Blogs

On Thursday, eight Anthillians were given a pitching opportunity like no other -- access to two prominent Australian investors in a hot-air balloon, while floating over Victoria's Yarra Valley. Some might call it, Australia's most elevated elevator pitch! Seven entrepreneurs (and Anthill founder James Tuckerman) earned the opportunity to 'hang' with AngelCube's Adrian Stone and Adventure Capital's Darcy Naunton... some 2,000 feet in the air.

Zach Nelson is CEO of NetSuite. He was named one of the 10 Visionary CEOs of 2008 by InternetNews.com, after guiding the company through its 2007 IPO. He helmed it from startup to one of the world's leading cloud computing companies. So, it's not surprisingly that he should hold this view. Yes, he is biased. But is he wrong?

Naturally, we receive feedback all the time from Anthill readers. Much of it is helpful. But, sometimes, the feedback contradicts what we know to be true, based on the cumulative behaviours of hundreds of thousands of site visitors. Rather than provide a polite but generally meaningless response (like, "Thank you for your feedback. We welcome and respect the views of all our readers"), I often try to explain why it is that we do things the way we do. But, today, I'm feeling a bit guilty. Too harsh?

As you can imagine, I get sent books all the time. It's one of the perks of being 'Mr Anthill'. Despite being a prolific reader, only a few ever capture my attention. And an even smaller number capture my imagination. Several weeks ago, I was sent the Australian edition of 'Become a Key Person of Influence' by Daniel Priestly. I read it in an afternoon. And, several weeks on, my imagination is still buzzing.

Emanuel Perdis is the dynamic Managing Director and co-founder of Napoleon Perdis Cosmetics. He has overseen and implemented double-digit business growth for the brand, every year, for the past fourteen years, turning over $80 million a year, employing a team of almost 500 staff. In this Q&A Interview with Alex Pirouz, Perdis shares what it takes to create a global brand, why customer service has been a crucial part of the organisation's success and the best way to handle challenges in business.

Choosing the right accounting software package is a hard task for anyone, especially small business owners. What’s right for other business owners may not be compatible with your small business. That’s why I have come up with the top ten tips you should consider when choosing an accounting software package. These are sure to make your job simpler and less time consuming, so you can get on with running your business.

Let’s say you’re an advocacy group. You have a mission. Your job is to affect policy, policy makers and the public. Your job is to raise awareness, or in other words: Your job is to MAKE NOISE. Here’s a recipe for a great dish of noise with an average cooking time of about 60 days.

Rocking your cranky britches because you can never get your mitts on the coveted deal du jour? You’re not alone. Way back in September, The Age reported that, to date this year, Consumer Affairs Victoria had received 160 complaints about group buying sites – a significant increase on the 22 similar complaints received the previous year. Well, Unbooked founders Sarah Taylor and Jeff Dusting believe both vendors and customers are primed for a slicker fix in the supply VS demand quandary.

Innovation is a noun. This seems to have been forgotten. Innovation; such a buzz word at the moment, everyone is “doing it.” Trouble is, you don't “do” innovation; innovation is the result of what you do.

Simon Baker was the CEO and Managing Director of realestate.com.au during a period of massive growth for the Australian-listed real-estate company, increasing the organisation's market capitalisation from $8m in June 2001 to over $600m in June 2008. In this Q&A interview with Alex Pirouz, Baker talks about all the various elements required to build a great online presence, what business owners need to look for when hiring agencies to help them with their online strategy, the common mistakes most business owners make and (most importantly) how to avoid them.

We cop a lot of criticism as head hunters and recruitment consultants. Some criticism is justified, some is not. So we thought we’d lift the lid on why we ask the questions we do in an interview to remove some of the mystery, and shine the spotlight on us for once.

“Open innovation” isn't a term you associate with Australia. We don't even fund it anymore. When we used to, it was called Innovation Exchange. But it collapsed. Listening to accomplished speakers highlighting this point at the recent Innovation Series event at Langham Hotel, I asked myself: “Why?”

Some people will read this headline and think, 'What the fffff-heck! Of course entrepreneurship is about wealth creation. It's about building companies and industries, isn't it! You're speaking rubbish!' After interviewing hundreds of entrepreneurs, over eight years, Anthill's James Tuckerman thinks otherwise. So, what actually drives entrepreneurship?

We've decided to dedicate 10 articles to 10 essential online marketing tools -- what we use, how we use them and how they operate together. Sign up to this campaign and we will exploit you. That's our promise. But, first, let me explain.

Some things in life need to be spelled out very simply before they have any impact. Like learning how to say the name of new business ‘Qumpit,’ a digital startup that aims to provide a physical queuing experience online.

Robert Kiyosaki is an American investor, businessman, self-help author and motivational speaker, who has written 15 books, with combined sales of over 26 million copies. In this Q&A interview with Alex Pirouz, Mr. Kiyosaki discusses what it takes to be successful in business, the No 1 skill every entrepreneur should learn and the five qualities required by every entrepreneur in order to become successful.

Think you need to contract an industrial designer for your business? Why would you contract an industrial designer when a Computer-Aided Design (CAD) draftsman is available? With a CAD draftsman, you will save money, get your job drawn up and be ready for production. But, are you really saving, are you getting an “edge?”

From time to time, when I’m sitting in an airplane, I think about the movie “Up In the Air.” I’m not thinking about how the main character feels most comfortable when flying from place to place, or how he has the awful task of firing good people on the ground. No, I think of a certain scene where the lead, played by George Clooney, informs a person he’s just sacked that “anybody who ever built an empire or changed the world sat where you are now.”

Imagine your company sold just one sole product and yet managed to be successfulin a competitive market. It's a true story! How can you pull ahead and dominate your competitors? For starters, look at opportunity capture: accept that there is no product, process or service in the world that cannot in some way be innovated.

Too often in the past, the term 'social media' has been peddled as a panacea for whatever commercial problems 'ail ya', with the zest of a spiritual healer or snake-oil salesman. Is it any wonder that 'social media' experts were so quick to adopt the descriptors 'guru' and 'evangelist'?