Management Matters

Entrepreneurs' Night Out is on in Brisbane for a round of meeting and mingling. Share a drink. Have a laugh. And most importantly, help...

Price your product or service incorrectly and you’ll soon find yourself in a right pickle. Too high and potential customers will scamper for the door. Too low and you’re locked in to a loss maker. Traditional cost-plus pricing and value-based pricing can seem like a heady mix of math and magic. But now there’s a third option: crowdsourcing.

To make your business work more efficiently, why not allocate a particular focus for different days of the week? By this I mean designate client days, development days and admin days. You’ll be amazed at what you can achieve by allocating a theme to particular days. If you spend two days per week on business development and admin, that's 96 days dedicated to growing your business.

In a new report, Stratatel Limited analyses the costs of mobile phones to companies and organisations and reveals that the inappropriate use of mobile phone by employees may have greater consequences than huge phone bills.

When Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced earlier this year that he will be taking indefinite leave for health reasons, the market reacted -- share prices dipped and experts wondered if Apple could continue to go from strength to strength without the charismatic Jobs at the helm. If a business with as many employees as Apple can suffer the wobbles without its CEO then it is a worthy exercise for all business owners to take the time to think about how their business would survive if they were to take extended leave or exit their business.

Morale -- the esprit de corps or "spirit of the body" -- is the capacity of a group of people to hold a common spirit of loyalty and comradeship. We think of morale as being deep-seated in the psyche of the individual or group. Execution, on the other hand, is the process of reaching an objective as the result of performance. A team's ability to execute is more of a surface measurement that's easily evaluated by an outside observer. Morale and execution are the cornerstones of any organisation.

Finding yourself stretched thin to pay the staff wages this month? We offer a quick (and thoroughly outlandish) solution: Ring up Commonwealth Bank CEO Ralph Norris and convince him to hand over a small fraction of his annual pay. How about just an hour's worth, Ralph? Sure, the banking mogul says, here you go: $1,844.

Bold statement alert: Everybody lives by selling something. Why then do so many of us leave the sales process to chance? It’s interesting that the majority of Australian business leaders - whether from big business or the SME sector - all experience similar challenges with sales planning, sales prospecting and sales communication. Many businesses lack robust sales processes for its products, services and people - this is a big business blunder.

What makes a good business incubator? While access to the internet, clean bathrooms and top-notch meeting areas are all important, here are my three 'concepts' for creating a collegial working environment for fast-growth SMEs.

There’s a war going on out there. New victims are claimed each day in the conference centres and boardrooms of this nation. It’s time we fought to end this cruel and barbaric practice: the mind-numbingly boring presentation.

The Treasurer Wayne Swan is forecasting 500,000 new jobs, reducing unemployment to 4.5%. While great for the economy, that little number can only serve to send big shudders to anyone involved in recruiting in an industry experiencing acute skill shortages. This prompts talk about employee 'engagement'. But what about that little thing that comes first? Attachment.

Can you tell when someone is reading from a script? While many organisations understand and appreciate the importance of a sales script, a clumsily-worded pitch teamed with awkward delivery is unlikely to inspire confidence in your business. Similarly, a salesperson who’s unable to think on their feet when the prospect strays off-script makes your brand look amateurish.

Every business wants to get more done in less time, right? Even the smallest of businesses can benefit from a dedicated server. It offers greater security and tees up your tech so you’re ready and raring for that big ol' growth spurt that’s just around the corner. And, as luck would have it, a server based on an Intel Xeon processor provides an intelligent solution to today’s business IT challenges… What are the chances, eh?

For those of you who know what a delicious temptation procrastination can be, we offer this amusing and information clip from Charlie McDonnell, a young Londoner who YouTube pays to make videos (Really!). Watch it. Now.

Would you buy a car without researching it first? Nopes, us neither. How about a house? Ditto.

For many sales and marketing professionals, customer complaints are one of their biggest bugbears. While it’s never nice to be on the receiving end of aggro, most of the time it can be diffused (or avoided altogether) if the relationship is handled properly from the outset.

What does finance veteran Paul Eslake have to say about the Budget? Garry and Leon talk with the Grattan Institute Program Director about the PM's plans for business and the economy. Apparently this 'tough' budget wasn't quite so tough after all.

This podcast features an interview full of insights from Giam Swiegers, CEO of Deloitte Australia. Advising that a company should always seek opportunity in times of crisis, Swiegers has stayed true to form: Deloitte continues to take on new staff and maintain an aggressive acquisitions strategy. Swiegers also talks about innovative people and his firm's welcoming of social media as a tool to increase accountability.

According to “The Global Information Technology Report 2010-2011” compiled by the World Economic Forum and INSEAD The Business School of the World , New Zealand and Australia are the two most fastest places in the world to start a new business.

We know that companies which place a greater emphasis on information content in their business decisions will be those that face fewer surprises. And we all know that surprises in business are rarely a good thing. Some years ago, a colleague of mine identified the following 'seven deadly sins' of business decision-making. I'm sure that many will be familiar. Which are you guilty of committing?