Creating a positive business solution out of personal hardship

When Mark and Julie Wallace were looking for professional support after their daughter was a victim in the 2017 London Bridge terror attack, they found there is no one size fits all approach and unable to locate an institution that could provide a comprehensive range of therapies to treat grief in one place.

Out of their own personal journey, Sarz Sanctuary was born in honour of their daughter. Founders Mark and Julie identified that healing is a very individual journey and aim to offer a wide variety of healing modalities for individuals to explore as well as a range of live-in programs. Sarz Sanctuary which is based in Brisbane as a not-for-profit organisation offers a holistic healing approach to those who have suffered traumatic grief from the sudden death of a loved one.

Sarz Sanctuary has allowed Mark and Julie to talk about Sara in an honest and vulnerable way, being able to share her life has helped their healing, knowing that Sara is with them in spirit.

“We want to honour Sara’s life and give purpose to her loss by helping others who have, like us, suffered traumatic grief. We are motivated to find a greater good from what has happened. We keep a positive outlook and want to build this positivity in others” Julie added.

Developing solutions in partnership

QUT partnered with Sarz Sanctuary in the latest MBA Ideas Factory event to offer a fresh perspective on strategy and opportunities to further develop the non-for-profit business. Ideas factories contributors include Executive MBA and MBA students and alumni along with Sarz Sanctuary founders. The events are more than bringing a case study to life but collaborating with businesses on real world solutions and experiences.

With Mark and Julie’s involvement and insights, MBA students and alumni develop strategic models and potential business opportunities and solutions. Our Executive MBA and MBA students and alumni have diverse professional backgrounds and collectively brought valuable insights and approaches to present to Sarz Sanctuary.

For Mark and Julie, “Ideas Factory not only challenged our way of thinking for the current business, it also developed great insight into opportunities, formulation of future business structure and development of network opportunities through collaboration of teams, of which each member offered their individual experience and knowledge”.

MBA Director, Associate Professor Glen Murphy added that “working together with Sarz Sanctuary opens up many opportunities to have conversations with people who you wouldn’t usually have worked with, which then allows the partnered company access to the expertise of the Associates and Alumni and provides an extremely powerful outcome. For Sarz Sanctuary, this is now the basis of countless new doors to be opened, and many more conversations to be had”.