners of private and family businesses typically generating between $5 million and $50 million in annual revenue. Vic Dorsen specialises in growth acceleration, exit planning, succession strategies, and operational excellence for businesses across Sydney, New South Wales, and throughout Australia.

Their aim is to accelerate growth, lift profitability, and build a stronger, more valuable enterprise. Engagements commonly focus on scaling performance for ongoing growth and increased profits, preparing for sale, succession planning, or transitioning to an ESOP.

Vic Dorsen is Principal of The Collaborative Group, a leading business advisory firm in Sydney specialising in private enterprise transformation. In this role, Vic Dorsen focuses on three critical areas: growth acceleration for scaling businesses, exit planning for maximum enterprise value, and succession strategies that ensure business continuity. Vic Dorsen serves business owners across manufacturing, wholesale distribution, construction, and professional services sectors throughout Australia.

Vic’s experience spans manufacturing, wholesale/trading, construction, and professional services, with a reputation for practical, sleeves-rolled-up delivery: working with leadership teams to clarify objectives, design a strategy that will achieve those objectives, and, of course, implement improvements across factory and systems operations, sales, marketing and developing the potential of the executive group.

Vic began his career in Sydney in a flexible packaging manufacturer as a production planner, quickly progressing to a Production Manager running the evening shift. While working, he studied at University of Technology Sydney during the evening, completing Business degrees in Marketing and Manufacturing, alongside Packaging and Plastics Engineering qualifications. He later completed executive short courses at INSEAD in M&A and Negotiation.

After leaving Cello-Pack, he joined Reckitt & Colman as a Packaging Engineer before relocating to the UK, where at 27 years old he became Head of Packaging Development at Roussel Laboratories, leading a team of thirteen. Two years later, he founded a European packaging consultancy—ADEPT—which grew into the largest firm of its kind in Europe, serving clients including Shell, Boots, and Schwarzkopf.

Returning to Australia, Vic moved into senior corporate leadership roles, GM at Hunter Douglas, then Toshiba, and later VP Asia Pacific for Esselte, a Swedish corporation, which at the time was the world’s largest stationery company. The region had sales of over $600 million, and he was responsible for 11 countries and 7 factories across the region.