Anthill Magazine

They cartwheeled, schmoozed and cajoled us; dangled riches before our very eyes. But coolness cannot be bought. Coolness simply is. And while some thought us nuts for trying; here they are. Australia's coolest companies revealed.

It was an outrage. In March, celebrity US blogger Arrianna Huffington caused a squall of controversy when she cobbled together quotes criticising the Iraq war from various articles and interviews with George Clooney, gained approval from Clooney's publicist and ran the post on thehuffingtonpost.com under Clooney's name, with a few of her own words tossed in for good measure. It was perceived as an assault on the central tenets of journalistic professionalism and drew fire from many quarters (leading to her qualified apology when the great man arced up). But The Huffington Post is a blog, not a newspaper of record, and Ms Huffington had as many defenders as accusers during the affair.

It was an outrage. In March, celebrity US blogger Arrianna Huffington caused a squall of controversy when she cobbled together quotes criticising the Iraq war from various articles and interviews with George Clooney, gained approval from Clooney's publicist and ran the post on thehuffingtonpost.com under Clooney's name, with a few of her own words tossed in for good measure. It was perceived as an assault on the central tenets of journalistic professionalism and drew fire from many quarters (leading to her qualified apology when the great man arced up). But The Huffington Post is a blog, not a newspaper of record, and Ms Huffington had as many defenders as accusers during the affair.

BI-GOODNESS is a bi-monthly column dedicated to the quirky, generally funny and often dangerously impractical inventions and business concepts that occasionally come our way. It is a tribute to the one-eyed entrepreneur, the nutty professor and dotcom jockey in each of us.

Reminiscent of the Simpsons episode where Homer has a $1 billion note until it is stolen by Fidel Castro, US Federal authorities have seized 250 bogus $1 billion notes in a Los Angeles raid. The notes, which bore the portrait of President Grover Cleveland, were believed to be modelled on actual $1,000 notes from the 1930s. Rumour has it that the notes will be used to relaunch the hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Pete Thomond spent the past four and a half years working out the secrets of successful innovation. The British academic and business consultant was co-manager of the "Disrupt-it" project, a €3 million European Commission co-sponsored programme of research and business tool development. Now he's spreading the word downunder, as a Research Fellow and innovation consultant at the Brisbane Graduate School of Business. At 29, he's young, but how many people do you know with a PhD in disruptive innovation?

You've seen all the ads that promise everything from tighter abs to fab calves. Then there are the ones that will help you find inner-peace, outer-serenity and even how to lose weight while stuffing your mush with plank-sized chips and endless vats of fried chicken and gravy.

There is a time-honoured business model in China known as "Copy To China" - find a product or service or business model that works in the US or elsewhere and replicate it in China. In the technology industry this is exemplified by ChinaHR.com Holdings Ltd building a Monster look-alike and then selling 40 percent off to Monster Worldwide, Inc. for US$50m or Joyo.com Ltd replicating Amazon and then selling it to Amazon for US$75m. The same model is popular in many other markets, particularly Australia. Seek has had great success emulating Monster.

Mobile companies across the globe have spent billions of dollars creating networks that essentially all offer the same services. It's been a huge investment just to get to the starting line. But the real challenge is in providing something that is different from the competition.

  According to DFAT, approximately one million Australians live overseas. That’s one in 20. With so many of us having a red hot go “over...

There's a new reason for creating that great business plan... prize money! If the possibility of commercial success (or failure) isn't inspiration enough to do your basic business homework, perhaps you should consider the financial incentives offered to budding business planners. Scores of Australian organisations now hold annual business plan competitions, where entrants compete for cold hard cash... and the honour of being named 'most likely'. By Pi James.

As the person responsible for commercialising all new technologies emanating from the Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation, Nigel Poole knows all about transforming ideas into companies. From where he sits, Australia's so-called "commercialisation gap" is receding, with seed investment culture and managerial experience the keys. He's a busy man with busy ideas and a penetrating vision for Australia's future as a knowledge nation.

As the person responsible for commercialising all new technologies emanating from the Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation, Nigel Poole knows all about transforming ideas into companies. From where he sits, Australia's so-called "commercialisation gap" is receding, with seed investment culture and managerial experience the keys. He's a busy man with busy ideas and a penetrating vision for Australia's future as a knowledge nation.

For the most part, we Australians huddle in and around our eastern seaboard cities, with healthy respect for the harsh realities inland. But there's more to Australia's tech sector than MBA-educated entrepreneurs and wealthy investors in Sydney and Melbourne. As globalisation levels the international playing field, so the performance gap between urban elites and regional innovators narrows.

London, New York and . . . Shanghai. When global citizens call to mind the world's mega-cities in 2010, Shanghai's Government wants to rank in the very top echelon. Becoming an "international city" by 2010 might sound like a strange goal for a municipality, but foreign entrepreneurs need only look as far as the incentives Shanghai's government is offering to understand that this is an opportune moment to set up shop in this sprawling metropolis. In the final instalment of his four part series, returning Australian expat Paul Waide delves into the city that is commonly acknowledged as being a window on China's future.

After nearly a decade of protest, Show Business has discovered the web. Whether it is Disney selling episodes of Desperate Housewives on iPods, Fox screening prime time TV shows on the web or Hollywood Studios selling full versions of their movies online, this year has seen a major turning point for the titans of Tinseltown. Now everyone is scrambling to unlock new networks and future fortunes.

So, you've selected a great brand and have started to build consumer awareness and loyalty in it. And, of course, you've done the right thing to protect your rights in the brand by registering it with IP Australia. Your work is finished. Right?

J P Morgan, the famous American Industrialist, said: "People do things for two reasons... the right reason and the real reason". Understanding the real reason can be the ultimate point of differentiation when pitching for business.

The boots might be warm and fuzzy, but the term "Ugg/Ugh" sends chills down the spines of many Australian retailers. For decades, "Ugg/Ugh" remained off the Australian Register of Trademarks, largely because it was considered by manufacturers and retailers to be a generic term in Australia. Then US giant Deckers Outdoor Corporation registered "Ugg" (and its derivatives) as an Australian trade mark and, like all diligent patent and trade mark holders, began mailing cease and desist notices to Australian retailers selling boots under the name(s).

BI-GOODNESS is a bi-monthly column dedicated to the quirky, generally funny and often dangerously impractical inventions and business concepts that occasionally come our way. It is a tribute to the one-eyed entrepreneur, the nutty professor and dotcom jockey in each of us.