Tag: interview

Billy Tucker is CEO of the group-buying discount website, Cudo.com. In this podcast, he talks with Leon and Garry about Cudo's use of TV advertising to target the average consumer, how this publicity helps merchants find new customers, and the relevance of group buying in the post-GFC era.

In this extended podcast, Garry and Leon talk with Victoria Premier Ted Baillieu about the challenges facing his government – not least of which are the clean-up of the Victorian floods, the cut in GST funding from the Federal Government, and the delay to the regional rail project, issues he describes as “black holes” left by his predecessors. He also cites his pledge to the environment and creative measures to boost the state's sagging productivity.

In this podcast, Garry and Leon speak with AnnaMaria Lapetina, chief executive of Ernest Hillier Chocolates. Founded in Sydney in 1914, the chocolate maker now operates in Melbourne and has been locally owned throughout its history. Lapetina explains Hillier's preference for high-end ingredients to stand out from the competition and the company's plans to roll out 40 million Easter eggs this year.

Leon and Garry speak with Frank Farrall, director of online business at Deloitte Consulting. Farrall discusses the use of the iPad and smartphones by business executives, as well as the need to focus on customers by connecting with them through their mobile and tablet devices.

In this podcast, Leon and Garry talk to Matt Barrie, the CEO of Freelancer.com, a Sydney-based company and recent Anthill Cool Company Award winner. Freelancer bills itself as "the world's largest outsourcing marketplace" with over two million registered users. Barrie explains the keys behind the success of the website and the appeal of online outsourcing in a globalised economy.

This week’s guest is Jarrod Ritchie, founder and chief executive of Tasmania-based TPI Enterprises, one of the worlds largest independent producers of legal opiate drugs. Having previously worked for GlaxoSmithKline, he has developed his own extraction process using an environmentally friendly water-based system whereas competitors use an older method employing chemical solvents. Mr. Ritchie has also been involved with Israeli botanists in developing a new strain of a more productive opium poppy.

In this interview, Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten reaffirms the Government’s vision for encouraging greater banking competition. He explains the plan for supporting a so-called ‘fifth pillar’ of non-bank lenders and addresses the role of superannuation funds in achieving a budget surplus.

In this week's interview, Ruslan Kogan, founder and chief executive of Kogan (formerly Kogan Technologies) and recent Anthill 30under30 winner, discusses his take on changes being wrought in retail by direct to public online traders. Word of mouth, service and good value are the keys to success, he says, and his company has just reported a 48 percent quarterly rise in revenue at a time when High Street retailers are feeling the pinch.

This week’s Talking Business guest is the distinguished businessman and nuclear physicist, Dr. Ziggy Switkowski. He talks with Leon and Garry about his agenda as the incoming Chancellor of RMIT University, and explains why, in light of climate change, nuclear power is the most reliable energy source for Australia’s future.

Siimon Reynolds grew The Photon Group from a two-person shop to an ASX-listed enterprise, employing over 6,000 staff, with a value of $500m at its peak, making it the 15th largest marketing group in the world. He speaks with Jack Delosa about how to achieve marketing success, the subject of his recent book, Why People Fail.

In this interview, Origin Energy Managing Director Grant King talks about his company’s plans for the future concerning the carbon tax and renewable energy, as well as the proposed hydroelectric project in conjunction with Papua New Guinea.

In this week’s Talking Business interview, Jason Castan talks about his company Never Can Tell, an app developer for Apple’s iOS platform used in the iPhone and iPad – and one of many companies named after snippets from Pulp Fiction.

This week’s podcast features a chat with Travis Williams, a real estate entrepreneur who’s also the founder and managing director of Box+Dice Software. Williams developed Box+Dice to help real estate agents build relationships with their clients and manage their personal information. In this interview, he reveals why it takes love and obsession to start a business... and a little naivete to persevere.

In this week's Talking Business interview, Leon and Garry speak with Liberal MP Malcolm Turnbull, former Opposition leader and current shadow spokesman for telecommunications and broadband. He criticises the Government’s plan for the National Broadband Network as too expensive and lacking in any cost-benefit analysis. Calling the NBN an effective monopoly that will make any competition impossible, Mr. Turnbull endorses incremental improvements to the existing network as a fiscally responsible policy.

This week, Leon and Garry talk to Trent Telford, founder and chief executive of Cocoon Data, a Melbourne-based internet security company. Telford’s company combines file and identity protection services, including rights management, so that documents can be secured to protect user privacy as well as right of access.

Ian Campbell, managing director of Melbourne-based manufacturing conglomerate, GUD Holdings, talks to Leon and Garry about marketing, the consumer appliance business, retailers and their “philosophies” and why he does not always find them either useful or profitable. And then there was his highly successful sponsorship of the TV blockbuster “Master Chef” to promote the Sunbeam kitchen appliances company.

This episode of Talking Business features an interview with Jannine Fraser, founder and managing director of outplacement specialists Directioneering, which offer career strategy and guidance to people who leave or lose their corporate jobs. She reveals the striking difference in the approaches men and women take when they exit senior roles at organisations and how this might impact the future of management hires.

Talking Business is a podcast review of the Australian economy, presented by seasoned business journalists Leon Gettler and Garry Barker, produced in association with the RMIT College of Business. It features interviews with prominent business leaders and expert analysis from RMIT academics. This week, Leon and Garry talk to the general manager of Docklands, David Young, about the progress of the Melbourne development.

In this week’s interview, Leon and Garry talk to Shannon Cooper, entrepreneur and rental guru from the startup Rentoid. He shares what drives his passion and how his company, dubbed "the eBay of renting", enables users to rent out a wide range of products and services – everything from corporate jets to Rubik's Cubes.

Mahesh Singhi and Baljinder Sharma of Singhi Advisors, an Indian investment consultancy based in Mumbai, were in Australia recently looking for likely places for their clients to make some money. Leon and Garry spoke to them about what they had learned and what they would be telling India’s growing list of millionaires looking for overseas investment.